Shays to Kennedy: "Page scandal no Chappaquiddick"
Does this emergence of a spine foreshadow some long-awaited GOP fight?
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in 2006 | Featured Stories — Comments (21) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
[Update 9:22pm] CNN is already spinning the Shays-on-Kennedy challenge. Their article headline: "Republican on Foley handling: At least no one died."
Congressman Chris Shays has finally tired of the Democrats' collective mask of righteous indignation in the wake of the Foley page scandal, and, after an apparently lengthy search, has located his spine and is fighting back. The Hartford Courant reports:
When the congressional page scandal broke last month, Democrats across the country saw a chance to lambaste Republican leadership - including Diane Farrell, who called on House Speaker Dennis Hastert to step down.But when Sen. Edward M. Kennedy came to Connecticut last week to help her campaign, Rep. Christopher Shays hit back.
"I know the speaker didn't go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day," said Shays [emphasis added]...referring to the 1969 incident in which the Massachusetts Democrat drove a car that plunged into the water and a young campaign worker died.
"Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody," he added. [note: Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment]
Shays' words were emblematic of the increasing bitterness over the fallout from the conduct of former Florida Rep. Mark Foley, a scandal that may not be helping Democrats as much as they had hoped.
Despite the doom-and-gloom attitude adopted by many Republicans in the wake of the scandal, the future may not be as bleak as all too many have assumed.
Read on...
The Courant continued:
The GOP had seemed to be in deep political trouble a week ago, when many Democrats were stridently insisting that Hastert quit - and pressing their Republican opponents to make the same demand.But so far, the Democrats' idea to make Hastert the villain has not worked.
An ABC News/Washington Post survey taken Oct. 5 to 8 found that three of every four respondents did not think Democrats would have handled the Foley matter any better, and roughly two in three thought Democrats were pursuing the matter for political gain, not to raise legitimate concerns.
"The Foley scandal has not earned the Republican leadership any goodwill, but neither does it look like a point of differentiation for the Democrats," poll director Gary Langer said.
A Pew Research Center survey taken Sept. 21 to Oct. 4 had similar findings. Before the Foley scandal broke, voters preferred Democrats to Republicans by 13 percentage points - and after the congressman resigned Sept. 29, the margin was the same.
Job approval of Republican leaders, 33 percent before Foley quit, went up 1 percentage point afterward.
The paper, as so many are wont to do, proceeded to issue a stern warning to Democrats on how not to handle this issue if they hope to win this fall:
In the days ahead, said some analysts, Democrats need to be careful they do not appear to be leading a lynch mob."It could look to some people like they're not interested in due process," said Richard F. Fenno Jr., professor emeritus of political science at the University of Rochester.
Which, of course, is absolutely true. They are no more interested in due process than they are in actually punishing offenders, and protecting the children they claim to care about (for evidence, see "Studds, Gerry").
This article actually offers Republicans a glimmer of the hope, and of the positive outcome, which is possible this November if they commit themselves to staying the course, working for success, and turning out on election day. Representative Chris Shays is, amazingly, providing the example: Republicans: "Do not go gentle into that good night" of despair and defeat; rather, firmly maintain your spine and your faith, and show the nation what it is that you stand for this November 7.
And, if you need more reasons to vote GOP in three weeks, look here for inspiration.
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Shays to Kennedy: "Page scandal no Chappaquiddick" 21 Comments (0 topical, 21 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I keep waiting for the slightly soiled "blue blazer" to show up.
Love Paul
the RINO's with this particular story. At most, Foley's seat is highly vulnerable (but hardly lost), and if Tom Reynolds finds he, too, has a spine, he may bounce back rather nicely as well.
I read this earlier today and couldn't believe it. Way to go Rep Shays!
Just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints - Sympathy for the Democrats
Good man. Right on. Except for Iraq, Shays is a RINO, but he's smart and principled and ...well, I guess that doesn't make him a RINO. It makes him a liberal Republican. And we need folks like him.
Good man.
If he feels he can take a swipe at the Patron Saint of Liberalism in Connecticut, then think what our candidates in actual Republican districts could get away with.
I also think the research on this one sounds about right.
I think given how dems in the past have handled similar scandals, the idea that there isn't differentiation on how this type of scandal would be handled is probably true.
And in a 6 of one, half a dozen of the other situation, it is probably not a good idea to use the situation as a big stick to beat the opponent with-not throwing rocks at glass houses and all that.
The Studds matter should be thoroughly exposed. There should be a TV ad made available to every congressional candidate that say "When Democrat Representative Gary Studds..... this is what the Dems said and did. When Mark Foley was accused of.... this is what Republicans have done......"
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
"I know the speaker didn't go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day," said Shays
Oh, please, please, please tell me he really said this.
"Every time some nitwit college student burns a flag on camera, that's one less idiot who can ever run for public office." - Crank
Their article headline is as follows: "Republican on Foley handling: At least no one died."
h/t JC
Is that spin? Catchy headline to draw readers in. The 2nd paragraph goes straight to the meat of the story.
That headline is certainly more catchy than "GOP Congressman blasts Kennedy".
Let's remember that the idea behind the headline is draw readers in, not tell the story.
"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were and ask why not." George Bernard Shaw
Waiting until paragraph 2 to mention Chappaquiddick, which any informed listener would immediately infer from Shays' comments, is misleading.
He wasn't trying to elevate Foley at all, as the headline implies. He was JUST trashing Kennedy.
--
If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
You sell them short. I just read it, and Chappaquiddick IS mentioned in paragraph 1.
So this is merely a misleading headline, which is pretty typical, since different people who don't have to sign their work write the headlines.
--
If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
has never been that the voters who will be turned off by the page scandal will vote Democrat: it is that they will stay home on election day wishing a pox on both their houses.
Having said that, the one thing that Republicans running a bad campaign seem to be able to count on, is that the Democrats will find some way to run a worse one. Having Teddy 'hic Kennedey chastise your party for its moral short comings is a bit to much hypocrisy for many people. Especially after defending a president's similar (and yes, while Monica was 20 when the story broke, I seem to recall some indications that she was borderline underage when the actual events took place) behavior as "not rising to an impeachable offense." With some news organizations now starting to sniff around about the timing of the events, and the possibility that the Democrats had the IMs months ago and didn't turn them over to Republican leaders*, the Dems may find they charges boomeranging.
Even if it doesn't boomerang, there was always a good chance events would supercede the story. And with Karl's mind control laser satelites working so effectively on Kim,... Well, the less said about that the better.
*Whether or not they turned them over to Democrat leaders doesn't really matter, except that if they did turn them over to Dem leaders, and the Dem leaders sat on them, it gets even worse on the hypocrisy count against the Dem leaders.
The reason I am a republican is that we are better than the democrats.Their bad behavior is no excuse for ours. That being said the only observation to be made about the foley case was that the republican leadership acted in a mature and professional manner in dealing with it. They enforced a measure of discipline and standards the democrats could only dream about.
If there is any bad conduct by a party in this its by the democrats. I still can't decide wheather they are shocked that there are gay republicans and that we kept quiet about it because it wasn't a matter of public concern or wheather they are all just closet homophobes who go out of their way to put on a false front.
Its doubtfull whether either interpetation of the democrat view will hurt them. Their base seems to consist largely of people that enjoy being abused.
dixie68
Hooray for Rep.Shays. I never would have dreamed he was capable of reminding Kennedy of that event, but I am thrilled to know he (Shays) does have a backbone.
Wow. I am surprised!
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. -Ronald Reagan