House Republicans don't understand impact on voters
BRIAN ACKLEY Political Columnist
Perhaps the most astonishing thing surrounding the ongoing Tom Reynolds

self-immolation - even beyond the lead that successful private business entrepreneur Jack Davis has now managed to build in their race for a seat in the House of Representatives -- was his absence from ABC's "This Week" program last Sunday morning.

The appearance had been scheduled, by the way, for weeks. In other words, it was not simply a last-second invitation to participate in a last-second "gotcha" session in regard to the Mark Foley meltdown.

For Reynolds to miss a shot to swashbuckle from Secaucus to Seattle, he must have been recovering no doubt from the tainted crow he's been repeatedly forced to choke down. He certainly didn't become suddenly sick because his slice of humble pie had been supersized.

Maybe he cancelled because he couldn't surround himself with a bunch of prepubescent props, like he did during his most disgraceful press performance of this entire episode. Or maybe it's because that for every knee-jerk political action that Reynolds or his other cronies attempt to stage - it's two weeks now and Republicans are no closer to getting their stories on the same page as they were when the Friday afternoon "ABC News," and not Mark Foley's colleagues, brought this to the public's attention - there is always, always a more plausible, nonpartisan and believable reaction.

Or maybe it's because after almost two weeks of trying, he figured out that there's no way to answer the unanswerable, no matter if you can spend $200,000 on television commercials.

In fact, what's shocking is that Republicans still haven't figured out that the usual tried and true techniques of brushing aside scandalous behavior - on which the GOP has no franchise, by the way, despite the Democratic euphoria floating through the crisp fall air - fits this case about as well as ballerina tights on Denny Hastert. Or that it is a story with more tentacles than a mutant octopus, a kind of Chinese water torture which will drip, drip, drip all the way to Election Day, no matter how many reams of the quicker picker upper Reynolds rolls out.

What the GOP simply is too obtuse or out of touch to understand is just how deeply and closely this whole implosion strikes average voters, no matter their gender, no matter their party affiliation, no matter if they are parents or not. Reynolds and his colleagues walked through the poison ivy patch and instead of reaching for the Calamine lotion, they continue to scratch like crazy.

Not only is it a story to which we can all easily relate, it comes at a time when total strangers are popping up at school buildings to terrorize teenagers, reinforcing the whole notion that people who have the power can't do enough when it comes to protecting youngsters from potential predators. Voters will tolerate politics as usual to a point - in fact, we're an electorate far too forgiving for the way our pubic trust is so constantly violated - but the people correctly and quickly perceived this as the Boardwalk, not Baltic Avenue, of buck passing.

Supporters have been reduced to the tired argument of how somehow we need Tom to stay in office just to make sure he can keep serving up the biggest possible slice of ham off the patronage pig. Hogwash. Reynolds should get some credit for helping save the Niagara Falls Air Force Base. But how's Brian Higgins doing as a national neophyte?

Pretty well, thanks. His performance as a D.C. freshman puts a pin in all the Porky Pig pontification.

And, if the GOP loses control of the house, which is looking more and more likely, Reynolds' carving knife will suddenly become duller than six-year-old scissors.

Adam Putnam did his best Reynolds imitation Sunday morning, sitting in on ABC as a sacrificial substitute. "The dirty laundry is gone," he told the network. We can only wish.

(Brian Ackley is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. 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.)