ShareThisBy LISA HOFFMAN
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
While it may have contributed to voters' overall disgust with GOP ethical failings, the Mark Foley online-sex-with-pages scandal had little direct impact in the elections.
Despite all the finger pointing and hand wringing, the House's handling of the Florida Republican's inappropriate contacts with teenage pages doesn't seem to have had much effect anywhere except in Foley's own district, which flipped to Democrat Tim Mahoney.
Voters re-elected all the key players in the matter, who are under examination by the House ethics committee, which is looking for evidence of a cover-up or other nefarious deeds.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, GOP campaign chairman Rep. Tom Reynolds of New York; Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio; and Page Board chairman Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois all won easily.
Though their leadership positions will disappear when the Democrats take over, they are likely to see the ethics committee probe lose its steam now that the elections are over.
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Only one of seven Iraq war veterans who ran for Congress was elected.
The lone victor was Democrat Patrick Murphy, a former paratrooper with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division who served in Baghdad in 2003 and 2004. He beat Republican incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick in the suburban Philadelphia district.
Three other Democratic contenders and three GOP candidates lost by large margins in their races.
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Defense Department chief Don Rumsfeld may be history, but he's hoping to keep the job until he ensures himself a place in the record books. If he lasts through December, he'll reach the milestone of being the longest-serving defense secretary ever.
Given the apparent interest of the new Democratic majority in Congress in postponing confirmation hearings _ including for Rumsfeld replacement Robert Gates _ until they take over in January, it's looking like Rummy will get his wish.
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Generational changes: The 50-some-member incoming freshman class of the 110th Congress is pretty typical for the last five elections. Not since the Clinton years have more than 100 newcomers arrived in the House at once.
But term limits and the expense and rigors of campaigning have had an effect on the length of service for the average member of Congress, even if nearly 90 percent of the incumbents who ran Tuesday still got returned to office.
Consider this:
_ Just three senators and one congressman _ Democrats Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, and John Dingell of Michigan _ served under JFK
_ Fewer than 70 members of the House and a quarter of the Senate served during any portion of Ronald Reagan's two-terms.
_ And well over half of the new House will have served only under Clinton and/or George W. Bush.
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Look for Rep. John Conyers to be first in the sights of GOP anti-corruption hunters. Conyers is in line to become chairman of the House Judiciary committee in January, but the Michigan Democrat has been battling allegations from some of his former staffers that he and his top aides broke a host of House ethics rules.
Among the charges: Ordering staff to campaign and raise funds while on the congressional payroll, using his deputy chief of staff to baby-sit his son and run errands, and looking the other way when staffers used their official positions to enrich themselves.
Conyers denies breaking any rules.
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Where's Barney when you need him? Seems President Bush was in a back-patting sort of mood on Election Day, planting a number of hearty ones on his wife, Laura.
After the president and first lady voted Tuesday at the Crawford, Texas, Fire Department, Bush briefly spoke, then "patted her back four or five times very firmly, and they turned and walked off," according to the press pool account.
They then left for the airport to fly back to Washington. There, "PO/FLO (acronyms for president of the United States/first lady of the United States) ascended the stairs. PO put his arm around FLO for a moment, and at the top of the stairs gave her three hearty backslaps."
That prompted a news photographer to mutter, "Again with the back pats. She's not a dog," according to the pool report.
