This is a joke, right? It has to be. Or are two Republican congressmen being baited into a squabble that can only enhance the chances of the Democrat opponent in the general election.
  Columnist Laurie Roberts, no friend of any Republican, and the national Democrat leadership would love to capture this Arizona seat for their party. But it should be a loser to anyone who touches it. How low do you have to go to turn a late night swim in the waters that Jesus is supposed to have walked on, into something dirty? I am not religious, but even I would “take a dip” in the Sea of Galilee if the chance presented itself.
   As Democrats scramble for any cover from political fallout due to the Obama economy, Roberts attempts to put a salacious spin on an event by innuendo and a wink. That six GOP freshman congressmen went for a late night swim in the Sea of Galilee is not in question. But to infer that it borders on blasphemy, and comparing it to a “frat boy” lark, is scraping the bottom to find something – anything – with which to strike back at her conservative tormentors.
  Roberts gets her basic plot from the story from the “Politico” website which sites “multiple unnamed sources and eyewitness accounts.” Two of those “eyewitnesses” are Republican Rep. Ben Quayle, himself, and his 8 month pregnant (at the time) wife. Would Roberts call them liars for their assertion that he had one glass of wine, his pregnant wife none, and that he wore shorts into the water and was gone, because she was tired, before anyone else ventured in.
  Is Roberts shocked that congressmen actually drink alcohol? Her tone implies a drunken party, without proof. It implies something dirty about the state of dress – or undress – of the men during the swim, which took place in the dark, in the middle of the night.
  Nothing about this event is newsworthy. In fact, it is so ridiculous that Rep. David Schweikert, Quayles opponent in the primary, should disavow any interest in it, lest he be caught up in some backlash from a generally Christian populace who only wish they might have a chance to emerse themselves in the waters of such a holy site. The Dems are scratching for anything to cling to to gain this House seat. For a Republican to aid that effort is intollerable.