Behind the Veil of Spin

John Cole of Balloon Juice hits the nail on the head (hat tip to Glenn Greenwald):

But what we do know, and what the American public now knows, is that the party that has spent the past few years demagoguing safety and security and law and order is now known as the party that has screwed up the Iraq war, that has codified torture, that has been filled to the rim with criminals and crooks fleecing the treasury (and who knows what else), and is now known as the party that at its most basic can’t be trusted, because they are the party that has middle age perverts trying to bugger your kids. And even better, the Republican House Leadership didn’t give enough of a shit to do anything about it because it might get messy or it might get in the way of their desires for power and actively hid the information from the oppostion party and the puBlic (or, as we might say, PEOPLE WHO MIGHT HAVE DONE THE RIGHT THING).

And that matters. People understand that. You can’t get around it, like you can the other issues. Iraq is complicated, and there can be some leeway for mistakes. National security is important, and you can talk away some of the distastrous decisions made by the GOP as simple disagreements. People are jaded and cynical, and when you point to Abramoff and Cunningham and other crooks, people are inclined to throw up their hands and say “All politicans are crooks.”

But when it comes to messing with people’s kids, it is a whole different ball game. It is hard for voters to get past the idea that their kid might be upstairs on his computer getting perved on by middle-aged Republicans while the leadership of the party (the party of values, mind you), informed of this man’s predilections, was just too busy to be bothered. Ask your neighbor what they think of the party that harbors a man who, in his spare time, spends hours IMing teenagers to measure their penis.

People understand that, and it should scare the shit out of the GOP.

It looks like details from L'Affair Foley are getting even worse, with no end in sight. And take a look at who just received a flaming bag of poop at his front door.