Another one bites the dust. Liz:

GOP sources confirm that Rep. Tom Reynolds, a Western NY Congressman since 1999 and ex-NRCC chairman, will announce around noon tomorrow in Buffalo that he will not seek re-election this fall. Reynolds spokesman LD Platt did not return an e-mail seeking comment. [...]

But the recent NRCC fraud scandal - some of which took place on his watch - has made his re-election effort that much more difficult in an already tough year (increasingly Democratic state, presidential election etc).

That makes things a lot easier for this guy:

The question now becomes whether Jack Davis, the guy who ran for the seat last time - and couldn't defeat Reynolds despite the latter's role in the Foley scandal - will now run as a Democrat in a primary against Jon Powers, or as a republican against likely contender George Maziarz.

Another bit of irony: if Reynolds is retiring over the NRCC scandal, it will prove once and for all that while you can get away with molesting underage boys in the GOP, you had better not lose their money, or you're toast.

On the web: Jon Powers for Congress

Several hundred activists gathered at Columbus Circle Thursday night to start the battle to over-ride the veto by President Bush of the expanded State-Children's Health Insurance Program. The rally, one of 250 nationwide, was organized by Moveon.org-Political Action with significant help from SEIU Local 1199 and and Unite-Here. (You can see some photos of the rally here .)

NYS Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried told the crowd about how newly insured children he had met had averted life threatening medical problems because of the availability of health care. 1199 Organizer Andy King set the crowd chanting for health care and cheering his promise that the union would work with us until the veto is overturned.

Via Hotline comes this ad, slated to run in Rochester, Buffalo, and parts of Virginia:

Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Reynolds is going down.

The FBI raided several family private homes in a probe into alleged influence peddling by Curt Weldon, R-PA, reports The Washington Post. Weldon claims it's a partisan investigation; this because, presumably, the FBI reports to gay Democrat George Bush.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has video of Weldon blaming every Democrat under the sun for the raid, while gingerly avoiding an answer as regards the truth of the allegations.

The title of a diary on DailyKos says it all: The Federal Government's Approaching Fiscal Meltdown.

Ahnuld and lamest of ducks Pataki join forces on global warming, reports the Albany Times-Union.

Snowed in in Buffalo? Deal with it, you crybabies, suggests this republican.

Uh-oh. North Korea considers sanctions leveled against it a 'declaration of war', reports the New York Times. Not a good choice of words.

Proving once again that no piece of gossip about Hillary is too mundane to not be flogged endlessly, Empire Zone reports breathlessly that the junior Senator is not, indeed, named after Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Everest.

London, our sister city across the water, is agog with the arrival from Malawi of Madonna's adopted baby, reports The Guardian.

Chris Bowers continues his reportage from upstate New York, with clear signs that Tom Reynolds' support has collapsed.

And lastly, ThinkProgress enthusiastically reports the newest disapproval numbers for the boy in the White House bubble: 61%, versus 36% who approve nationally. Hating George Bush is the nation's favorite hobby, it seems.

Ben Smith over on The Daily Politics has a strange bit of political theater in a TV ad Tom Reynolds is currently running in his district. Here's an excerpt:

"But last week, we all learned of other emails, worse than anything I'd heard before. I immediately forced Foley to resign."

He did what? As far as I can tell, Reynolds had nothing to do with the resignation. From The Blotter:

September 29, 2006 3:02 PM

Brian Ross and Maddy Sauer Report:

Saying he was "deeply sorry," Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.

A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

Considering that Foley resigned hours before the actual IMs became public, it's hard to credit Reynolds with asking him to resign about something he couldn't have known about.

In especially as he subsequently denied knowing that his chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, was working with Foley on the matter.

Or considering that there is no prior record of any such demand by Reynolds - anywhere.

Something here doesn't add up.

The carnage continues. ThinkProgress:

ABC News reports that Kirk Fordham, the former chief of staff to Mark Foley and current chief of staff to Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), has “resigned amid questions over whether he supressed information about Foley emails.”

UPDATE: ABC now says Fordham was “fired.” Also: “People familiar with Fordham’s side of the story…said Fordham was being used as a scapegoat by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. They said Fordham had repeatedly warned Hastert’s staff about Foley’s ‘problem’ with pages, but little was done.”

Can't say I didn't see this one coming: republicans, caught with their pants around their knees when the public learned they were shielding a sexual predator out of sheer electoral convenience, are now blaming gays, liberals and the teenage pages themselves.

Yes, those slutty little sixteen-year-olds with their Erasure albums, always tempting the righteous.

I guess it's also their fault that House pages were first warned about Foley in 1995. So how do the pages help the terrorists? Just ask boy toy Denny, talking to druggie Rush:

SPEAKER HASTERT: There were two pieces of paper out there, one that we knew about and we acted on; one that happened in 2003 we didn’t know about, but somebody had it, and, you know, they’re trying — and they drop it the last day of the session, you know, before we adjourn on an election year. Now, we took care of Mr. Foley. We found out about it, asked him to resign. He did resign. He’s gone. We asked for an investigation. We’ve done that. We’re trying to build better protections for these page programs.

Tom Reynolds, NRCC chair, New York Representative and pedophile enabler, is in the political fight of his life.

His Chief of Staff, Kirk Fordham, was the critical link between predatory pedophile (and former republican Congressman) Foley, serving as a conduit for information between Foley and the House leadership, and attempting to entice ABC News into quashing the story, reports AmericaBlog.

At a press conference yesterday - hat tip Daily Politics - Reynolds surrounded himself with children of supporters. Brave people, they, and a vaguely creepy spectacle, all things considered. Here's a thought: the message people will take from that isn't that, yes, it's safe to have kids around a republican Congressman. The message will be that you treat kids as props, for press conferences, or when you're trying to cover up that one of your Members preyed on them. Everything is expendable except power, eh, Congressman?

From the Buffalo News:

Reynolds said he reported the "overly friendly" e-mails from 2005 to Hastert. "I don't think I went wrong at all," he said. "There was action taken."

He said that Hastert later met with Foley, the clerk of the House and the chairman of the page committee, and that Foley was told never to contact that former page again.

"Should the speaker have done more?" he was asked.

"That's a question you'll have to ask the speaker," Reynolds replied.

No, Congressman, we're asking you. Especially now that ABC News is reporting that more pages are in the pipeline - so to speak.

Denny Hastert, Speaker of the United States of Representatives, third in line for the Presidency, just threw his esteemed colleague Tom Reynolds, NY-26, head of the NRCC, under a bus - on television.

Hastert now claims the information about Foley was presented to him as a possible campaign issue. Via ThinkProgress:

REPORTER: Congressman Reynolds put out a statement on Saturday saying that he told you in the spring. Do you think he’s lying?

HASTERT: No, I’m not saying. I just don’t recall him telling me that. If he would have told me that, he would have told me that in the context of maybe a half a dozen or a dozen other things. I don’t remember that.

REPORTER: Other allegations of improper e-mails?

HASTERT: No, just other things that might have affected campaigns.

And here's the video:

Long story short: They didn't want to risk the seat by taking action. Pity about the kids, but what to do when you want to stay in power?

Here's an idea: Reynolds' opponent is Jack Davis. Tom Reynolds already considers predatory pedophiles a campaign issue. Let's make it one.