Foley Confronted in 2000

It just gets worse for the Republicans. On top of all their obvious foreign policy failures in recent years, the Foley case just pours more embarrasement onto the party. Now it has emerged that Foley was confronted by a fellow Republican as far back as 2000. According to the Washington Post:

'...his communications with pages - high school students appointed to help with administrative work in the House - were known to other lawmakers five years earlier than previously acknowledged.'

If it can be proved that the leadership were aware of this, the Republicans could be in for a rocky ride come the elections. Even if it cannot be proven, questions remain over Bush's leadership. Not only does it raise the question of why Bush is unaware of what is going on in his party, it also raises the question of their base support. The evangelical christian movement are clearly not going to come out to support a party embroiled in sordid sex scandals. Without this key demographic, the Republican party are going to struggle to maintain any support during the elections. However, this remains to be seen as the Democrats are particularly good at being unable to capitalise on the failings of the White House (and there have been plenty of those in recent years). One wonders if this was quite the October surprise that Karl Rove was planning.