[Ninong]

Scott Palmer, Chief of Staff to the Speaker of the House, emerges after more than 6 hours of testimony before the House Ethics Committee yesterday.

He went in around 2 p.m. and didn't get out until well after 8 p.m. That's longer than any other witness so far. The Speaker himself won't be called until next week.

We now know that both Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), Chairman of the RNCC, and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader, have testified that they told Hastert about Foley's behavior a long time ago. We can expect Denny to repeat his version of events -- that he wasn't paying attention when Reynolds told him and that he doesn't recall Boehner speaking to him directly, but if any of his aides knew, he'll fire them.

They're obviously dragging this thing out. I doubt that they will release a report before the November 7th elections. Denny's fortunate that Doc Hastings is Chairman of the Ethics Committee. Denny made Doc chairman after the former chairman disobeyed orders and ruled against Tom DeLay. The Hammer was so furious, he ordered Denny to remove the chairman and the other two GOP members of the committee and replace them with loyal soldiers who would do as they were told.

[Ninong]

From last night's debate:

"If we are not successful here and things don't go right in the election, there's a good chance that the course of our country could change.

"We are in the equivalent of the late 1930s, and this election will decide whether we are going to continue to appease or whether we will stand and fight while we have a chance to win without devastating consequences.

"And you here in Pennsylvania — you here in this room — will have a huge role to play as to what happens." -- Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Twilight Zone), October 23, 2006.


What's up with all the Nazi references lately? Just because Papa Ratzi is the Pope now, why are all the Catholic Republican politicians on this Nazi kick all of a sudden?

The world as we know it will come to any end unless Ricky Santorum is reelected! That is exactly what he said! A vote for Bob Casey is a vote for Adolph Hitler.

[Ninong]

Chris Matthews just asked Ricky Santorum why he thought the Democrats were gunning for him.

Little Ricky: "It's because I'm such an effective spokesman for the conservative cause. I'm better at explaining our position than most other members of our party. When you're trying to win, you're going to go after the other team's star running back or star quarterback."

He's so modest... and he has so much to be modest about.

[Ninong]

"I answered all the questions they asked to the best of my ability." -- Speaker Denny Hastert, as he left the House Ethics Committee after being questioned for 2 hours and 40 minutes today.

The operative phrase here is "to the best of my ability."

I wonder if they will issue a report before November 7th?

[Ninong]

First there was the story about the GOP politician in Arizona who is running on a get-tough-on-illegal-immigration platform who was accused of hiring illegal immigrants as actors in his TV ad. He was going for the authentic look and besides, they were cheaper.

Now there is the Republican congressman from Nevada, Rep. Jim Gibbons, who is running for governor of that state. Earlier this month he was accused of assaulting a female drinking companion and now he is accused of employing an undocumented immigrant as his family's housekeeper and babysitter for several years.

Gibbons is very big on anti-immigrant legislation. He's all in favor of getting tough and setting stiff criminal penalties for anyone who hires an illegal immigrant.

Well, guess what?

A woman who came across the Rio Grande illegally some twenty years ago is now speaking out. She said the reason she couldn't speak out before was because she was waiting to become a citizen first. She didn't want to risk being sent back to Mexico.

Her story is that she worked for Jim Gibbons and his wife for several years as their housekeeper/babysitter. She said they paid her $800/month in cash! Always in cash. No taxes, no social security, etc., because they knew she was illegal. In fact, she was told to never answer the front door and when visitors came over, she had to hide in the basement until they left.

She just happens to have a very, very large photo album with photographs of herself over the years with the Gibbons children. Not only that, but Mrs. Gibbons wrote a letter on her behalf to help her gain citizenship. (Either citizenship or legal residency, I forgot which.)

Mrs. Gibbons issued a written statement late this evening saying that this whole thing is an extortion attempt. She said the former housekeeper threatened to tell her story to embarrass Mr. Gibbons during his gubernatorial campaign. Well, guess what? It's working.



P.S. -- They may not go after him for hiring an illegal immigrant but they will almost certainly be forced to go after him for failure to pay employer taxes.

P.P.S. -- This story is a two-fer because Jim Gibbons' wife, Dawn, is running for the House seat that he vacated to run for governor.

[Ninong]

This latest article is much more specific than any of the previous ones: Page 1 and page 2.

Is there a link to Katherine Harris? Yes!

Is there a link to Christian fundamentalists? Yes!

Is anyone under 18?* No, but one guy is 21. He used to work for Katherine Harris (in fact, both guys used to work for Katherine Harris) but he has been telling his friends that he expects an appointment in the new Crist administration. Actually he's been telling them a lot more than that but he now says he was probably drunk and doesn't remember any of that.

*There is another story circulating on the internet that Crist lived for several years with a young man who was only 16 years old when the relationship began. He's 26 years old now.

P.S. -- While we're on the topic of outing right-wing politicians, a major Polish newspaper has just outed Poland's ultra homophobic Prime Minister, who happens to be the identical twin brother of Poland's President. The President appointed his twin as Prime Minister last July. Someone in the secret police leaked their entire file on the new prime minister to an investigative reporter. It goes back at least 14 years and contains all the details and documents. This will be difficult to explain to the Polish right-wingers.

[Ninong]

Foley is staying at a plush $1,000 a day rehab center in Arizona.

[Ninong]

Speaking of Larry Craig, David Dreier, Ed Schrock, Kenny Mehlman, Karl Rove, Charlie Crist, Mark Foley and all the other famous GOP closet cases, we can't overlook former New Jersey Democratic governor Jim McGreevey who now says he's for it even though he was against it when he was a closeted politician.

What's he for now that he was against then?

Here.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Foley is staying at a plush $1,000 a day rehab center in Arizona.

Hmmm... If Mark Foley checked into the rehab spa on October 1st and if it's a 30-day program, then that means he comes out (so to speak) on Halloween!

[schrocat]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Hmmm... If Mark Foley checked into the rehab spa on October 1st and if it's a 30-day program, then that means he comes out (so to speak) on Halloween!

Ouch.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by schrocat

Ouch.

I'm waiting to see if Rove actually lets him come out and meet the press or if they wisk him off to a secure, undisclosed location until after November 7th.

I wish he would make his debut on November 5th so that the Saddam Hussein guilty verdict wouldn't be the lead item that day. The only thing that could possibly knock a sex scandal story off the front page would be the capture of Sammy bin Laden. And, as we all know by know, Our Leader is "just not interested in him."

[almostdiva]

As of this am, everyone has Casey ahead of Santorum by double digits, across the state, including the "central T" which is Rick's traditional base of power. AND the southwest corner, where Rick "lives" (OK where he maintains and address). He's not ahead in double digits everywhere, but he is ahead everywhere, including the Philadelphia suburbs, which traditionally split half and half (Delaware and Montgomery counties trend Rep., Chester and Bucks Dem).

Casey's adds in recent days have focused on Iraq. I haven't seen Rick's because I don't have cable, and he isn't running ads on Network TV any more.

R

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by almostdiva

I haven't seen Rick's because I don't have cable, and he isn't running ads on Network TV any more.

In his latest ad, Ricky says that he's capable of reaching across the aisle to get things done. Why, he's even worked with Barbara Boxer on such and such and Hillary Clinton on this other thing.



P.S. -- You know Ricky's desperate if he's running on Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton instead of George W. Bush.

The latest Philly Enquirer poll has Casey at 54% and Santorum at 38%.

[almostdiva]

Di d you guys see this???
Campaign Gone South - washingtonpost.com

Ms. Harris is apparently writing a "tell all" biography -- has been all campaign season -- detailing how she has been "wronged" by both the left and the right.

She continues to amuse! Who the heck will publish the thing??

Rebecca

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by almostdiva

Di d you guys see this???
Campaign Gone South - washingtonpost.com

I just read it for the first time.

Ms. Harris is apparently writing a "tell all" biography -- has been all campaign season -- detailing how she has been "wronged" by both the left and the right.

She continues to amuse! Who the heck will publish the thing??

Rebecca

The only way she could interest a publisher would be to truthfully tell everything that went on in the months leading up to the 2000 presidential election and that's not going to happen. She will NEVER admit that she ever did anything wrong, unethical or illegal because she considers herself a saintly martyr. Everything she did, she did because God told her to do it.

Besides, what she did is now well known. Whether she's willing to admit it doesn't really matter. The Bush family used her and then when she was no longer useful, they dumped her.

No doubt she will self-publish some piece of ghost-written trash in an attempt to explain why the people of the great state of Florida were deceived into thinking that she wasn't senatorial material. She's delusional.

She has become a parody of a parody.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

First there was the story about the GOP politician in Arizona who is running on a get-tough-on-illegal-immigration platform who was accused of hiring illegal immigrants as actors in his TV ad. He was going for the authentic look and besides, they were cheaper.

Now there is the Republican congressman from Nevada, Rep. Jim Gibbons, who is running for governor of that state. Earlier this month he was accused of assaulting a female drinking companion and now he is accused of employing an undocumented immigrant as his family's housekeeper and babysitter for several years.

Gibbons is very big on anti-immigrant legislation. He's all in favor of getting tough and setting stiff criminal penalties for anyone who hires an illegal immigrant.

Well, guess what?

A woman who came across the Rio Grande illegally some twenty years ago is now speaking out. She said the reason she couldn't speak out before was because she was waiting to become a citizen first. She didn't want to risk being sent back to Mexico.

Her story is that she worked for Jim Gibbons and his wife for several years as their housekeeper/babysitter. She said they paid her $800/month in cash! Always in cash. No taxes, no social security, etc., because they knew she was illegal. In fact, she was told to never answer the front door and when visitors came over, she had to hide in the basement until they left.

She just happens to have a very, very large photo album with photographs of herself over the years with the Gibbons children. Not only that, but Mrs. Gibbons wrote a letter on her behalf to help her gain citizenship. (Either citizenship or legal residency, I forgot which.)

Mrs. Gibbons issued a written statement late this evening saying that this whole thing is an extortion attempt. She said the former housekeeper threatened to tell her story to embarrass Mr. Gibbons during his gubernatorial campaign. Well, guess what? It's working.



P.S. -- They may not go after him for hiring an illegal immigrant but they will almost certainly be forced to go after him for failure to pay employer taxes.

P.P.S. -- This story is a two-fer because Jim Gibbons' wife, Dawn, is running for the House seat that he vacated to run for governor.

Hey, remember our friend, Jim Gibbons, the scumbag GOPer who was actually elected governor of Nevada in spite of all of the above?

Well, guess what? He's in the news again! This guy just can't keep out of the news, can he? Somebody claims that he accepted a $100,000 bribe while on a cruise paid for by one of his good friends who happens to be a defense contractor. Some people are saying that maybe the reason his defense contractor pal was so enormously generous with Jimbo was because of the tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts Jimbo steered his way. Jimbo used to be a GOP congressman before he became a GOP governor.

Whatever happened to "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?" Aren't they exempt from the same rules the rest of the country is supposed to abide by?

Smile, you're under federal investigation.



P.S. -- What's up with the napkins on their heads? What's that all about? And what about that photo at the bottom of the article? Looks like the congressman (now governor) is having a good time.