Foley and the Republican Party

Over the weekend Rep. Foley (R-FL), resigned from the House under allegations of seducing minor Congressional pages. There are many things to comment on this, including that this has been going on for months without the Republican leadership doing anything about it. For the Republicans, this could prove to be a challenge to their majority over the House and Senate. The news media is making this look like the Democrats have just been handed control of the House on a silver platter. Unfortunately, I don’t believe this to be the case.
To start with, Republicans raise more money the Democrats. The Republican money machine is always in motion, gathering donations. Within the last week and a half Cheney was just in Milwaukee for a fundraiser, that charged an outrageous amount per plate. Despite his low appeal, Cheney still draws money from the base, and while no one really knows what makes the most impact, more money to spend all forms of campaigning is better than less. The Republicans have more money to spend to shift voter’s attention to terrorism than the current scandal.
Secondly, incumbents are better than their party. In a political scene dominated by candidate centered politics, the party can smell like a dump with the incumbent coming out smelling like a rose. This incident is going to make the party and Congress look corrupt, but how many people will see their incumbent as either not involved are as the solution to fixing it. (Even those at the top of the Republican Leadership who knew about this are positioning themselves to a position as the cleaners of this mess.) If parties where more involved in picking candidates, then there could be more fault with the party, but sense the people choose, the party is off the hook.
Finally, (kind of two part two), each district and state is different and people all over the country will find this scandal horrible, but it won’t matter to them. For those in the south west, immigration will still reign supreme (can someone tell me why immigration is an issue here?), and the Iraq war will still matter more in the north east.
The Republicans have nothing to fear about this recent event. They raise enough money to create ads that will distract voters. Their other candidates, provided they aren’t the few that knew about it (but even if they are), can distance themselves by saying that it is a tragic event, but its Florida’s problem and vowing to “clean up corruption” in Washington. In the end the only seat the Republicans might lose to this scandal will probably be Foley’s (and Hastert’s too if were lucky).