by TChris

The internet is not Las Vegas -- where, if you believe the advertising, you can be bad as you wanna be without fear that your spouse/friends/boss will learn of your (mis)adventures. What happens on the internet might not stay on the internet. It might instead be published in a newspaper.

Mark Foley learned that lesson the hard way. So did Justice of the Peace Sam Harris, who made some vulgar comments (reported here and here) in an internet chatroom. Harris is running for reelection, but the disclosure of his chatroom antics may imperil his campaign. A few Cascade County, Montana voters who have already cast absentee ballots in his favor are trying to change their votes. Can't be done, says the county clerk. What goes on the ballot stays on the ballot.

Speaking of Foley, here are ABC's latest disclosures, based on information provided by three more pages.

(Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat)

Beating Atrios to the punch:

The chairman, Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, expressed particular concern that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had not moved decisively against sectarian militias.

"In two or three months if this thing hasn't come to fruition and this level of violence is not under control, I think it's a responsibility of our government to determine: Is there a change of course we should take?" Senator Warner said.

What's the rest of the "Broder independent center" Party (McCain, Graham, Lieberman) have to say about this? Hey Joe, isn't this emboldening the "terrorist bloggers" or something? Or maybe I should be asking Broder that question?

(Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat)

Lieberman again reverted to his partisanship theme.

"I know some people are calling for [House Speaker Dennis] Hastert to resign, but the truth is that unless he knows what he saw and he saw something he should have acted on, he deserves to have essentially a fact-finder to come in," Lieberman said.

"The Foley case bothers people," he added. "If anyone thinks they can make this into another partisan flap, it's not. It's very real and human. The House Republican leaders and, frankly, the Democratic leadership, should not make it partisan."

(Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat)

Having slinked out of Washington in embarrassment after his favorite "independent centerists" (McCain, Lieberman, Warner, Graham) rubberstamped Bush's atrocious detainee bill, David Broder went to California to proclaim Ahnold's cave-in to Democrats as a great victory for his "Independence" Party. Rightly and roundly ridiculed again for his foolishness, Broder headed to Massachusetts to find independence.

But he runs into Deval Patrick, the Democratic nominee for Governor, who enjoys a huge lead. Now the thing about Patrick, the most interesting thing, was his unabashed embrace of liberal Democratic values and how he came from upstart to landslide running as a member of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Indeed, he was strongly supported by Broder's nemesis, the "vituperative" Left blogosphere. But this does not interest Broder. What does interest him?

(Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat)

Those of us who despaired of Weepin' Joe Lieberman (I-Green Room) years ago have not been surprised by anything he's done over the past six months. He's always been a puling, mewling opportunist who'd sell his grandmother to the Malay pirates for a pat on the head from a jackleg preacher, or 15 minutes of banter on Don Imus's Wrinkle Farm, where he recently made giddy fun of the demolition of the Geneva Conventions. He's never breathed a political moment in which he was not John Breaux in a hairshirt.

Man he's good. And right. Read the whole thing.

by TChris

This enjoyable essay summarizes the many faults of Donald Rumsfeld (the least of which is his propensity to cheat at squash).

There can be little serious doubt that Rumsfeld and his policies represent ground zero at the epicenter of the political and strategic disasters erupting around and steadily engulfing the Bush-Cheney White House in what is now a groaning sea of grief. But, the concerns over Rumsfeld's problems are worse, much worse.

Meanwhile, in his struggle to be reelected, Republican Rep. Chris Shays says Rumsfeld must go.

by TChris

According to Congressional Quarterly, reported at Raw Story, Dennis Hastert is willing to resign his speakership if it would help the Republicans. Of course, in Hastert's judgment, his resignation wouldn't be beneficial, but would start a "feeding frenzy" of calls for the removal of other GOP leaders in the House, including fellow enablers John Boehner, Thomas Reynolds, and John Shimkus.

Hastert is right about one thing: his resignation won't help his party. Nothing can help the Republicans at this point.

Update: Hastert's current strategy, probably all he has left: blame Democrats (and the liberal media, i.e., ABC, the "liberal" network that brought us Path to 9/11) for his problems. Hastert apparently hasn't noticed that conservatives are the loudest voices demanding that he resign his speakership.

by TChris

California's prisons are desperately overcrowded, a condition that guarantees full employment for members of the state's powerful corrections union. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency yesterday, prefatory to execution of a plan to send prisoners to rented cells in other states, away from family and support networks that might give them a chance of avoiding a return to crime when they're eventually released. This short-term thinking only perpetuates a long-term problem.

Donald Specter, director of the Prison Law Office, is right: "as serious reform, there is nothing about this that makes sense." Sending a few thousand prisoners to be housed in other states won't solve the problem. The governor should be exploring alternatives to incarceration so that drug offenders are diverted from the prison sytem, as well as early release programs for nonviolent prisoners, including those who are serving "third strike" sentences for minor crimes.

Here are more ideas that are better than the governor's:

(Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat) (The opinions expressed are my own solely. They in no way reflect the opinion of any other TalkLeft blogger. Professor Reynolds is a very cordial intellectual adversary and we all admire his civility.)

Earlier this week, Glenn Reynolds took exception to my characterizing his linking to Howard Kurtz as endorsing Kurtz's blaming the kids in the Foley page scandal:

# Posted by Glenn Reynolds
October 3, 2006 11:27 AM

I "endorse" blaming young people? How, by quoting Kurtz as you did? I also quote Brendan Miniter blaming the Republican leadership.

This "you must endorse whatever you link" theory, which seems to be gaining ground in the blogosphere, strikes me as very silly.

Fair enough. But it seems worth considering what Professor Reynolds is linking to and what that means:

FoleyGate has claimed it's first casualty: Rep. Tom Reynold's aide, also a former Mark Foley aide, Kirk Fordham:

ABC News' Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper reports that Kirk Fordham has resigned. The chief of staff for Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds, Kirk Fordham, resigned after questions were raised about his role in the handling of the congressional page scandal, according to Republican sources on Capitol Hill.

Those sources said Fordham, a former chief of staff for Congressman Mark Foley, had urged Republican leaders last spring not to raise questionable Foley e-mails with the full Congressional Page Board, made up of two Republicans and a Democrat. "He begged them not to tell the page board," said one of the Republican sources.

Fordham, of course has his own tale tell. He's being made the scapegoat.

I'm on the road today, traveling to New York for the annual Lexis-Nexis/Martindale Legal Advisory Board meeting. Lexis and Martindale are my favorite companies and it's the best meeting I attend all year. Every year they take us to another spot, we've been to Bermuda, Canada and all over the U.S. It would be close to impossible for me to either practice law or blog without Lexis-Nexis. To serve on their legal advisory board, as I've done the last ten years, is really a privilege for me.

In addition, the TL kid is in NY, and whatever time I'm not with Lexis, I'll be with him. I'll have my laptop and will not be absent completely, and I hope TChris and Big Tent Democrat (and maybe even Last Night in Little Rock, if he's angry enough about something) will be keeping you updated.

But just in case, here's some space for you to comment and keep each other apprised of what's going on in the world.

I suspect Denny Hastert will resign his leadership post before I return to Denver Sunday night, but I've been wrong before. What do you think?

I know everyone is frustrated with the comments. I've been saying for the last month the site is moving from Movable Type to Scoop (see Daily Kos as an example of modified Scoop) and it really is happening. The new site is built, it looks almost exactly like the current site, commenting problems should be eliminated, and there will be the opportunity for those of you who want to blog but don't want your own site to create your own posts.

I'm not sure how reader posting and comment rating will work yet, since unlike Daily Kos, there are conservatives (PPJ and others, are you listening?) who comment regularly on TL. While I have no intention of letting TalkLeft become a free-for-all, it's also not fair to bash conservative commenters just because of their point of view. It will remain a partisan, liberal site, especially on crime and political issues, but some accomodation will be made to allow conservatives to comment without fear of being trashed solely because of their point of view.

As for a launch date: We're in the debugging mode. We should be live next week.