The Republicans' Penis Woes

This Foley thing prompted some thoughts this morning, after a week of non-stop coverage in the press:

A month ago, this election was shaping up as a referendum on the Bush administration's war in Iraq and a Congress beholden to special interests that ignores every pressing domestic concern. Now? The press is obsessed with a meaningless sex scandal, and is suggesting Republican losses will be due to a decline in evangelical turnout (see today's New York Times and yesterday's Washington Post).

Unless the public and the press return to the real issues in this election, the Bush administration will have a perfect foil for browbeating the newly elected Democratic Congress (should that occur) into continuing its unpopular war policies. And the so-called "values" of the religious right will once again have been given far more political credence than they deserve.