Ralph, Sam, and the Dog

Rep. Ralph Hall attempts to clear up all those reprehensible things he said about an underage Filipino sex slave at Jack Abramoff's behest back in 1997. He fails miserably. Thanks to TPM Muckraker for the heads up. Those of you in CD04, you have a better choice.

Meanwhile, via Vince, it looks like Speaker Hastert will be coming to Texas to help raise funds for a Congressional campaign after all. No, not for Shelley. For Rep. Sam Johnson, he of "Nuke Syria!" - "Just kidding" fame.

Other Republicans across the country have distanced themselves from Mr. Hastert - some even calling for him to resign - as scrutiny intensifies over how he and his aides handled reports that former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida made sexual overtures toward teenage congressional pages.

But Mr. Johnson, 76, in office since 1991, said he's thrilled Mr. Hastert will be his guest of honor at an Oct. 30 re-election luncheon in Richardson.

"Those guys in New Jersey and elsewhere that [scrapped Hastert events] are what Lyndon Johnson used to call nervous Nellies," Mr. Johnson said. "Denny Hastert is well thought of in our district and in this area, and I had no idea of cancellation at all."

A day after a House ethics panel explored whether Mr. Hastert or his aides knew about Mr. Foley's actions before they became public, Mr. Johnson said he's confident the speaker had no prior knowledge.

"If he knew about Mark Foley and what he was doing, Foley would have had to have police protection from Denny Hastert, because Hastert would have blasted him out of the House so fast it'd make your head swim," Mr. Johnson said.

[...]

Mr. Johnson has called Mr. Foley's behavior "despicable" and said he doesn't expect a backlash from constituents.

"We haven't heard much of anything about the Foley thing," Mr. Johnson said. "We're getting a terrific response. ...We'll have a pretty good group down there."

I don't think I can add anything to that. Except to say that Dan Dodd is running against Johnson.

Johnson doesn't just have Hastert's back. He's also right there for Dog the Bounty Hunter, along with Ted Poe and Ron Paul. Because Mexicans breaking the law in America and Americans breaking the law in Mexico are two totally different things.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on October 24, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBack