Alert: We are at risk of losing the Foley Spin game..DU work assignment:

[farmbo]

As we speak, the RW echo chamber is floating their talking points for the Sunday morning yak shows:

1) "This is sorta like Clinton and Lewinsky and we all know what an unhinged, lying sleazeball Clinton is."
2) "Just by the way, Barney Frank's a fag, you know."
3) "The emails were 'innocuous'."

Our response has to be as follows:

Republican Congressman Foley's resignation for sexual solicitation of an underage male congressional page and other minors, must not be the end of this scandal. Statements by Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Boner (sorry, couldn't resist) reveal a conspiracy at the highest levels of House GOP Leadership to cover up this Congressman's perversities for over ten months while they knowingly plotted to raise political contributions for the suspect and run him for re-election in Florida's Palm Beach congressional district.

Their deception and manipulation has put countless other male congressional pages and others at risk and needs to be criminally investigated.

We call on Attorney General Gonzalez to immediately appoint a Special Prosecutor authorized to impanel a Grand Jury to fully explore this lurid and unprecedented violation of our sexual predator laws from within the hallowed halls of the Congress of the United States of America.

Should the Attorney General fail or refuse to appoint an Independent Prosecutor, we will call on President Bush for a personal meeting in the White House to discuss his Administration's response to this hideous conspiracy

[Erika]

1. Where did you come up with the "at risk" from?

Get real. This is the GOP, not us.

[lonestarnot]

3. What are you talking about?

[Erika]

9. What are you talking about?

How can we we be at risk when it's a GOP thing.

[lonestarnot]

21. He didn't say we were at risk, he said the framing was at risk.

GOP are cocksuckers and they can't spin that in my opinion.

[BlooInBloo]

8. S/he's making shit up.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/BrianRoss/story?id=2509586&page=1

Yah - innocuous. We're SOOOOOO losing the spin battle.

The OP is obviously a genius.

[farmbo]

16. OK ..lets bitch among ourselves.. they won't compare Foley to Clinton!?!

Who's the "genius" here?!?

:grr:

[BlooInBloo]

18. Hint: It's not you.

Of course they'll compare * to Clinton. Duh. Never disagree with that. Only a true genius would think I would.

You said "we're at risk of losing..." - that's just plain stupid. Ooops. Genius, I mean - just plain genius.

[farmbo]

22. Wanna Bet? Sunday morning it'll be...Monica...Barney.. and who knows?

You guys who've decided to dump on me tonight need to touch base back with me at 12:00 EST.

Really!

I'll be waiting.

[BlooInBloo]

23. Have you even read the IM transcripts?

If you know how to read, I provided a link to them. I'm burning with curiousity for you to tell me how they're gonna spin that as "innocuous".

You might wanna read 'em.

[farmbo]

40. Try here...not my spin, theirs

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2267396

[tbyg52]

41. I've read them

and of course that can't be "spun."

But other things can be and are as I type. I noticed, for instance, on the talking head shows this morning that the R's never referred to just "pages"--it was always "pages *and* *interns*" (emphasis mine). No doubt in my mind that's a prelude to saying "it's no worse than what Clinton did."

They will try their darndest to spin anything, even the supposedly unspinnable. And of course sometimes they *do* succeed in spinning the unspinnable.

[Independent_Liberal]

2. I'm in!

Demand an Independent Prosecutor for GOP pedophile operations!

:)

[Straight Shooter]

4. Well, if it's sort of like Clinton and Lewinsky

then Foley and his coverup cohorts are also lying sleazeballs.

I don't see a problem arising. The dam has broken. Hastert and Boehner didn't get their stories straight. They failed to stop the behavior of Foley, they did nothing about it.

Also, Monica and Clinton were two consenting adults. Can't say that about Foley and the pages.

[Erika]

5. I'm sure W will ask Tom Delay and John Ashcroft

to lead the independent investigation.

[Imagevision]

6. Gonzalez: I work for the pleasure of the President, probably does kids too

[DemoTex]

7. I agree with Farmbo.

This will be spun back against us (the collective Democratic "we"), post haste. What do you think Rove is doing tonight? Drinking beer and eating pizza?

[Erika]

11. No, it won't

Why would you think otherwise. It is they who solicited young males. Get real.

[DemoTex]

15. It is not THEY, it is HE. Get REAL? MOI?

"Bees come down." Repeat fast for about two minutes.

Calm now? Or calmer?

You said: "It is they who solicited young males." If you say "they", you really must define it. The Republican party? No. Not guilty. Cover-up, maybe. We are talking about one man. Mark Foley. Period!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

10. I Agree With Your Context, But Not At All With The Title's Premise.

They can spin till they fall down and puke. They ain't washing themselves clean from this one.

Fact is, this type of incident is generally regarded by human nature as one of the most disgusting by default. Anyone hearing of this will have already felt some level of disgust from it regardless of political leanings. Something of this nature, something this seriously sickening, is almost impossible to cast onto others.

Sure, they will try, but I'd wager the overwhelming majority of viewers this time will not fall for it. In fact, I think it would backfire. Generally, when someone defends or minimizes the importance of something that is regarded as deeply disturbing and sickening, they too then are regarded as disturbing and sickening.

Let them spin this one. I guarantee their spin would hurt them more than it could hurt us.

[farmbo]

20. Good point... but we need to be alert!!!

On the Sunday morning Yak shows, 5 will get you 10.. they'll bring up Monica.

:shrug:

[The Watchman]

12. Hm..

This has to be the death blow to republican machine... the emails were bad enough to cause the loss of one seat (maybe.) but this idea that it was coverd up should bring down the house. if this was a Democratic problem, my god it would be all over but the lynchings. Rove is ethier dressing up a corpse to play Bin-Laden or plotting his next evil master stroke against us.

be vigilant.

[Hardrada]

14. You are correct!

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[EFerrari]

13. No. Simpler: Pedophilia! Republicans hid pedophilia!

Don't even try reason.

Just be a bullhorn, fer gawd's sake.

[farmbo]

17. Well spoken !!

The point is... don't rest on the first phase of this story. The GOPers are going to bring Clinton in.

Maybe I'm not a "genius" , but I''m the OP and I'm not your enemy.

[EFerrari]

19. The category "pedophilia" goes around all their BS.

And, it's true into the bargain.

Sure, we don't rest on the first phase of the story. That's what they want so we will be sitting ducks.

:)

[blitzen]

24. on your point # 3

there's no way that any Repuke will spin this as "innocuous"...the cat (or, rather, one-eyed snake) is out of the bag...If they try that they'll be slammed

they will of course spin it every other which way

[Clarkie1]

25. They can't spin this. If they try it will bring them down more. nt

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

26. And since they can't spint this...

They are starting to gut each other with straight razors, in the press. The press is exposing their lies every hour, on the hour.

More fun than watching a monkey fuck a bowling ball. :D

[madmusic]

27. None of that will hold up in court.

:rofl:

[gmaki]

28. I would add the easy way to handle this is to steal a page from Hannity

Yes Hannity. But let's face it, if you play this, you're playing their game.

So this is all you need to know.

A. Mark Foley is a pedophile.
B. Any response other than unqualified condemnation of Mark Foley is "defending a pedophile"
C. Any response other than unqualified condemnation of Republican leadership is "defending (or enabling) Pedophilia"

mention what happened to the Catholic Church for extra credit.

Remember B and C. You can answer virtually anything any freeper says about this with "So you are defending Pedophilia?" or some version of that.

It's really just that easy. That's how that freepers do it, and sadly it works.

[LunaC]

29. You nailed it!

Let's see how the Pugs like it when their own modus operandi is shoved back at them. Popcorn time!

[BigBearJohn]

30. Just remember: The GOP will leave no child's behind. (pun intended)

[mhatrw]

31. Republicans: Hard On Children, Soft On Pedophiles

Here's what President Bush said to the nation on the night of 9/11:

The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I've directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

Certainly terrorists are heinous. So are sexual predators who prey on under-aged children 40 years younger than they are. Unless they apply the same standards to Mark Foley that we all apply to terrorists, Republican leaders are obviously soft on pedophiles. No distinction should be made between the sexual predator and those who harbored him.

[bvar22]

32. I believe the "Bush* Doctrine" should apply here:

*If you help a Pedophile, You ARE a Pedophile.

*If you HIDE a Pedophile, you ARE a Pedophile.

Smoke 'em out , little georgie. Make 'em run, and then GET "em!

:rofl:

[klook]

33. GOP is trying to drop Foley like a bad habit

Calling Foley's contacts "an obscene breach of trust," the congressmen (top 3 Republicans in the House) said in their statement that his "immediate resignation must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system." - CNN

Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Speaker Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns that a fellow GOP lawmaker had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy. - Fox

I don't think it's quite time for us to throw in the towell. }(

[savemefromdumbya]

36. thought they could cover this one up - now month to go before elections!

heh heh

[kevinbgoode]

34. This shouldn't be hard to deal with at all. . .

The Mantra should be: The Republican Party continues its campaign of terror against American culture and American values.

[savemefromdumbya]

35. different when it's with innocent young pages (preying on them)

he's a disgrace

[AIJ Alom]

37. I had a hunch they would bring up Barney Frank so I posted the following

last night.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2857136&mesg_id=2857136

Note how the GOP supporters quicky and deftly attempt to shift the blame away from Foley and the failures of the Republican House Leadership and try to make this a bi-partisan scandal.
Facts about Barney Frank. Yes, he was involved in sex scandal with A 28 year old male prostitute in 1990, but when the then Democratic Leadership found out about it, they took immediate action. They tried to expel him, censure him, and finally succeeded in reprimanding him (they feared he would lose his seat). Instead, he won re-election with 66% of the vote and bigger margins since then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Frank
Compare this with the Foley case and the failures of the Republican majority to act on information given to them more than a year ago. Foley (Maf52) was asking a 16 year old male page to describe how he masterbates ! Worse still is the inaction by the House Leadership. They did nothing and allowed this man to continue to be the head of the NCMEC Caucus and of all things run for re-election. And now a year later when this bombshell comes out, they finally start harping about pursuing a criminal investigation.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Crane
Crane (GOP)(involved with 17 year old female page) was defeated in the primary, Studds(DEM) (involved with 17 year old male page) went on to serve until 1996. But as was the case in 1989 with Frank (DEM), so was the case in 1983. The Democratic Majority also did the same with Buz Lukens (GOP).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_%22Buz%22_Lukens When the Democratic Controlled House found out, immediate action followed regardless if the individual was a Dem or GOP. Yet the party of the moral Right, the Republicans did nothing for a whole year !

[KittyWampus]

38. If this is like Clinton/Lewinsky-Where's the $70 million investigation?

[farmbo]

39. I love it... Great comeback! eom

[pa28]

42. A pedophile was forced to resign from the house.

They need to stop trying to spin or minimize it. Anybody who does not condemn this behavior is passively enabling it.

[happydreams]

43. If Foley wasn't guilty then why did he quit so fast?