"did it influence the White House in any undo way? Indications so far are no."

You think that's all that was going on? That's ridiculous. Abramoff was only trying to buy influence with the White House? It was working both ways. Politics is all about trading favors. Tell me one thing that the White House did that Abramoff wouldn't have liked or agreed with. Or vice versa. All indications are that they were always working from the same page of the same playbook. Only an authoritarian zombie could believe otherwise.

"And on CNN last night it was made clear that Abramoff was such a liar that they don't know if he falsified his records to look more important than he was."

You can't wash your hands of Abramoff. He's a Republican operative, and never did anything the White House would have disapproved of. (Except getting caught and making them look bad.) He may be a liar, but he's Bush's liar.

"Abramoff is slime no doubt, but it doesn't automatically mean that everyone he talked to was. Unless you're a dem and already think the whole Bush admin is slime."

Look, Mehlman has done nothing but play down their association. The fact that Mehlman and Rove and Bush have all lied about the extent of their contact with Abramoff proves two things. Foremost is that they all have something very important and damaging to hide. Otherwise, why lie and cover-up? Secondly, it proves they'll lie about anything as long as it brings them what they want. and serves their purpose. You have to ask yourself: If there's nothing untoward going on, why did they lie and mislead regarding the extent of their association with Abramoff?

If liberals who question our Middle East policy are "soft on terror," and want to "cut and run," then Conservatives who are defending George Allen and Mark Foley are soft on child abuse and are pro-racism.

Fair is fair.

If terrorists are placing phone calls to people in the United States, George Bush wants to know. And so do I. Just tap the phones with a fucking warrant. A warrant that can be easily attained, even after the tapping has begun.

If a sitting Senator has put a severed deer head in someone's mailbox in a racist "prank," at any time in his life, I want to know about it. If it's true. If a U.S. Rep. is hitting on underage pages or worse, I want to know about it. If it's true. Because I'm not soft on child abuse or racism like the Republicans are. If a sitting Republican governor of Texas who makes a big deal about what a "Christian" he is, happens to be a serial groper, I want to know about it. If it's true.

Fair is fair.

This is nowhere near the depths that Republicans stooped to in the cases of Max Cleland and Tom Daschle and John Kerry. Because the "dirty tricks" used against them were, in fact, lies. Lies in addition to being unfair and below-the-belt. (No pun intended)

Fair is fair.

And payback is a bitch.

it's aiding and abetting.

Not only is Foley a child predator, but he's doing his stalking on the tax-payers' dime! How would you like to be one of Foley's constituents who tried to contact him regarding a "REAL" issue, only to get brushed off by a staffer because he's "too busy" and "doesn't have the time"? Yeah, he's too busy alright....

And as far as the Republican spin goes, they were all claiming we were "shamelessly" trying to "smear" Foley on Friday. Remember joe's letter scolding Tim Grieve for airing such "salacious gossip"? And that he represents "everything that's wrong with politics the media" for publicizing the story? Now they are saying we "sat on it"? Unbelieveable!

Hastert and the House Republican leadership covered this up for MONTHS!! Aiding and abetting a child predator. And now they claim that Democrats "sat on" the story. Wow.

the meaning of the term, "Cover Your Ass" to whole new level!

and acronyms for this to be an isolated incident. How many days do you wanna give this before we have evidence of contact with boys younger than 16? Foley resigned awfully fast for someone who's only done what we know he's done so far. I think we are just scratching the surface here.

were to tell you that five weeks before the 2006 Congressional elections there sould be a safe-seat Florida Republican who resigned in disgrace in a sex scandal, possibly bringing down the Speaker of the House, the Majority leader and the head of the NRCC? And at the same time, Bob Woodward would finally release a book that showed the Bush administration in the proper critical light, even if it only supported facts we already knew? And this all on the heels of a safe-seat Virginia Repeblican senator being thrust into a dog-fight election over revelations of an uber-racist past, present and future?

Would THAT be something you'd be interested in?

Karl Rove, eat what's left of your puny heart out!

ps--I'm sure I've missed mentioning a few scandals, as well as the increase in troop fatalities in Iraq, but it's REALLY hard to keep on top of it all these days!!!