The Foley Artists (Mary Lyon)
By Mary Lyon, From The Left -- World News Trust
They’re essential to every film project. They’re called the “Foley Artists.” These are the people who add in all the little incidental sound effects to sweeten and enrich the mix -- they flesh out the sounds of crunching footsteps, all the punches and crashes and “oofs!” in fight scenes, everything from rustling leaves to squeaky doors and corks being pulled from bottles. And they’re making more and more noises on Capitol Hill. I am LOVING the work of these particular “Foley Artists” with their own “Oscar night” a mere month away.
Let’s consider the hapless now-EX-Congressman Mark Foley, and the most delicious helping of crow he’s now served to his party as well as to himself. He prided himself on protecting kids from dirty old men. Foley loved making the most of his chairmanship of the Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, and ironically, trumpeting his bill to protect children from exploitation by grown-ups over the internet. His abrupt resignation under an icky cloud of suspicion and an R-rated script filled with nasty, salacious, and highly inappropriate IMs to underage boys has left both him and his party in a serious mess, at a time when they don’t need any more messes. Matthew Loraditch, who chairs the House Page Alumni Association, has already said that many of the pages knew about Foley for years – as far back as 2001 in some cases. There were already whispers galore about him and his “interest” in these young men, and how he really laid it on thick AFTER they’d concluded their tours of duty as congressional gofers and were presumably safely (for him, anyway) off the reservation. I understand Michael Jackson’s defense team may be available, Mr. Foley…
The added loveliness comes from the likes of GOP chieftains Dennis Hastert; John Boehner; Tom Reynolds, chairman of the House republi-CON campaign machine; John Shimkus, who heads the Page Board; and very likely quite a few other friends of theirs -- all of whom evidently knew more formally what was up, as early as last November, and did nothing about it. Majority Leader Boehner did, however, take care to phone the Washington Post more than once to change his story about what he did or didn’t tell Speaker Hastert.
I imagine that Dennis the Cover-Up Menace’s sphincter’s already tightened considerably. He has to face questions about what he knew and when he knew it, and why he tried to sweep it under the rug, but that’s not where it stops. He doesn’t get the full benefit of the Congressional recess, either. Hastert’s been forced to hustle back to Washington to oversee a probe into this scandal instead of hovering around his home district and sweet-talking the voters into renewing his own lease. If he’d ever bothered to think with his head instead of out his backside about this, he would have rightfully launched such an investigation late last year, if for no other reason than to get it over with quickly for the sake of the election THIS November that he may no longer be able to salvage. It’s always better to try to get out in front of some unwanted headlines, instead of scrambling to react to them afterwards. You’re slipping, dear Dennis, but then again, with everything you have to cover up anyway, besides all those nasty matters involving the White House and the Pentagon, I’m not surprised that this one got lost.
I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t enjoying this. I AM. How I love the smell of republi-CONS self-immolating in the morning! I’m loving the sounds all these “Foley Artists” are making, about not jumping to conclusions or being too quick to judge. Certainly all of these are the same thoughtful considerations they would be quick to offer to any Democrat in hot water. Yeah, sure. I just know that all the hate-radio mavens, pundits, and media excuse-makers out there are rushing to provide Foley with the same nonjudgmental forgiveness they so generously, and in such loving Christian tradition, gave to Bill Clinton. Like schoolyard snarks, most of them are already busily trying somehow to hang this on Clinton or even Barney Frank, much as a guilty young vandal would try to deflect blame from himself by pointing out that -- “well, the other kids were doin’ it, too!” Such a clatter. Such noise. Foley on.
Democrats, on the other hand, are shrewdly using this to illustrate further how the republi-CON Culture of Corruption is bringing us all down as a nation. And I’m glad they’re seizing the opportunity. Why not? It’s an argument with serious merit, pointing out the noisiest and messiest kind of hypocrisy imaginable from the holier-than-thou gang. It’s being handed to the Democrats on a plate, just as Foley’s office in Congress probably is, as well. What’s so exquisite about this is how Foley’s turf, Florida’s 16th district, was considered a safe seat. The GOP (which now, to some, stands for “Guarding Our Perverts”) wasn’t worried about having to defend that one. Now they have to. They have to spend money there that they weren’t planning to spend there. They’ll have to send operatives there who were probably already assigned to other seats considered more at risk. They have to stretch their resources further, and as abruptly as Foley bailed, last Friday. This wasn’t something they had time to gear up for -- another failing for which they’ll be able to thank Hastert and his Office of Strategic Planning. Meanwhile, the last poll I saw in a local Florida newspaper had the underdog Democrat, Tim Mahoney, up by some 80 percent over the republi-CON-to-be-named-later.
Some Democrats are concerned about the sound and the fury around Foley and how it may distract from their most powerful issue in this election -- the fiasco in Iraq. To some extent it may, but then again -- how is a sex scandal among the bad guys really going to “help” the party in power? I’m certain this isn’t the kind of distraction they had in mind, especially since media people from the Washington Press Corpse to the tabloids DO INDEED know how to cover a sex scandal. It’s their favorite indoor sport, with or without a blue dress. So be it. If Karl Rove always aimed for his opponents’ strengths, this allows our guys to do likewise, and hit the republi-CONS’ other strength aside from their alleged monopoly on national security issues. The GOP is the party of Christian values? Oh YEAH? Then explain how this fits in. Go ahead. I’m all ears. Let’s hear the noise and all the fancy sound effects. Foley your way around this one.
The enemy camp may indeed spin it like so many frenzied Rumplestilskins, but I think the background layer of general din may well drown it all out. This, after all, is an election season that finds republi-CONS in general down on their luck, reeling on their heels, and increasingly panicked about losing their majorities in the House and Senate. The volume’s already turned up on the strains of their fear and loathing. The smell of defeat is in the air, and there’s too much lost ground to make up, as it is. All they need is another setback to further disgust or dishearten many of their base voters who may simply prefer not to play instead of going out there anyway and working for a perceived loser. Foley’s just given them another reason to throw up their hands and stay home. These things tend to be cumulative. Which means only good things for Democrats next month. And I do like the sound of that.
Visualize IMPEACHMENT!!!
Then go DO something about it.
***
Mary Lyon spent the first 25 years of her adult life as a broadcast journalist, at Los Angeles radio stations KRTH-FM,KFWB-AM, KHJ-AM and KLOS-FM, the NBC, ABC, RKO Radio Networks,and KTLA-TV. She retired from day-to-day broadcasting in 1996, after covering Hollywood for nine years in radio, TV, and print, for the Associated Press. She wrote and illustrated "The Frazzled Working Woman's Practical Guide to Motherhood," and is presently at work on a new craft book for kids and friends. A lifelong Democrat who began her political involvement in the Student Coalition for Humphrey-Muskie, and Tom Bradley's first L.A. Mayoral campaign, Mary currently is a weekly columnist for www.democrats.us -- from the Left.
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