:: Bottoming Out

What a face.

And speaking of a profoundly repulsive creature, here's an item about Fox's Bill O'Reilly (as noted by National Journal's Paul Mercurio).

Naturally, Bill and friends have been doing their bit to blame the Foley (R-FL) situation on Democrats:

During Tuesday night's show, the chyron below the former congressman's name repeatedly flashed the words: "Mark Foley, D-FL." Three different times. In two separate segments.

The entire column by Mercurio is a terrific overview of the venality gushing forth from Republican mouthpieces this week.

Luckily for sane people, the numbers coming back from the field indicate a sizable chunk of Republican voters see this issue as a matter of accountability, which makes the "blame Clinton / blame Soros / blame Canada" message exactly the wrong one. This is how Lawrence Nuccio, a 78 year-old habitual Republican and resident of Glen Cove (Long Island) puts it when he explains why he will vote Democratic this year for the first time ever:

I'm a registered Republican, but when I turn around and see them trying to cover up — and that's what they're doing — and try to pass the buck to the Democrats, that's not right. You have elected officials who are running the country and you assume are doing the right thing, but they're not.

In case you are wondering, Mr. Nuccio's Congressman is Peter King (R-NY). I don't like him (that is, Peter King; not Mr. Nuccio who I'm sure is a lovely fellow as well as a paisan), but as far as I've seen, he's had nothing whatsoever to do with the Foley business.

Even Republican attempts to confuse sexual predation and homosexuality - thereby appealing to their bigot base and ostensibly turning the issue against Democrats because of the party's support of gay civil rights - will fall flat since the Republican leadership clearly had countenanced the homo evil in their midst.

I imagine quite of few of the so-called "values voters" who were told they were the linchpin of Republican victories in 2004 are considering the adage "you dance with him what brought you" and asking "so why were you dancing with him?"