archy

October surprise
The Foley affair has definitely disrupted whatever plans the party of moral values had for the last few weeks before the election. Based on their September actions, it's safe to assume they were planning some kind of dog and pony show to keep people scared and emphasize their "Democrats are weak; only we can save you" mantra. Their only hope of regaining some control over events will be to convince people that the scandal is over and redirect our attention to fear of the outside world.

I expect that this weekend, their tactic on all the talk shows will be to move away from the conspiracy talk (which just keeps interest in the scandal alive by promising new revelations) and push a narrative of "we've shown strong leadership in taking responsibility and starting an investigation. There's nothing to do now except wait for justice to work its course." Then they will try to talk about how electing Democrats only encourages terrorists to kill our children in their own hometowns.

Naturally, this is complete nonsense. Dennis Hastert saying he has taken responsibility is not the same as actually taking responsibility and accepting the consequences. If anything his saying he has taken responsibility is an attempt to avoid consequences. Asking Republican Congressmen to investigate Republican Congressmen comes very close to being pointless as does asking for an investigation by an FBI that answers to the most shamelessly partisan Attorney General since John Mitchell. These kabuki investigations only serve to help the Republicans delay the consequences of their actions till after the election. We need to keep the pressure up on the Republicans not to change the subject and to allow an independent investigation of possible wrongdoing by members of congress or their staffs.

Meanwhile, that October surprise that they had cooked up to sweep them to victory next month is still sitting out there on hold. Are they still going to try and launch it? What was it? Air strikes against Iran? Discovery of a code red terrorist plot? Use the comments to offer your theories. Ideas with evidence are preferred, but rank speculation is welcome, too.