People respond in strange ways to the prospect of losing your job and knowing that there is not a thing that you can do about it. Throw in the public disgrace, add a chance of incarceration and most people will pass some sort of breaking point. See, for example, the increasingly weird behavior of Republican candidates.
* Mark Foley (R-FL) may be gone, but Tom Reynolds (R-NY) and Dennis Hastert (R-IL) remain as living symbols of how not to manage a crisis.
* Don Sherwood (R-PA) strangles his illicit mistress, she survives, and now he wants voters to forgive him. Polls suggest that he should have tried not strangling his mistress.
* Katherine Harris (R-FL), the eternal sunshine of the clueless mind.
* The president‘s practically incoherent press conference. While not a candidate, this election is more or less a referendum on him. And it seems fairly likely that losing both Houses will eventually lead to jail.
* The strain of maintaining the “moderate” facade seems to have pushed Chris Shays (R-CT) over the edge.
* Knowing that he will lose his race might be what caused Rick Santorum (R-PA) to flip his lid on live TV.
* Bob Ney (R-OH) pleads guilty to corruption (possibly the least surprising development so far this year) but declines to resign until after the election. That kind of self-interested hubris would be fine if this was the 2002 midterms and the terra-sploitation steamroller could. not. be. stopped. But it ain’t 2002. No doubt the Dems will appreciate having a living symbol of GOP corruption hanging around Congress. [Correction] Ney will step down next week. Smart boy.
* [Update] John already has this above, but crazy Curt Weldon [R-PA] of Able Danger fame will face an FBI investigation over charges of corruption and nepotism.
Just a random sampling from the recent news.
Pb
But hey, no one died, right? Isn’t that the new Republican standard now?
(please don’t ask about Iraq…)
cd6
Rick Santorum is just flat out batshit crazy
Bob Casey should have an ad where he just reads aloud from Santorum’s book.
You can’t run to the middle when you WROTE A BOOK that suggests public schools cause “weird socialization” and “women who get college degrees are selfish”
RSA
Boy, if Rick Santorum hadn’t been dressed in suit in that debate, I’d have thought he was some homeless guy who’d wandered into the TV studio by accident. “Look at the camera! Answer the question!” (Come to think of it, the whole point was that people don’t know where Santorum really lives. . .)
sidereal
Polls suggest that he should have tried not strangling his mistress.
Genius! Why didn’t he think of that?
But,
Assuming you mean ‘for Bush’, not in a million years. Nobody says it out loud, but Presidents don’t go to jail, ever. The worst he’ll see is apology, apology, pardon, disappear from public life.
Davebo
sidereal you may be right.
But…
Given what we know now even I don’t think Dubya should go to jail. I’d just prefer he slink back to Kennebunkport and shut the hell up.
But, as our esteemed Sec. of Defense has told us.
Mike
Greedy
Old
Pricks
ThymeZone
1. Katherine Harris can’t be for real. I mean, she just can’t. I’ve seen her on tv and listened to her, and I assert that she is a spoof. She cannot be what she appears to be.
2. Bush is not going to be impeached. No Democrat is going to make Dick Cheney president. Well, I mean titular president.
Davebo
Actually if Bush is impeached I give it 10 t0 1 odds it will be due to something Cheney did. And most likely prior to impeachment Cheney will have been pushed out of the picture ala Agnew.
Davebo
By the way. You’ve gotta check out Rick Morans last post on RightWing Nuthouse.
It’s hilarious!
Who knew James Baker was a liberal eh?
Dug Jay
How come you overlooked Harry Reid? I see that a half dozen of our nation’s newspapers editorialized against him over yet one more of his shady and unethical business deals, including The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal Constitution and The Philadelphia Inquirer. The latter paper concluded: “Unless Reid comes up with a better explanation for this lack of disclosure, Democrats should not keep him as their leader in the new Congress in 2007.”
Maybe this reaction from some of our leading liberal newspapers accounts for his near incoherent and hysterical rant at an impromptu meeting with a few representatives of the media earlier today.
ThymeZone
Righto. We’ve got a crazy, drunk president in an administration full of incompetant lunatics … but Reid’s land deal is the number one concern on our minds right now.
Nothing is more annoying than second-rate spoof, pal.
Well, maybe third-rate spoof. Which is where you appear to be headed.
Andrew
She is DougJ’s greatest achievement.
Pb
Davebo,
It’s sounding like the exit strategy from Iraq Moran predicts here might go through Iran… Go figure.
jaime
Please explain Reid’s land deal and how, specifically, it is illegal or unethical. Please cite and link to specific sources. Seriously.
Dug Jay
Here’s the Link to that Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial I noted earlier that called for Reid to step aside.
sidereal
Note that that’s not nearly what jaime asked for, Doug. Explain the deal and explain how it’s unethical.
jg
Falling Down doesn’t get enough props for the great movie it is.
John S.
Opinions = Facts!
Steve
Do you often lie about what’s in your links, or is it a new habit you just picked up?
jaime
From the opinion/fact-ed:
Dear Jesus,
Thank you for ignorant retards like Dug Jay who neither care for, nor seek out facts. Love AJC.
Perry Como
Just like Leftists to try to politicize crime. But both sides do it, and the Democrats would be worse if they were in charge. At least when Sherwood strangled his mistress, no one died.
Tsulagi
I know the “pundits” say negative campaign ads work, but just once in an election cycle, especially given the state of these Republicans, I’d like to see humor. Go for the laugh factor.
Jon Stewart could make a bundle in those ads. Maybe show a Mark “page turner” Foley sitting in front of a monitor wanking himself while Katherine “See, I have tits!” Harris just talks. Stewart in his style could just say something like “Look, you wouldn’t want these people living next door to you let alone running the damn country.” It’d work for me.
cd6
The only thing Harry Reid has stolen is my heart
What a hunk!
Pooh
Well, if one newspaper said it…I guess you’ll agree that there’s an even stronger case that Rummy, or Hastert, or…should also go.
You do agree, right?
Pb
…or, if you read a little paper called The Washington Post, for example, then there’s also George Bush:
Bombadil
Dug Jay, can you please point out exactly where, in the Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial to which you link, they call for Reid to step aside?
jaime
Dug Jay went bye bye. His google is broken.
Punchy
Or in a debate. They’d ask Casey for a response, and every time, he’d just start reading from Santorum’s book. That would slay the crowd.
jaime
Tim, please add Crazy Curt Weldon to your list.
Dug Jay
Here’s the correct Link referring to Reid’s need to step aside, per the editorial. Obviously an editorial is not dispositive, but it is instructive when it comes from a liberal newspaper not generally known for opposing liberals such as Reid.
Also, here’s a Link to more detail on the Reid land deal and several other sleazy deals as well; there are further Links at the end of the fstory.
Pooh
It was of course a simple omission that it is only calling for him to step aside from a leadership position. But that’s what you meant by “resign,” right?
So what say you about the Washington Times calling for Hastert’s head? (crickets…)
Really, try harder. The point of an agent provacateur is to, you know, provoke…
Steve
Isn’t it just AMAZING how every single newspaper in the world is automatically “liberal”? Even if you endorsed Bush over Gore, you’re a liberal paper, cause duh, the media is liberal!
I personally doubt there is a single newspaper in Pennsylvania which doesn’t criticize Democrats all the time, cause as fate would have it, the state is full of corrupt Dems.
It’s amusing to see what substitutes for actual argument. No one can explain why this ought to be a major scandal, so they just look for proxy arguments… “Well, a super-liberal paper says Reid better have a good explanation! Obviously they wouldn’t say that unless it was a super-huge deal!”
Yeah, explain why it matters, or give it up.
rachel
What’s Dug Jay going on about? I thought John Cole already posted about Reid’s land deal, and that he eventually decided there was not much “there” there.
Bombadil
Yeah, and the same can be said about Dug Jay.
The Other Steve
I agree.
Hillary Clinton would make a much better majority leader in the Senate than Harry Reid.