I think those who are already peeved at the GOP may view it as a last straw, but they were voting the other way anyway. I think those who intend to vote for their congressman, probably won't change their vote unless he is connected to the actual issue (ie Foley, and maybe some of the leaders) I just don't see them thinking "hey Foley was coming on to Pages, I bet my congressman is to, so I won't vote for him/her."

I think it comes back to the politics is local, and unless this scandal touches them locally, I am not sure it translates into more votes for the dems or fewer votes for the GOP. I am willing to bet Foley's vote goes DNC on this issue only.

I think in the end, it turns into another "they are all as bad as the other, I am just going to stay home" type election.

The GOP can benefit by this if the RNC runs ads comparing what happens when GOP members is caught in a scandals compare to what happens to Democrats caught in scandals.

They can show Foley leaving carrying a box while Democrat Studds who had sex with underage male page getting a standing ovation.

I agree, most "undecided voters" are actually non-voters. And that's a good thing. Frankly, anyone with any business voting has likely pretty much made up their mind by this point.

I grant that there is probably some small fraction of reasonably bright people who usually vote for one party but are sufficiently torn by the issues and politics of the day that they are waiting until the last minute to decide whether to hold their nose and vote for their team, not vote, or actually switch sides.

I refer to the type of people who decide for whom to vote based on a sermon at their church the Sunday before election, seeing someone's name on a bumper sticker, thinking an ad is particularly funny, or other such matters.

Surely, a lot of voters are undecided b/c the party they usually support, the Republican, is having such a hard time. Those would be clued-in voters.

The truly uninformed, undecided "voter" isn't likely to vote at all. Either you have some notion what's going on & it gets you to the polls, or you vote "D" or "R" by rote, in which case you're quite decided.

I don't buy that. It's self-serving rhetoric that conveniently serves those who should be fired.

The Repubs could gain a lot from being seen to "clean house"; I think that would reassure a lot of voters who lean Republican but are afraid this particular bunch of jokers is out of control.

So, I hope they don't do it! ;)

What do you Repubs think?

Imagine the political climate if there were three conservative quotes for every liberal quoted in a story. If stories routinely said democrats were hypocritical for supporting the use of force resolution, but now want to cut and run. If every story about terrorism mentioning NSA intercepts, patriot act, financial tracking, pointed out that if they had been in place before 2001, we might have stopped the attacks before the occurred. If that was happening (aka the press was cheer leading for the GOP as hard as they did for the democrats), then the GOP would be winning in overwhelming numbers.

So the MSM not distinguishing between the emails (do you really want to live in a world where any friendly email to a youth is punishable by losing your job) and the IM (which look to be at least indictable if not convict-able for criminal activity) means the story will continue. The other story on who was holding on to the IM until October, thus shielding a child predator, is getting little to no play.

So I think the scandal will have legs through the election, not because of the details of the scandal, but because it serves the MSM preference for democrats to keep the scandal running.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other GOP leaders are dismissing suggestions that they should have ...