Mark Foley, Trust, and the Midterm Elections

Syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington predicts how Democrats will fare on Election Day.

Tavis: Since you've written about it on your blog, and everybody else is talking about it, what's your sense, as we get closer to midterm Election Day, of the impact of this Foley scandal?

Arianna Huffington: I think it's gonna have a big impact, because it's part of the narrative of trust. It's not really just about sordid IMs and sex. It's about the fact that it fits into that narrative. We can't trust them on Iraq; we can't trust them on Katrina; we can't trust them on tax cuts. What can we trust them on? We can't trust them on values; we can't trust them with our children.

And so, it can get to the tipping point, which is really all that we are talking about. It's going to be a closely contested election anyway, and that can take it over the top for Democrats to win the House, and maybe even the Senate.

Tavis: If I were a Republican, you know I'm not. This is hypothetical. If I were a Republican, my argument would be that, and I'm starting to hear this now, that's one guy who clearly had issues. How do you put a noose around all of our Republican necks because of the malfeasance, misbehavior, of one guy? If that were the case, the Democrats, come on.

Huffington: Yeah, of course it's not about the one guy. It's about what the leadership did; it's about the priority being power, rather than protecting the pages, and by extension protecting our children. It's about hypocrisy, it's about trust. That's what it is about. And politics, and especially elections, are basically in the end coming down to the prevailing narrative. And the narrative that we can't trust them is beginning to really win.

Tavis: Finally on politics, at least, your sense of whether or not the Democrats - I was gonna say can win. Everybody knows they can, potentially, ostensibly. Will they take the House?

Huffington: Well, if the election were held this week, I would say yes. But the election is not held this week. And as we know, two weeks, even, is a very long time in politics. And so I'm not here to look into my crystal ball, but to say that certainly, things are looking very, very good for Democrats.

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