K Street Republicans were “flabbergasted” by an e-mail begging for handouts to cover disgraced Foley chief of staff Kirk Fordham’s legal bills. Even better, the e-mail was sent the morning after the Election Day Bloodbath. MORE »

• Heard on the Hill: Mark Foley is out of “rehab.” The Arizona facility he went to treats alcoholism, “eating disorders, sexual addiction/compulsivity, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression” … Kirk Fordham, former Tom Reynolds and Foley CoS, is still hanging around the Hill, annoying fellow republicans… John Boehner demanded the Republican leadership sing him his self-penned “Birthday Song” … John Kerry downed Tequila shots with Marines at Finn MacCool’s. [Roll Call]
• Reliable Source: Things to talk about with your family over Thanksgiving. Because you hate them. [WP]
• Yeas and Nays: The Examiner will now be sued by Robert Steinbuch for revealing that his students think he’s a perv… Aide to Sen. Susan Collins sends out memo about fonts: “After reviewing a variety of typefaces to see whether they might prove more readable than the current protocol of 16-point Times Roman bold for speeches, statements and talking points, Senator Collins has decided that she would like to use Lucida Bright.” [Examiner]

New York Times, today: “Bush Stops in Missouri for Embattled Senator” MORE »

• A time is on the table: more troops may be need in Iraq to assist with stability for the next 12 to 18 months until Iraqi security forces take over. [WP, NYT, USAT]

• All the big names of the Bush Administration made it to the White House lawn for “Radio Day,” to reconnect with conservative supporters who live in wooded cabins without TV or internet. [WP, WP]
• Only the most broke and desperate candidates want President Bush to appear with them. [NYT]
• NRCC circulates list of 33 that would meet that description. [The Hill]
• Dennis Hastert and Tom Reynolds went before the House ethics committee, offered conflicting stories. Investigation may be winding down, but no answers til after the election. [WP, NYT]
• Tennessee Senate seat hinges on Harold Ford’s ability to woo racist voters on rocky top. [WP]
• Hillary Clinton has Dick Cheney’s vote locked up for 2008. [Reuters]

Guys, it’s week ten billion or something of the Mark Foley Cocktober Surprise — it will take more, at this point, than a mild double entendre to get our attention. Even (especially!) if it’s highlighted by The Note. Just a note for all to hopefully stem the “dude said ’shafted!’” emails. MORE »

How hard has the Mark Foley Cocktober Surprise hit the Republicans right now? It’s made two of their congressional leaders so radioactive that Don “Sometimes You Gotta Strangle a Bitch” Sherwood doesn’t want them campaigning for him. MORE »

Kirk Fordham, high level congressional staffer, resigned today. Here’s why that’s a sorta big deal in three or four sentences: MORE »

According to Hotline, the current Republican response to the Mark Foley mess is something like this:

• We’ll punish whoever had the IM transcripts (media, unnamed democrats)

• This is the fault of the guy who used to be Rodney Alexander’s Chief of Staff when Rodney Alexander was a Democrat, two years ago. ERGO: DEMOCRAT’S FAULT.

Bob Novak is claiming that even post-creepy emails (remember: not only did the entire House Republican leadership know about them by this point, but something like 400 news organizations had been forwarded them), NRCC head Tom Reynolds encouraged Foley to run for reelection — this could just be another shot in the unusually public intraparty Reynolds/Hastert battle.

After the jump, more Foley stories, plus another funny video from those wacky kids who did yesterday’s dramatic reading.

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Innocent teenage Pages weren’t the only ones wronged by Representative Mark “Slip those off” Foley. For a necessarily incomplete list of who’s fucked now, and why, check in after the jump.

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We’re proud to have played some small and completely inept role in this, the first and quite possibly most entertaining of October’s surprises. While the news continues breaking (Foley has checked himself into rehab — the Kennedy kind, not the Focus on the Family cure-me-of-the-gay kind), it may be entertaining to step back a bit and examine just how this story happened.

After the jump: When and why Foley was outed, who knew his Page problems and when, why the story was sat on for a year, and just how much Foley’s current and former friends in the House are shitting themselves.

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We’re being too tough on Michael Steele. It’s not a big deal that he’s ashamed to run as a Republican. Hey, even Congressman Tom Reynolds (R-NY) is ashamed to run as a Republican this year. Who’s Tom Reynolds? Oh, the chairman of the NRCC, committee that elects Republicans to Congress. His new ad “Fighting for Jobs” glosses completely over the fact that he’s a member of the GOP, as does the information on his website.

“New Yorkers won’t be fooled by a new TV spot after years of job losses and Reynolds’s record against working families,” said Bill Burton, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s communications director. “It’s time for a new direction.”

It feels… dirty to agree with a DCCC flack. But check out that ad. Not only does Reynolds edit out images of his GOP pledge pin - the message is all about how New York is “not conducive to creating jobs.” Who’s the governor of New York? Republican George Pataki. Who runs the New York state Senate? Republican Joe Bruno. Who runs the country? A Republican president and Congress. Damn it, it’s time to stand up and stop the Democrats from ruining everything! MORE »