I was just reading this post at the Chicago Trib's blog about John Boehner's latest flip-flop on Denny Hastert. (Atrios has this thing of naming intervals of time after certain individuals based on their predictions about Iraq. At this point, a 'Boehner' should be about 10 hours.) And I note that now Boehner too -- in an apparent effort to distract attention to his nine different recollections of what he told Hastert -- is now trying to say Foleygate is all the product of a grand nefarious dirty trick.

From everything I've learned from our reporting on this, I don't think there's anything to the charge. But what strikes me is what the charge would even mean. Is this really a winning argument or is it, as it seems to me, a sign that the House GOP leadership is currently exploring the outer reaches of the galaxy of desperation?

I mean, is it a diabolical plot to reveal that one of members of the House leadership (Foley was a deputy whip) spent the last decade hitting on teenage pages and passed the time between votes having cybersex with them?

Is he like a plant? A pervy Manchurian candidate hived into the 1994 Republican Revolution by the Dems?

I just don't see how this one plays.