GOP Leaders Tied to Foley Under The Microscope

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2006— -- Beyond the 16th congressional district of Florida, the House race most visibly impacted by the Mark Foley scandal is the New York seat held by Rep. Tom Reynolds, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Reynolds will got some high-profile support today from First Lady Laura Bush, who spoke at a fundraiser luncheon for Reynolds in Amherst, NY. When asked about whether she had second thoughts about campaigning for Reynolds, she answered a succienct "No." She would not comment on her the GOP House leaderships handling of the matter. Reynolds also has an event today with Republican Gov. George Pataki .

An anti-Reynolds group of parents plans to hold an event across the street from the hotel where Mrs. Bush is speaking. In a press release, the group said they want to "voice their outrage and displeasure with the fact that Congressman Reynolds, along with other members of the House Republican leadership, knew for months about inappropriate e-mails between Mr. Foley and a page, and acted as partisans focused only on protecting a congressional seat instead of as parents and protectors of the children entrusted to their care."

Over the last several months, as the public has soured on the Iraq war, various Washington Republicans have been hit by scandals (think former-Rep. Duke Cunningham of Calif. going to prison, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Tex. being indicted, and Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio pleading guilty to corruption charges) But Reynolds has maintained that the GOP would hold its House majority by focusing on issues that resonate locally.

Now, with just over a month to go until Election Day, Reynolds' "all politics is local" strategy will be tested in his district's expanse of small towns, rural areas, and suburbs that stretch between Buffalo and Rochester.

While speaking to senior citizens in Sunrise Fla.Tuesday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. said: "It's one thing for one head to roll. It's another thing for an entire caucus which condoned this activity and this treatment of it to then say now we're off the hook. They're all responsible. They all were enablers."

More explicitly than she has in the past, Pelosi zeroed in on what she sees as the impropriety of Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) discussing a former page's discomfort with Reynolds --