[kinoxi]

I don't think that Mark Foley caused this election result.

[AaronInCarolina]

I don't think that Mark Foley caused this election result.

Certainly not the Foley scandal by itself, but it did give the MSM a huge club by which to clobber us incessantly, and to grind to a halt the momentum that the republicans were picking up. The irony is that kind of behavior (Foley and pages) is standard operating procedure on the democratic side, but when republicans are caught, its a much bigger scandal.

[Edit35]

I don't think that Mark Foley caused this election result.

Maybe not Mark Foley alone.

But add into the mix:

disgrace Congressmen Fey, and Cunningham, (two GOPers now heading off to jail),

that idiotic preacher from Colorado (who claimed to practice conservatism),

the failure of the GOP congress to curb illegal immigration,

the bigtime overspending,

the failure of Pres. Bush to articulate some type of winning strategy in Iraq (other than "we must win"),

and yes, even the hurtful and boneheaded thing Rush Limbaugh said about Michael J. Fox's Parkinsons disease

and you have a demoralized Republican base.

Not, not everyone was demoralized.

But when 5-percent of your voter base is demoralized, you will lose all those razor thin elections you've won the past 12 years.

-- and That's what happened.