Steven Howards and his son were walking by a Dick Cheney event this summer in Beaver Creek, on their way to a piano lesson. Howards told Cheney he didn't approve of his war policy. When Howards walked back from the lesson, passing the site again, he was arrested. Charges later were dropped.

Colorado First Amendment Lawyer David Lane (think Ward Churchill) sued the secret service agent today, for violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights. The full complaint is here (pdf). Here are the factual recitations:

According to this new article in U.S. News & World Report, senior GOP House and party officials say House Speaker Denny Hastert has 24 to 48 hours to redirect the Mark Foley story or at least quiet it down -- or else he may have to step aside.

"The next 24 to 48 hours will be critical for Hastert and the House leadership," said a Republican political strategist. He said that if the leadership can contain the issue fast, Hastert would not be in trouble. But there are indications that the affair will continue to expand as Democrats take advantage of the situation, possibly leading conservative Republican members to go public with their dissatisfaction with Hastert and demand his resignation.

by TChris

Charlie Cook argues that the November elections will hinge on what voters are talking about in the days before they cast their ballots. Republicans enjoyed a modest approval bump in late August when the president made threatening speeches about terrorism. After the NIE judgments became public and Bob Woodward began his book tour, the focus of public discourse shifted from terrorism to Iraq. New military casualties in Iraq and continuing criticism by retired generals (not to mention the country's instability, which is unlikely to improve before November) will probably keep Iraq on voters' minds, and most people aren't buying the president's attempt to link the war in Iraq to the botched war against terror.

The longer the Foley scandal stays in the news (it shows no signs of disappearing, and it probably won't unless Dennis Hastert walks the plank), the more voters will be reminded that Republicans would rather cover up wrongdoing than take responsibility for it. Polls were encouraging to Democrats even before the Foley scandal. Now Foley's seat is in play, and the scandal may touch other races, including Tom Reynolds' reelection campaign.

The president is still whining that Democrats are soft on terror, but voters are likely to be more interested in understanding why he's standing behind Dennis Hastert. Is it time for the White House to start another war to get voters to renew their support of an all-Republican, all-the-time government?

The Note now reports Foley interrupted a House vote to engage in internet s*x with a teen.

Former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) interrupted a vote on the floor of the House in 2003 to engage in Internet sex with a high school student who had served as a congressional page, according to new Internet instant messages provided to ABC News by former pages.

ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18. This message was dated April 2003, at approximately 7 p.m., according to the message time stamp.

[Hat tip Patriot Daily.]

(Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat)

Exercises in irony -- Peggy Noonan spots a speck, misses the obsessive log in her own eye:

One can't exaggerate how large Fox looms in the liberal imagination. They see it as huge and mighty and credit it with almost mythical powers. It is a propaganda channel whose mission it is to destroy the Democratic Party. That's part of why Clintons' performance had such salience. Finally he was standing up to an evil empire.

After writing this:

And so I come to Bill Clinton and Fox News Channel. A week after it aired, the interview still dominates the dinner party.

A week after it aired, Noonan wrote that column. And she writes that one can not exaggerate how large Fox looms in the liberal imagination. Her Right wing obsession with Clinton goes unnoticed by her. The mote in her eye.

700 miles of border fence will not keep out the undocumented, according to experts.

Building a fence to try to secure the U.S. border with Mexico is impractical and would simply lead illegal immigrants to cross elsewhere, according to former Customs and Border Protection agents and other experts.

Former U.S. Customs agents who have hunted drug traffickers in the mountains and deserts of around the Arizona border said the new barrier would be defeated by the rugged terrain. "You can't build a wall across the mountains of southern Arizona, as much of the terrain is inaccessible even on foot," veteran agent Lee Morgan told Reuters as he stood near the proposed route of the fence, east of the town of Douglas.

Mark Foley's name will remain on the ballot in his Florida District. Republicans have agreed on a replacement candidate, state representative Joe Negron, but his name won't be on the ballot. In order to vote for Negron, voters will have to vote for "Mark Foley."

One prominent Florida Republican said he doubts that any GOP candidate can capture the seat with Foley's name on the ballot. "The only way you win is they (voters) have got to vote for Mark Foley. That doesn't appear to me to be very attractive," said Tom Slade, former state Republican Party chairman.

This just in from the ACLU by e-mail (will be available here soon):

The American Civil Liberties Union today welcomed a federal court ruling that the Patriot Act threatens the free speech and religious freedom rights of groups who have reason to believe they are targeted by the law. Today's ruling confirms what we have said all along - that our clients are suffering concrete harm as a result of the Patriot Act," said ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson.

At issue in the case was the ACLU's challenge to Section 215 of the Patriot Act, passed in October 2001, which radically expanded the FBI's power to demand records and personal belongings of innocent people living in the United States, and gagged recipients from disclosing the demands to anyone. The national ACLU and the ACLU of Michigan filed the case in July 2003 on behalf of advocacy and community groups from across the country whose members and clients believed they were the targets of investigations because of their ethnicity, religion and political associations.

by TChris

In the red corner, wearing the rebel yell trunks, John Boehner:

Majority Leader John Boehner said the speaker had assured him months ago the matter had been taken care of. ''It's in his corner, it's his responsibility,'' Boehner, R-Ohio, said in an interview on radio station WLW in Cincinnati.

In the my-face-is-red corner, wearing the stars and stripes trunks, Dennis Hastert:

Speaker Dennis Hastert brushed aside any suggestion of resignation on Tuesday as House Republican leaders struggled to contain the fallout from an election-year scandal involving sexually explicit messages from a disgraced lawmaker to underage male pages.

Good. No resignation means additional rounds of Republican vs Republican pugilism. Pop open a brew and settle back for round two.

(Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat)

You remember what Drudge said yesterday?

Have you read the transcripts that ABC posted going into the weekend of these instant messages, back and forth? The kids are egging the Congressman on! The kids are trying to get this out of him. We haven't got the whole story on this. . . You could say "well Drudge, it's abuse of power, a congressman abusing these impressionable, young 17 year-old beasts, talking about their sex lives with a grown man, on the internet." Because you have to remember, those of us who have seen some of the transcripts of these nasty instant messages. This was two ways, ladies and gentlemen. These kids were playing Foley for everything he was worth.

And The Note says:

Matt Drudge rules our world. . . . So many media elites check the DRUDGE REPORT consistently that a reporter is aware his bosses, his competitors, his sources, his friends on Wall Street, lobbyists, White House officials, congressional aides, cousins, and everyone who is anyone has seen it, too.

So I expected Howie Kurtz to be all over Drudge. And he was, so to speak.

We've been doing a lot of the talking lately, here's a place for you.

by TChris

Doesn't this sound like "cut and run" and "appeasement"?

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said Monday that the war against Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan could never be won militarily, and he urged support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban" into the government.

If Frist thinks a war can't be won militarily, does that make him a Defeatican? If he wants to make peace with the Taliban -- the terrorists who, we're repeatedly told, are anxious to kill Americans -- does that mean he's "coddling terrorists"? Did Frist forget all the Republican talking points during his trip overseas?