Man Without a Party

Here is an interesting item from the Best of the Web Column:

"Man Without a Party

The Great and General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is
considering passing a "Jessica's law." Named after 12-year-old Jessica
Lunsford, who was raped and murdered by a repeat sex offender, the
proposed law would require a mandatory 20-year prison sentence for
anyone convicted of raping a child under 12.

The Boston Herald reports that Rep. James Fagan is a critic of the legislation:

Fagan, a defense attorney, infuriated victims' rights
advocates during a recent House debate when he said he would "rip
apart" 6-year-old victims on the witness stand and "make sure the rest
of their life is ruined."

In a fiery soliloquy on the House floor, Fagan said he'd
grill victims so that, "when they're 8 years old they throw up; when
they're 12 years old, they won't sleep; when they're 19 years old,
they'll have nightmares and they'll never have a relationship with
anybody."

Fagan did not return calls seeking comment.

What political party does Fagan belong to? The Herald doesn't say, but we'll give you three guesses."

This would be a great and readily doable research project. All you would have to do is have one set of coders classify as favorable or unfavorable and another note the number of mentions of the subject politician's party, ranging from 0 on up. You could analyze be newspaper and party affiliation of the political figure. It seems so obvious that I am afraid that someone has done it before.