the single alcoholic theory -or- be careful what you wish for

I feel it coming on like a bad cold.

Should the Democrats manage to win enough seats to regain control of the House, it will be because of Mark Foley.

I don’t actually believe that, but that is the story you will hear—over and over—should the Democrats win a substantial number of races on 11/7. Forget the fiasco in Iraq, forget the failure to “secure the homeland,” or to catch bin Laden, forget the resurgence of the Taliban, forget the incompetence of the Katrina response, forget the 48 million without health insurance, the disastrous “donut hole,” the growing disparity between rich and poor, the failure to raise the minimum wage, forget Jack Abramoff, forget condoning torture and stripping habeas rights, forget the illegal domestic surveillance, forget Congress ceding all oversight responsibilities to a “unitary executive,” forget rubberstamping every corporate giveaway, every raiding of the federal coffers that the White House can cook up. . . .

Forget seeing the November election as a referendum on the Bush Administration and its craven cronies on Capitol Hill. . . the Republicans failed because of a lone alcoholic homosexual: Mark Foley.

Add to the mix the already far too popular myths that this scandal was orchestrated by the Democrats and that Foley was protected by a “gay cabal,” and you’ve got a two-year excuse for staying the course.

Forewarned is forearmed.


(cross-posted on Daily Kos)