Rules For Scandal

by digby

So Tony Snow referred to the Foley matter as “some naughty emails” this morning and got slapped by the press corps. His response warmed me to the depth of my soul. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time:

“You’re right. That may sound a little bit too glib – I think I’ve used the words… horrifying, appalling, disturbing. “Fill in the blanks,” he added. “It’s absolutely inappropriate.”

Well I’m sorry, but that just won’t do. Republicans had better get out their Thesauruses because we are now deep into sex scandal disclaimer territory. They are going to have to arm themselves with all the words and they are going to have to use them lest their political opponents be allowed to paint them as soft on covering up underage cyber-stalking by middle aged congressmen. These are the rules they made up — they’d better get with with the program.

Here are a few to start with: deplorable, reprehensible, unforgiveable, intolerable, contemptible… you get the drift. There’s plenty more where that came from, but the rules dictate that they use all of those words to describe Foley and the irresponsible House leadership every single time they speak of the matter — and before they even utter a peep of defense.

They can look over any given transcript of the Chris Matthews show during the Lewinsky scandal and see how the Democrats who were forced to do this handled the situation. They were required to make this disclaimer, in ever more florid terms as the scandal unfolded, each time they appeared on television. That’s how it works. No “fill in the blanks” allowed.

They will also find in those transcripts the approved Republican talking points of the period which repeatedly claimed how repulsive and nauseating it was for a middle aged man to become involved with a 22 year old who worked in his office. That might give them some clues about what’s about to happen to them. This time, of course, you have the specter of multiple 16 year old victims, the perpetrator being a closeted, gay Catholic Republican and the House leadership pretty much giving the guy a thumbs up and an “attaboy” — so there’s a lot more for their opponents to work with.

In fact, if you feel like getting involved in this yourself, you can follow Josh Marshall’s advice and give your Republican congressperson a call today and see whether he or she has lost confidence in Denny Hastert and the GOP leadership. (Here’s a web site with all the phone numbers.) You might want to also ask if he or she finds their behavior in this matter deplorable, contemptible, unforgiveable and reprehensible.

I certainly do. In fact, words can’t express just how abominable and despicable I think they are.

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