Registration table clarification. What I found interesting is that a majority of the election officials making this decision are Democrats. I suppose it’s a “decent” compromise, it’s sure better than the absentee ballot mailing “solution” proposed earlier. Still, I wonder about those laws that require any campaign signs to be so many yards away form the polling place. Oh well, it’s Florida, so I suppose this is the best we can hope for.

By Michael C. Bender
Elections supervisors in Florida’s 16th Congressional District plan to post notices at polling places next month to inform voters of the change in Republican candidates as a result of U.S. Rep. Mark Foley’s resignation.

Supervisors in seven of the district’s eight counties agreed during a conference call to post notices at the registration tables of all polling locations to inform voters that ballots cast for Foley will count for Joe Negron.  Read more 

Based on past behavior, I don’t think it’s likely the Diocese would be asking this question if they thought Foley’s story was true. (Remember, the only “friend” who vouched for Foley’s alchoholism is also Foley’s lawyer). Palm Beach Post:

The Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach has sent a formal letter asking Mark Foley’s attorney to identify the clergyman who allegedly abused the former congressman.

Foley’s attorney, David Roth, said during a news conference on Oct. 3 that a clergyman had molested Foley when he was from 13 to 15 years old. He did not identify the person, church or denomination.

“Until such time as you identify the alleged perpetrator,” diocese attorney J. Patrick Fitzgerald wrote in an Oct. 5 letter to Roth, “all clergy that served in Palm Beach County have been needlessly placed under suspicion.”

Well, come on. Isn’t “needless” just a bit harsh?

Foley’s stashed away in rehab so he can’t talk to the press. And the Republicans are going to let him out, just to clear the names of a few clergy? Don’t you realize there’s an election to win?  Read more 

That’s the common thread that connects Foley using his power as a Rep so he could line up 16-year-olds for ice cream runs, Bush using his power as President for torture, and every Republican malefaction in between. The Republicans are one and all, without exception, in the game for whatever they can grab by the handful whenever they think they have the power to get away clean with the loot: All the way from a nearby pageboy through stacks of cash at the CPA to the oil under the sands of Iraq. They’re all the same: Abuse of power. That’s why they sought power. (It’s also why they can’t govern, only rule.)

And the part about getting away clean? For Republicans, that’s the abuse that’s better than sex. Or perhaps… To them it is sex. The id is political.

All of which is another way of saying that the Foley story is not a “gay” story, despite our helpful SCLM and other clueless Beltway operatives forcing the narrative into that frame.  Read more 

I’ve always loved the term “stones.” They’re useful for describing large ovaries as well as testes, and look at who’s got ’em:

WASHINGTON - More Democrats went on the attack Friday with campaign ads linking Republican candidates to the Mark Foley House page scandal while GOP candidates moved to distance themselves from embattled Speaker

On Saturday, Democrat Patty Wetterling, a candidate for an open House seat in Minnesota, will continue the attack in the Democratic response to
President Bush’s weekly radio address as the party looks to reap political gains in coming midterm elections.

“Foley sent obvious predatory signals, received loud and clear by members of congressional leadership, who swept them under the rug to protect their political power,” Wetterling said in the prerecorded address. “We must hold accountable all those complicit in allowing this victimization to happen.”

Republican New Jersey Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr. Friday became the first major GOP candidate to call for Hastert to resign, while additional campaign appearances by Hastert for House GOP candidates got canceled. Hastert has come under heavy attack within his party’s rank and file for damage inflicted on the party just weeks before the Nov. 7 elections.  Read more 

WaPo:

There was intense anger among social conservative activists in Washington yesterday, and some called for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to resign.  Read more