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Monday, October 2, 2006
The Mark Foley effect in Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If there were two men who silently — or otherwise — cursed the name of Mark Foley this weekend, they were Mac Collins and Max Burns, the two Republicans trying to unseat U.S. Reps. John Barrow of Athens and Jim Marshall of Macon.
National Republicans, through their own spending and through 527s, have sent hundreds of thousands of dollars South on behalf of Collins and Burns. Georgia’s 8th and 12th congressional districts have been viewed as rare jewels — vulnerable Democratic districts that might help offset the predicted anti-GOP sunami in November.
The key GOP argument used down here? The nation must be saved from the Democratic rule of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Foley, a Florida Republican, abruptly quit Congress on Friday after reports surfaced that he’d sent sexually charged electronic messages to boys working as pages. But within hours, the story shifted to what members of the Republican House leadership knew of Foley’s predelictions, and whether they ignored several years of warnings.
It makes it much harder to portray Pelosi as a threat when you’ve got someone like Foley impeaching your own leadership qualities.
3:30 p.m. addendum: Just got off the phone with a Democratic operative, having posed the question of whether we’re likely to see TV ads on the Foley scandal.
Right now, he said, the story was moving too quick to draw a bead on — but if it were to become a fully flowering, three-week media obsession, then there would be no need.
While we were chatting, someone e-mailed us a TPM Cafe link detailing what Republicans have received money from Foley’s political action committee, the Florida Republican Leadership PAC.
Recipients in 2004 include Johnny Isakson, then seeking a U.S. Senate seat, and Burns — who was then an incumbent member of the House, soon to be defeated by Barrow. Both received $1,000.
