Oh man. FBI is investigating. ABC News:

"There's a chance that Foley could be prosecuted under laws he helped pass."

This is almost Greek in its scope. Foley is toast and his seat is probably going to go Democratic. The ballots have already been printed with his name on them.

From a political standpoint, the important thing now is to press the advantage. John Laesch is running against Denny "The Fat Man" Hastert, speaker of the GOP House, who is ultimately accountable for the fact that Foley wasn't disciplined, taken out of touch-range, etc. In a just world Hastert will lose his job.

For fuck's sake, they warned Republican pages, but not Democrats. Nothing I can think of goes further to illustrate the kind of tribal "us vs. them" mindset that prevails amongst the GOP these days. By their reasoning, it's more important to hold on to power than to deal with a potential child-predator in their midst. They'll also warn their own young boys -- gotta look out for our own, given the circumstances -- but if some sons of Democrats get in the way, well, that's just collateral damage.

I met Laesch in Vegas this summer and he's a good guy. Young and hungry. Under a normal establishment political calculus, this race would be seen as a fool's errand, but now we see the power of the 50-state strategy. It's not going to be pretty, but if Laesch runs with this in the next month, he could put Hastert's political future in jeopardy.

I gave John Laesch some CREAM. If you've got connects in the 14th district of Illinois, especially the kind that can help drive media coverage, now's the time to work it.