Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press writes that national Democratic party leaders have "showed restraint" in the Foley mess. But local Democratic candidates are pounding the issue hard and, as we saw in the case of Patty Wetterling, pushing the bounds of this scandal as far as it will go.

One liberal group, American Family Voices headed by headed by ex-Clinton deputy Mike Lux, has been pumping out phone calls into the top 50 Republican-held districts around the country with pre-recorded messages telling voters that GOP leaders in Washington have "covered up for a child sexual predator."

There's a new AP-Ipsos poll out purporting to show just how badly voters have been turned off to Republicans because of the scandal, but the news story doesn't provide any specifics. But even without specifics, you know Foleygate is taking its toll. I'm told there will be a poll out this evening showing some bad news for Tom Reynolds in New York.

The question is whether there is any feasible way for Republicans to recover in time for the election and/or whether Democrats manage to incite a backlash by driving the issue so hard over the next four weeks. At this point if you're a Republican, it doesn't look very promising at all.