Challenger Davis should avoid jumping on anti-Foley bandwagon
BRIAN ACKLEY Political Columnist
If the question indeed boils down to the ever popular who knew what, and when, then at least part of the answer is one day. IAs in the amount of time it should have taken Rep. Thomas Reynolds to look further into the story of a troubled 52-year-old colleague who sent repulsive e-mails to teenagers. It's a story as much putrid as it is political.

It's not as if this were the case of some over-zealous campaign contributor pining to be approved for some menial but always well-paying position at the public trough. Rep. Mark Foley's "problem" had been known for years. And because they have been involved in tawdry scandals in the past, pages are supposed to be overly well-monitored and protected.

It's not as if the Florida rep was chair of a subcommittee on trucking. To know of even the tip of Foley's problem, while at the same time parading him around as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, isn't just disturbing, it's literally nauseating.

Reynolds' current chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, spent a decade in the same role in Foley's office. So incensed was Reynolds that he magnanimously gave Fordham time to "return to Foley's side," when the scandal first broke, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Many congressmen give generously to the National Republican Congressional Committee of which Reynolds is the chair. But few gave so generously as Foley, whose contributions rank at a third of a million dollars in the past few years.

Democrats, naturally, will jump on the sleazy situation with unabashed zest and zeal, which in and of itself is pretty tasteless. Reynolds challenger Jack Davis would do well to not become a personal hammer in this matter since Reynolds is self-inflicting plenty of his own damage. The wealthy challenger doesn't need to ignore it, but hitting would-be voters between the eyes with a Foley fueled two-by-four on a regular basis between now and Nov. 7 could actually be counterproductive.

Of course, he'd only be doing what Reynolds has already done in this election. In a stroke reminiscent of the infamous Willie Horton commercials that helped derail 1988 presidential candidate Mike Dukakis, Reynolds' NRCC recently ran ads in Indiana which the New York Times described as "a series of television spots showing a man accused of child molesting who was inadvertently released under the watch of Brad Ellsworth, a county sheriff and Democratic candidate for Congress."

That, apparently, is all in the spirit of good politics. Democrats jumping feet first into Foley gate are "trying to take advantage of a very tragic and wrong situation," according to Reynolds spokesman Carl Forti.

It would be impossible to fully determine Reynolds' intent in this case, despite what Democrats might want to claim, and as if their party label gives them some moral high ground on which to gleefully perch.

The trail of slime that oozes out behind elected public office holders under every banner, even at lesser levels, would quickly fill up a "Jeopardy" category or two. ("Erie County legislators, past and present, who can't pay their own taxes but have no trouble foisting new ones upon us on a regular basis for a thousand please, Alex.")

But at the very least, it is a clear window into just how Reynolds and far too many politicians like him prioritize their time and efforts. And that is why today we have public servants who all too quickly forget - if they ever believed it in the first place - that holding office is a privilege, not a partisan playground in which only the chosen and anointed few get to dig in the sandbox.

"Mark Foley betrayed the integrity of this institution as well as the trust of his colleagues and constituents," Reynolds said at one point over the past weekend. "There is no excuse, and he needs to be held accountable."

(Brian Ackley is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. WIN is a consortium of 19 community-based weekly newspapers in Erie and Niagara counties with a combined paid circulation of 75,000 homes. For more information on WIN, or to provide feedback on this column, visit our Web site at www.wnynewspapers.com. Opinions expressed here are those of the author.)