Writing in the National Review Online, conservative columnist Larry Kudlow asks, with regard to the Mark Foley/Republican male page sex scandal, "Did Someone Say Coverup?". According to Kudlow, the the vast majority of Americans believe that the Republican leadership in the House have been "protecting Mark Foley for several years." Yet, Dennis Hastert - the Speaker of the House - says he hasn't "done anything wrong."
Huh? Then why has the House Ethics Committee, in the words of the Washington Post, "launched a wide-ranging investigation into Congress's handling of information about a Florida lawmaker and teenage pages?"
Yeah, it appears that nobody's buying Speaker Hastert's "I hear nuh-THING, I see nuh-THING!" stance on this burgeoning Republican sex scandal. (Note: Americans also don't appear to buy Hastert's pathetic attempts at blaming everyone but himself - gays, Bill Clinton, Democrats, a Jewish investment banker named George Soros, etc., etc.}
Kudlow's not buying it either; according to him, Hastert yesterday "raised more questions than he answered" in his impromptu press conference about the scandal.
Politically, Kudlow points to polling data which indicate that Hastert and this scandal are "doing enormous damage to the Republicans in next monthGÇÖs elections." And, he adds, this is probably as it should be:
Let me emphasize from my earlier posts that a party without ethical principles is no party at all. Bad principles lead to bad politicsGÇöwhether on national security, taxes, or ethics and morality.
That's right, a strong and principled conservative is calling a spade a spade here: the Republican Party has "bad principles," which makes it "no party at all." Yeah, the truth hurts, especially when it's coming from a friend.
Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign. The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.