Control Issue:Public lines up in Foley scandal

[cal04]

Partisans wage rhetorical battle five weeks before midterm election

For Republicans, Mark Foley’s e-mails could hardly have surfaced at a worse time, adding a sex scandal on top of public disenchantment with the war in Iraq just a little over a month before the midterm elections.

The scandal centers on sexually explicit e-mail and instant messages that Foley, a Florida Republican who resigned from Congress last week, sent to teenage male congressional pages. The Republicans’ message that they are the party of wholesome family values has taken a big hit because of the scandal, suggests a wide range of public reaction, including opinion polls, blog postings and reader response on MSNBC.com.

The most concrete indicator of public anger arrived Thursday in a new poll by The Associated Press and Ipsos Group, in which half of likely voters say the scandal will significantly influence their vote in November.

(snip)
“The Repubs have been exposed by this Predator Foley scandal and cover-up. The party that takes so much enjoyment wearing its morals and religion on their sleeves has had its superficial facade torn away for all to see — They are hypocrites!” wrote a reader posting as jafco73.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15144326/
Poll Track: Burning down the House
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15141918/