Denis Hastert has apologized for Rep. Foley’s conduct not being punished, and Hastert claims that he and other senior Republicans were unaware of it.

That may be, but on the heels of so many other painful Republican gaffs, it is, I think, unlikely to be seen as a credible response.

Today, the Democrats could take the House standing on their head, unless they did something unbelievably stupid, and they even so they might still pull it off.

That’s the problem.

I’m not against Democrats or Republicans, but I am against incompetence. I’ve been speaking with party enthusiasts on both sides of the aisle, and I am not overwhelmingly impressed.

What would (will) the Democrats do when they command the House?, I ask. The answer is that they’ll oppose Bush on Iraq, and sometimes I hear that they’ll oppose Bush on Iraq and other issues as well.

What will they accomplish with the House and maybe the Senate under their control?, I ask. Oh, not much, evidently because Bush would hunker down into obstructionism.

Fine, what will the Democrats work to try to do?, I ask. Oh, not much, their not that united, Democratic campaign workers tell me, it’s mostly about opposing Republican incompetence, the poll worker tells me, knowing that I introduced myself as a ticket-splitting Republican who’s annoyed with many Republican candidates.

Opposing Republican incompetence. Glory be—now we can replace next month with Democratic incompetence?! What good is it replacing a red-colored bum with a blue-colored bum?!

What we need is statesmanship, and sadly all the public is being sold is partisanship. Too many “independent” candidates are partisanly noisy in being “against partisanship.” I’m thinking of Kinky Friedman’s inspecific speeches and campaign style—aptly adjusted for the one-liner perspective of some entertainment enthusiasts, but a poor substitute for the statesmanship lacking in the candidate Kinky opposes. By the way, not all entertainment enthusiasts are particularly bemused by Kinky’s wise-cracks.

And, hopefully, many voters are not particularly bemused by the “decision” to be made this fall: between a stereotyped Republican incumbent with his pockets full of Abramoff’s dirty money and a stereotyped Democrat challenger with his mind empty of policy alternatives to the status quo of failure, punctuated by a dancing clown from the entertainment world who calls himself independent because not even a politician will ascribe to his notions of policy.

Yikes. Is there a statesman in the house?