Republicans hit by wave of political bad news

A seamy Capitol Hill sex scandal is the latest bad news to deflate Republicans and leave them scrambling for political survival four weeks before elections that will decide whether they keep control of the U.S. Congress.

While Republicans tried to contain the fallout from Florida Rep. Mark Foley's lewd messages to teenage congressional assistants, they also have been forced to fight off new political firestorms over the Iraq war and a lingering influence-peddling scandal.

The wave of bad news broke just as President Bush and Republicans were enjoying slight upturns in their approval ratings and prospects in the November 7 midterm congressional elections.

"We were on a bump up and then a whole bunch of things hit," said Republican pollster David Winston.

A survey Winston took last week found the sex scandal had not yet changed voter intentions or attitudes toward Republicans, but a Newsweek poll released on Saturday said Democrats had overtaken a long-held Republican advantage on the "moral values" issue.

Democrats are on a roll in the battle to control the public debate ahead of the election, when they must pick up 15 seats in the 435-member House of Representatives and six seats in the 100-member Senate to seize power.

When the Foley scandal broke, Bush and Republicans already were on the defensive over a National Intelligence Estimate that said the Iraq war had actually fueled Islamic extremism.

A new book by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post said the White House bungled the Iraq war and Bush misled Americans about the extent of violence.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John Warner of Virginia, added to the fire on Thursday after a trip to Iraq. He said the country had taken a step back and the United States might soon need to consider "a change of course" there.

A new Time magazine poll found a majority of Americans, 54 percent, thought Bush misled the country in making his case for the Iraq war, and a new AP/Ipsos poll gave Democrats an edge over Republicans in fighting terrorism -- usually a Republican strength.

'MAGIC RABBIT'

"It's now clear that Republicans can't count on security to be the magic rabbit they pull out of their hats this fall," said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Democratic committee in charge of Senate campaigns.

The influence-peddling scandal involving convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff also resurfaced, with a congressional committee report showing many White House contacts with Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud and is cooperating with a federal corruption probe.

An aide to White House political adviser Karl Rove resigned on Friday after the report said she passed inside information to Abramoff while accepting tickets to sporting events from him.

The string of events appeared to send Bush's approval rating sliding again into the mid to high 30s in several polls, after inching above 40 percent.

"This has been an absolutely miserable week for Republicans," pollster John Zogby said.

The Time poll showed almost 80 percent of those surveyed were aware of the sex scandal and only 16 percent approved of the way it was handled by Republicans.

The big Republican concern was that core conservative supporters would become disheartened after the scandal and stay home. Democrats, hoping the scandal would fire up their base, were already raising money off the latest Republican troubles.

"Republicans are on the run and we can put them down for the count by hitting them with everything we've got immediately," Democratic strategist James Carville said in a fund-raising pitch for the Democratic Senate campaign committee.

Doug Schoen, former pollster to Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the sex scandal would highlight the party's arguments about Republican abuses of power and corruption. But Democrats still need to focus on broader issues and the need for change in Washington, he said.

"The point has been made. The American people have gotten it," Schoen said. "What Democrats need to do is stress the need for fresh faces and a new approach."