It's Foley Time

Here is an essay about the Foley situation that offers some objective, non-partisan opinion, free from partisan hackery.

Dr. Pierre Atlas, assistant professor of political science and director of the Franciscan Center for Global Studies at Marian College, wrote a piece for the Indy Star entitled, Scandal reveals hypocrisy and arrogance of power. It needs no commentary from me and is pretty much a mirror image of how I feel about the entire mess.

But I will add a few things to the mix.

1. If the Dems cannot regain control of at least one house of Congress in this current political climate, they can't win, period.

2. The only reason they are not running away with this thing after the Foley affair was made public, is they have no plan, no vision, and no idea what they will do after they regain power (with the exception of initiate impeachment proceedings, if they win the House). Beyond that, they are still the party of the clueless, in my estimation. Think of what a slam dunk it would be for them, if they actually had something of any substance to run on besides a scandal on the side of the opposition.

3. The only hope the GOP has to keep control of the Congress is for Hastert to step down for the good of the party. It's still not sure bet, but if he digs in and it is found that he is negligent in the entire matter, they will not keep control. One or both houses will surely fall. If he steps down now, it gives the GOP time to reinvent themselves, a bit. But as I said, it's still a longshot.

4. It is openly apparent that the GOP has become drunk with power. If the Dems had anything that resembled a plan, I'd give them a look. Meanwhile, I keep looking for something, and have yet to find it.

5. Maybe it's time for the Dems in their present state (meaning the Deaniac wing) to govern and show the nation what they bring to the table, because much of the electrorate believes that anything is better then what we have now. And frankly, it's not. It's not a bit good as it stands right now, but if you can't imagine how bad it can get, maybe you need to see it with your own eyes. The state of American politics is certainly at an all-time low.