A Look At This Week's Newsstand

Today was a federal holiday, so most US subscribers to the major newsweeklies will have to wait another day before receiving the latest issues. The covers, however, have been online since early Sunday morning, and have already been major blog-bait.

The dominant story this week: Foleygate.

This is Newsweek's cover. Very clever, I think - especially that frowny-face smiley in place of the 'O'. Though, for the sake of historical accuracy, they should've used an authentic AIM emoticon:

A face that looks strikingly like Mark Foley anyway.

This is Time depicting "the end of the Republican revolution" with the hindquarters of an elephant, the party's traditional symbol. Again, a very arresting, very apt image.

But not the original cover. I have a friend at Time who told me they toyed around with a slightly different concept before settling on the elephant rear:



Now that's a memorable cover. But I guess the Time folks thought it would too disturbing for middle America. Pity.

The Foley scandal is one of those unique political soap operas that grabs the attention of publications that don't normally provide extensive coverage of national affairs. A magazine like People, for instance - which happens to have a major scoop related to this story:



Continuing the elephant theme, even National Geographic has a cover piece that seems connected to the Foley scandal:



What genius will next week's mags bring? Stay tuned.