The American Spectator

But is that what the Foley affair is really about? Or is it just pre-election politics? Unfortunately I believe it to be the latter. Most of the readers who have responded to Ben Stein’s piece would be well advised to re-read that article. Whether you agree with his statements concerning male homosexual lifestyles or not, that was not the point of his piece. His point was that, considering the penchant for sex scandals and past anti-civil rights stances shown by the Democrat Party, their current “outrage” over the reported behavior of Foley and Allen hardly rings true.

The Prowler makes a similar point in his report of 04 October, 2006. The Democrats made a glaring error in using Congressman Foley’s behavior to attack the Republican House leadership. After all, the Democrats have 50+ years of Congressional leadership during which many scandals occurred as a result of which little or no action was taken. In the Foley affair, the Congressman resigned immediately and Republican leadership called for a criminal investigation. That Democrats did not wait for that investigation, before shouting their outrage, will come back to haunt them. There are, after all, still a little over four weeks to go before the election. This leaves plenty of time for the Republicans to point out the past peccadilloes of various Democrats and the reaction of their party to those incidents. In politics, as in life, timing is everything. The Democrats sprung this too soon and may find it to be a curse rather than a boon.

The only thing that may offer the Democrats some small advantage is the knee jerk reaction of Republican politicians and some conservative groups. They should remember that to attack the party leadership over the actions of a single Congressman may only gain them the leadership of the minority party. Leadership changes are best addressed following the up-coming elections. Congressman Foley will pay the price for his actions and the price will likely be rather high. As a result of this scandal, the Congress will do what it always does in similar instances; mouth a lot of platitudes and do little or nothing to see that it is not repeated.

p>Let’s hope we can move on to more important matters prior to Election Day. br> — Michael Tobias br> Ft. Lauderdale, Florida /p> p> STILL GOING br> Re: Ben Stein’s Hypocrisy, Democrat Style and Reader Mail’s La Cage Aux Foley ,