Catching the Republicans with their cyberpants down

Tiny (left) and Baby, enjoying a lovely early fall weather day in the side yard at Chelsea-by-the-Sea this afternoon, appear to be as unamused with human folly as Queen Victoria and ourselves.

When the silly season heats up -- this year, the October surprise jumped the gun and whipped our friends on the left side of the aisle up into an unstoppable frenzy of payback-time glee starting sometime last week -- we're outta here. Dr. Sanity explains:

Personally I fail to see why a book like Bob Woodward's [State of Denial], which was specifically written and whose release was deliberately timed precisely to maintain control of this "narrative" at a critical time in American politics, should trump either reality or reason when it comes to assessing the status of the overall war on terror or the battlefield of Iraq in that war.

But, of course, what with the inevitable mainstream-media blitz -- 60 Minutes, Larry King Live, NYT front page, etc. --  the latest "polls" show GW's "numbers" tanking. The key question, based upon Woodward's thesis -- that GW & Company have seriously misrepresented how bad things are going in Iraq [demonstrably not so] -- returned a resounding "Yah, that's how I feel, too" from the majority of pollees. Garbage in, garbage out. How deeply sad that the so-called swing voters -- the ones we call the mushy middle -- those inattentive fellow Americans whose votes determine who will become Leader of the Free World -- are so easily swayed by the latest thing they saw on the "nightly news." Doubly sad that the MSM are such willing purveyors of the anti-victory BDS message. Then came the Foley Folly, a sex scandal [Gasp! They still have those? -- ed] -- the first ever featuring imail messages as the smoking gun -- shamelessly demagogued for partisan advantage by the unprincipled left and apparently catching the Republicans with their cyberpants down. Where was Karl Rove, or is this just his latest secret strategery, about to backfire on the Rats? Roger L. Simon has at least two important observations worth cogitating:

1. What interests me in this whole predictable episode -- the seduction of Capitol pages of both genders by members of both parties is as old as, well, the Capitol -- is the ignorance our representatives have of modern communications. Don't they realize by now the Internet is written in indelible ink? Nothing you type online in whatever form ever goes away. It's much more permanent than anything written on paper. (Note to bloggers: forget that at your peril) I suspect many of our politicians don't have a clue about this. They think (Foley probably thought) instant messages rocket across the screen and disappear into cyberspace.

2. A real historian versus a fauxtorian (quoting VDH): "Every source in Cobra II, Fiasco, or State of Denial, may be accurate, but we will never know that, because for a variety of reasons the authors who claim they worked from notes and recordings, chose not to identify the most inflammatory sources by name. It would be as if I [Hanson] wrote a history of the Peloponnesian War and, to support my most controversial points, added footnotes that stated "A manuscript in the Vatican," or "Private letter to author from anonymous Greek shepherd attesting a stone altar in his field."

Private letters to authors from anonymous Beltway leakers are a dime a dozen. As we blogged two years back:

The issues don't change much from decade to decade, and it's fascinating to watch how arguments pro or con a particular point go back and forth between parties depending upon the current occupant of the White House. One thing that has changed between those halcyon pre-chad, pre-9/11 days and our Fahrenheit 911/527's/MoveOn, campaign-finance-reform-loophole era is the tenor of the debate. C-Span rebroadcast Cheney's and Lieberman's oh-so-civilized and -- in Donald Rumsfeld's term -- helpful debate last night. Low key, measured and rational.

Joey's our boy.

Update: For more low key, measured and rational discourse, check out this week's Carnival of the Cats -- #132 -- at Pets Garden Blog.

Update II:  Friday Ark at Modulator now boarding.

Comments

[goomp]

Our currency said "In God We Trust". Maybe that is our only hope. Other than GW and Joe Lieberman pols are hard to trust.

[hnav]

* fascinating post...

I have to believe (hope) the fine Majority of the American Public, is going to make another stand NOV. 4th.

Drudge is suggesting that ABC has misrepresented the age of the person involved in these IMs...

It would indeed be astonishing. Fake Memo memories of manipulation.

If true, will Democrats suddenly defend the former Congressman's actions?

This really smells...

Are some Liberal Democrats intentionally playing on some perceived 'homophobia' amongst Republicans?

As Kerry and Edwards did, while strangely referenced the Vice President's Daughter in National TV debates?

Do these Democrats really seem concerned with the protection of children?

I know the folly of the Democrats, but what concerns me, is the lack of will, I often encounter from many Conservatives these days.

Are they simply going to take a dive?

And, the emotional 'jumping' to conclusions by so many. The calls for the Speaker's resignation, seems entirely overt and premature.

In this time, during the GWOT, there are many understood tensions and frustrations.

If only we had a few more like yourself, or this fine President.

[Teresa]

Ah the internet... why is it people insist on thinking the things they write are private? On the internet: there is no privacy, there has never been privacy, and for the forseeable future, there will be no privacy. Commit yourself to pixels at your own risk.

I haven't been paying much attention to Foley and the circus surrounding him. I have a feeling that much has been blown way out of proportion to make him look as bad as possible. That part of this is his own fault for writing such garbage is not ignored - he should most certainly have known better. However, the Dems are transparent in their efforts to defame any Republican. Just think of the difference if this had been on the other side of the aisle.

[Michael]

You know at this point I'm not so sure that this latest mud sling from the Left is having much effect. Nobody I know on the Right is much bothered by it and those on the Left were already a lost cause.

As the truth continues to come out about how this was started by the CREW organization (hard Lefties) and they're funded by Soros, the less credibility it will have, which isn't much to begin with.

The Left has established - to their discredit - a pattern of non-scandals touted as "Earth-shaking" such as RatherGate, the Plame nothing, and so on. Their credibility is pretty well gone already and they look and sound like a bunch of petulant children. After canonizing a serial rapist Bill Clinton, they pretend to be outraged over a salacious email? Right.

[Gayle Miller]

Now that I have returned to Planet Earth from my otherworldly sojourn in Las Vegas, I have to tell you that the inability to get along with each other is a universal problem these days. I have never been treated SO rudely by so many people so often in my LIFE! In the hotels, in the casinos, walking down the Strip and nearly being knocked into the street by joggers - more than once!

Civility is on the endangered species list and fading fast.

As to Foley - a pox on his house but also on the absolutely hypocritical response of the DEMS who would normally be defending the right to pederasty - if only Foley was a Dem! What slime infests the souls of far too many of our so-called public servants! Shudder-inducing, to say the least. Let me roll back here a second - is Foley accused of doing anything other than sending really disgusting e-mails and IMs? Because as despicable as that may be, there have been Congressmen who did worse and got off with censure, back in the days before BDS!