reality-based educator

From John Mercurio at Hotline:

Republicans are running circles around themselves this week, trying to defend their party in the wake of a sex-scandal cover-up fiasco that, five weeks before Election Day, threatens to bring their 12-year dominance of Capitol Hill to a crashing halt. But really, nothing compares to FOX News' Bill O'Reilly, who tried to claim former Florida Rep. Mark Foley was a Democrat.

That's right. During Tuesday night's show, the chyron below the former congressman's name repeatedly flashed the words: "Mark Foley, D-FL." Three different times. In two separate segments.

Let's be fair and balanced, and assume O'Reilly's error was an innocent mistake. (Foley was, of course, a member of the House GOP leadership.) But it was just one of many bizarre efforts Republicans and their surrogates have undertaken this week to downplay the Foley story's significance -- or spin this all-Republican scandal into a Democrat-orchestrated October surprise.

...

There's also a more orchestrated GOP effort under way to put Democrats under the glare. Shortly after Foley's resignation, party operatives started pushing a story with reporters that this entire scandal was a plot hatched by Democrats who saw the e-mails months ago. The GOP's story goes something like this: Brian Smoot, who served as Louisiana Rep. Rodney Alexander's (R) chief of staff before Alexander switched parties in 2004, leaked the e-mails to reporters. Smoot is currently working as campaign manager for Democrat Ron Klein, who's challenging Rep. Clay Shaw (R) in Florida's 22nd District, just down the road from Foley's old district. Aides have been arguing that Smoot, by sitting on the e-mails, acted in a way that could enrage voters, according to CongressDaily, which first reported the GOP effort Tuesday.

Smoot, for his part, denies any involvement. And despite an obvious motivation to do so, no House Republican has come forward to claim House Democrats were aware of the Foley situation before late last week.

This GOP ploy reaches all the way up to Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., himself. Struggling to survive a circular firing squad from his own party, Hastert took a page from the Katherine Harris playbook Wednesday and lashed out at Democrats and the media. "When the base finds out who's feeding this monster, they're not going to be happy," Hastert told the Chicago Tribune. "The people who want to see this thing blow up are ABC News and a lot of Democratic operatives, people funded by George Soros."

Hastert said operatives aligned with former President Bill Clinton were aware of the allegations and were perhaps behind the disclosures. But according to the Tribune, he offered no hard proof. "All I know is what I hear and what I see," the speaker told the newspaper. "I saw Bill Clinton's adviser, Richard Morris, was saying these guys knew about this all along. If somebody had this info, when they had it, we could have dealt with it then."

With all due respect, calling Dick Morris a "Bill Clinton adviser" is like saying that Kirk Fordham is still New York Rep. Tom Reynolds' (R) chief of staff. There's more love between Mark Foley and Denny Hastert today than there is between Dick Morris and the former president.

Republican efforts to redirect the focus of this scandal might seem outlandish, even comical. But they make perfect sense, and they shouldn't be ignored. Emboldened by against-all-odds victories in most of the past five election cycles, for both Congress and the White House, their tactics have grown unabashedly bold while Democrats remain reactive, content to fight the last fight.

Well, when you have CNN's Joe Johns, the dumbest motherfucker in television, willing to spew the Republican/Hastert/Gingrich line uncritically like it's gospel truth straight from Gideon, it sure does make it easier for Republicans muddy the waters and make America think this is another partisan fight rather than realize it for what it is: a Republican scandal and a Republican cover-up that resulted from arrogance and years of one party rule where no one was ever held accountable for anything.

There you have it - the Foley scandal is Bill Clinton's fault.