Remember Gary Condit? Didn't think so.

What's the connection between this fellow and Mark Foley? Only a tangential one, dear readers. But it's an interesting tangent.

Condit was a suspect in the disappearance of Chandra Levy. She was his intern (and some suspected, his lover): the story was all over the papers and of course the TV news back in 2001. But then 9/11 happened, and Condit was forgotten. What ever happened to the guy? I don't even remember (except that he was found completely innocent -- but that's another story).

Anyway, here's the angle, and the provocation: Republicans want to Condit-ize Foley. How? By foregrounding the fact that North Korea has nukes, that the "axis of evil" is alive and well, and that we need to securitize ever more aspects of life both domestically and internationally in the GWOT. The best and safest way of doing this is by keeping Rs in office. Never mind the fact that Bush's policies had a good deal to do with the mess we're currently in right now (remember dear reader that under Clinton, NK was regularly and meaningfully monitored by a system of cameras that reported back in real time, what they were doing and how). What matters now is to conjure up an enemy -- even better if that enemy represents somewhat of a real threat -- that can serve as a distraction from Mark Foley's mess. All they have to do is keep Foley off the front page for four more weeks.

Every day Foley's off the front page (and NK is on) equals one to two points in the polls. Trust me on this. The Rs may be down by 20 points in some places, but there's plenty of time to catch up. Democrats are going to have some unpleasant surprises in November unless they counteract this.