"SCARBOROUGH: You know what? I‘m not laughing at that fact, I‘m just
I‘m—why did he have to even say that in the press conference? But Craig, I‘ll let you talk about that, but also talk about the payment (ph) that Mark Foley gave to the Republican Party about the same time that the head of the Republican congressional committee decided not to go public with this information.
CRAIG CRAWFORD, “CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY,” MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST:
Yes. Well, first of all, Joe, our poor home state...
SCARBOROUGH: Good God!
CRAWFORD: Will Florida ever not be a freak show? I mean...
(LAUGHTER)
SCARBOROUGH: No, it will not!
CRAWFORD: I mean, every time I see an outdoor press conference from Palm Beach County, I just start to shiver, you know.
(LAUGHTER)
CRAWFORD: But I do—but to get to your point, I mean, I do think the money in this story is not getting enough attention. I think that‘s one of the main reasons that the system was protecting Foley months ago, when they first heard about this, is this man was a major fundraiser who funneled a lot of money into other campaigns, and in particular, made a payment of $100,000 to the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, to the campaign arm of the Republican Party in the House, shortly after...
(CROSSTALK)
SCARBOROUGH: And Tom Reynolds runs that, right?
CRAWFORD: And Tom Reynolds runs that, and Foley‘s chief of staff for 10 years was Tom Reynolds‘s chief of staff, so it was a very tight connection there. But just the appearance of a $100,000 payment to the campaign committee at about the same time the leadership was deciding to ignore these e-mails really stinks.
SCARBOROUGH: It really does stink. And Democrats, as I said before, already seizing on this Foley scandal for attack ads in congressional races. Take a look at this one from Minnesota.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It shocks the conscience. Congressional leaders have admitted covering up the predatory behavior of a congressman who used the Internet to molest children. For over a year, they knowingly ignored the welfare of children to protect their own power. For 17 years, Patty Wetterling (ph) has fought for tougher penalties against those who harm children. That‘s why she‘s demanding a criminal investigation and the immediate expulsion of any congressman involved in this crime and cover-up.
PATTY WETTERLING (D), MINNESOTA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I‘m Patty Wetterling, and I approve this message.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCARBOROUGH: You know, Pat Buchanan, I always use my wife as a barometer because she‘s not a political nut like me. And when my wife comes to me and says, How could Denny Hastert and the Republican leadership have kept this to themselves for six, seven or eight months, I know the GOP‘s in big trouble.
PAT BUCHANAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Oh, it‘s in terrible trouble. I can‘t think of a worse type scandal, Joe. You got a sexual predator from Florida who‘s posturing as a conservative. And you got Hastert and all these fellows going back and forth not remembering, others saying, I told him, and it looks like a cover-up is going on.
I mean, for the Democrats, it doesn‘t get any better than this, frankly. You saw that ad. I mean, that‘s just the kind of ad conservative Republicans used to love running against liberal Democrats, and now they‘re driving it home. And frankly, the problem with the ad is, it‘s got an awful lot of truth to it.
SCARBOROUGH: I was going to say, Pat, usually, when I look at these attack ads, I roll my eyes and go, Good Lord, here they go again. I look at that, it‘s pretty straightforward.
And here‘s the biggest problem. Joan, I want you to listen to Mark Foley on our program back in February talking about Internet predators.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARK FOLEY ®, FLORIDA: Your earlier guest was talking about charges like solicitation, contributing to the delinquency of a minor. There should be a multitude of offenses charged, including trespassing. You know, a number of things can be added, we hope, to the sentences of those that go onto these locations. And then hopefully, if you make it tough enough, they then will kind of spread the message that this isn‘t a smart thing to do.
But it does confound, you know, reasonable people that the guy on your show would watch this taking place and subsequently then enter the house himself. It‘s just bizarre. It‘s absurd. And yet it‘s regrettably dangerous for the kids at home."
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