Republicans Get a Respite From Foley E-Mail Scandal
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

North Korea’s claimed explosion of its first nuclear bomb yesterday gave Republicans something that they have been seeking desperately for more than a week: a respite to the near-saturation coverage of the scandal stemming from Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually explicit communications with former congressional pages.
Television broadcasts and front pages that were dominated recently by the Foley affair generally gave top billing yesterday to the nuclear peril while relegating the sex-related story to a less prominent position.
The alleged nuclear blast also delivered a commander-in-chief moment for President Bush, who appeared briefly in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room to denounce the North Korean action as “unacceptable.”
Despite the momentary distraction of the press, several political analysts expressed skepticism yesterday that the nuclear story would be enough to help Republicans roll back the damage of the Foley scandal, broader corruption issues, and other problems.
“Any time national security policy rises in public concern, it is generically good for Republicans,” a longtime Republican political consultant, Mike Murphy, said. “But I think, in this environment, it’s, if anything, a tiny nudge.”
Mr. Murphy said the North Koreans’ detonation claim hardly was shocking in light of repeated warnings about the reclusive nation’s nuclear program. He also said Mr. Foley’s actions — and claims that GOP leaders failed to do enough to stop him — play into voters’ existing concerns that the Republican majority has lost its way.
“It’s an anecdotal story you can hook a lot of other stuff into,” Mr. Murphy said. He added that he was standing by an earlier prediction that the Republicans will lose control of the House. “I’m sorry it looks like it’s going that way,” Mr. Murphy said. “But there’s still some time left.”
Mr. Bush is scheduled to appear on Thursday at a fund-raiser in Chicago with one of the key lawmakers under pressure to resign over the Foley flap, the speaker of the House, Rep. Dennis Hastert. So far, the president has been publicly supportive of Mr. Hastert, and Vice President Cheney has dismissed talk of Mr. Hastert’s resignation.
However, Mr. Bush has shown little interest in answering detailed questions about how the Foley matter was handled. He left his statement on North Korea without taking questions, which likely would have focused on both the nuclear issue and the Foley scandal.
A poll released yesterday by CNN found 52% of Americans believe that Mr. Hastert should resign as speaker, while 31% believe he should stay on. The opinions should be taken with a grain of salt, however, since nearly a quarter of Americans said they had never heard of the speaker.
A New York-based Democratic consultant, Hank Sheinkopf, said the North Korean nuclear claim actually amplifies the trouble for Republicans because it plays into concerns that the GOP has failed to manage well either in Washington or abroad. “The North Korean thing will be seen as another example of what is a pattern of things being out of control and Republicans not being able to sustain a sense of security,” Mr. Sheinkopf said.
Another Democratic analyst, Christopher Lehane, said the North Korean bomb may get voters to focus on national security, but hardly reflects well on Mr. Bush or his administration. “To the extent Republicans think they can pivot back onto national security on North Korea, they are pivoting onto, no pun intended, an even bigger minefield,” Mr. Lehane said.
He noted that two of the three countries that Mr. Bush listed as part of the axis of evil five years ago, Iran and North Korea, have built burgeoning nuclear programs while the Bush administration was in power. The third, Iraq, is on the verge of a civil war.
“It’s happened under their watch,” Mr. Lehane said.
While Republican strategists skillfully used national security issues to ride to victory in 2002 and 2004, Mr. Lehane is convinced that 2006 will be different. “This is the election where the Republicans jump the national-security shark,” he said.
A Republican consultant, Allan Hoffenblum, said he expects the focus to remain on the Foley affair and the probity of individual lawmakers. “Before Foley, I thought Republicans were kind of turning it around,” the analyst said. “Now, it’s all back to character, character, character. … And I don’t think an A-bomb’s going to change all that.”