Hastert Should Resign as Speaker
Not because of what he knew about Foley, which probably was not much. [If he did know the sordid details, he should resign from Congress entirely, surrender his pension, apologize profusely for ever having been in office to begin with, and then face the same criminal charges the likes of Roger Mahony should have faced years ago.]
He should resign because of what he didn’t know, and probably didn’t try hard enough to find out. Even if he did everything he could under the existing House rules – and I doubt that – there are times when a captain should go down with the ship rather than be the first to scramble for a lifeboat. Besides, any real reforms will have to come from a Congressman who understands that laws apply to Congressmen just like anyone else. By advancing his frivolous “separation of powers” argument in defense of William Jefferson, Hastert has already proven himself not to be that person.
Denny, it’s time for you to go.
October 3rd, 2006 at 6:58 pm
I’ll bet the reason Hastert didn’t pursue it is because he knew the media would come down on him like a ton of bricks for gay bashing. Instead of the MSM talking about how horrible these IM’s are, they would have been talking about how 16 is the age of consent in D.C. and how Hastert was only pursuing this because he hates gays. The MSM would have dredged up a half dozen Republican Congressmen that sent embarrassing emails to female pages and then badgered Hastert endlessly about why he never investigated these heterosexual Congressmen, only the poor, abused gay Congressman.
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Doc: I beg to differ. Hastert’s first reaction is to protect his fellow representatives and not necessarily just the GOP ones, as evidenced by Hastert’s jumping all over the FBI for raiding Jefferson’s office.
October 3rd, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Hastert’s from Illinois. Republican or Democrat, in Illinois the bagman visits them both. The only ones who get in trouble are the ones who don’t divide up the loot equally.
October 4th, 2006 at 8:54 am
[...] It’s also looking like the Republican leadership’s supposed knowledge that this was happening was mostly non-existent. [...]
October 6th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
As far as I can tell, the only reason Denny isn’t being forced out is the utterly malicious nature of the lefts attack. I thought he should have stepped down when he had the audacity to claim the FBE, (and by extension, any law enforcement agency) couldn’t exercise search warrants in the Capitol building.
That and his total inability to be… you know… The Speaker of the House.
October 6th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Federal Bureau of Envistigation – In case anyone was wondering…