Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006
Mark Foley's Folly
Decades from now, political scientists will still debate the cause of the Republican Party's meltdown in the 2006 midterm elections. Most will say the Iraq War was the culprit, but having a leading advocate of child protection legislation crash and burn because he sent a series of sexually explicit instant messages to young male Congressional pages certainly didn't help. The direct result of "Foleygate" resulted in the Florida representative resigning and checking into alcohol rehab five weeks before the election. The scandal also became the latest in a long list of sour grapes for the G.O.P., and sugar plums for the Democrats.