Former Speaker of the House Tom Foley dies at 84

[billh58]

28. One of the great Speakers

of, and for, the Democratic Party. From a recent MSN article:

"Foley wasn't the victim of scandal or charges of gross incompetence. Instead, his ability as speaker to bring home federal benefits was a point Nethercutt used against him, accusing him of pork-barrel politics.

The public was restless that year, and the mood was dark and angry, Foley recalled later. The electorate turned on many of the Democrats it had installed in a landslide just two years earlier, dumping six congressmen in the Democrat-favored Washington state.

He was replaced as speaker by his nemesis, Georgia Republican Rep. Newt Gingrich, who later called Washington state the "ground zero" of the sweep that gave Republicans their first control of the House in 40 years. Foley, it turned out, was their prize casualty.

In a 2004 Associated Press interview, Foley said, after Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota lost his seat, that the same factors hurt them both: Voters did not appreciate the value of service as party leader, and rural voters were turning against Democrats."

http://news.msn.com/obits/ex-house-speaker-tom-foley-dies-at-84-1?ocid=ansnews11

Contrary to what Gungeoneers would like us to believe, the main cause of the Republican sweep in those elections was Newt Gingrich and the Contract With America neoconservative propaganda machine. The NRA had some influence on local elections, but the Republican landslide in Congress was solely because of the birth of the ultra-conservative movement which was spearheaded by the AEI and Newt Gingrich. This criminal cabal would eventually be the principal authors of PNAC, which led to the Iraq atrocities.

Although the NRA has way too much political influence, and needs to be eradicated as a political entity, the "cold dead hands" Gungeoneers seldom miss a chance to spread neoconservative NRA lies of "the Democrats are coming for our guns."