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Hastert Unhinged
by Hunter
Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 01:51:05 AM PDT
From John Aravosis at AMERICAblog again, this pretty much sums up the
current state of affairs:
FACT: GOP staff, working for Republican Speaker Denny Hastert,
warned the page class of 2001-2002 to stay away from Foley - five years
ago.
FACT: Former chief of staff to GOP Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), Kirk
Fordham, says he warned Hastert's chief of staff of Foley's behavior
three years ago. Whether or not you believe Fordham, his testimony is
consistent with the other facts showing that the Republicans knew about
Foley's behavior long before last week.
FACT: Both Reps. John Boehner, the Republican House Majority Leader,
and Tom Reynolds both say they told Dennis Hastert personally about the
Foley issue months ago. Hastert says Boehner is lying. So one of the two
most powerful Republicans in the House is lying about an investigation
into a child sex predator. That deserves a separate investigation right
there.
FACT: Hastert's staff was informed of the Foley emails a year ago,
but Hastert would like us to believe his staff simply never told him
that a member of Congress, a member of his leadership team, was under
investigation for preying sexually on young children - children who
Hastert was responsible for.
Dennis Hastert, of course, has many theories on why he, his staff, Tom
Reynolds, his staff, and a host of other Republicans took absolutely no
action when they each heard multiple times, over the course of a year,
about Foley's behavior. Hastert's primary theory is that it was the
fault of the young victims, Bill Clinton, Democrats, and The Gays;
however, he's apparently now modified it to also blame Jewish investment
bankers, a move sure to ring true to his more Klan-supporting base
members, but which left the entire rest of the media and political
establishments shaking their heads (or trying to suppress laughter.)
He's also asserted that Foley's victims are against the war on
terrorism, which is pretty much the exact moment, for future reference,
when Hastert jumped the shark, becoming mere cartoon-like parody of
himself.
As an aside, I'm beginning to realize that having the Republican
leadership bolting to the Rush Limbaugh show or (when they need to slum
it down a bit) Hugh Hewitt is actually finally becoming a pretty good
thing, for Democrats. Rush makes them comfortable, and the mark (er,
guest) comes out with right-wing, nutcase statements that then get
broadcast around the country, by the press, to audiences distinctly less
inclined to hear their leaders acting like race-baiters, or imbeciles,
or blaming those soft, supple high school children for being so damn
attractive and sexually arousing.
There's been talk of what might be good or bad for the Republican Party,
but let's be honest here. Dennis Hastert is in this fight for exactly
one man: Dennis Hastert. What the Republican Party wants or doesn't want
doesn't enter into it. What the Democrats could or couldn't make hay
with doesn't enter into it. Hastert has been receiving far more
criticism from conservatives then from Democrats.
But this isn't about any lofty conservative principles, or constituents,
or any of the rest of that drivel -- this is about power. This is about
the willpower of a self-sustaining corruption, surviving only because of
uncomplicated Republican agreements that the House will no longer
investigate the House.
Hastert's actions in this cover-up, after all, are consistent with his
entire history as House leader. Along with DeLay's moblike attention to
patronages and retributions before him, Hastert's own "leadership"
behavior represents the core corruption problem of the House. Hastert's
the one who gutted the House Ethics committee in the first place, in an
effort to protect DeLay from the mounting inquiries and investigations.
After the indicted DeLay himself, Hastert's the poster child.
From the position of a partisan Democrat who wants to punish these
people deeply for their incompetence, cronyism, corruption, and general
malevolence, I'll admit it's a lot better for Democrats if Hastert
sticks around. This allows him to be used as the election-time story
device for retelling every act of Republican corruption that has
happened, in the last few years, and his role in protecting it or
helping to prevent its investigation. That's a lot of fodder, over the
next month, and Hastert has now made the complexities of those stories a
lot easier to tell, by virtue of this story, which is itself very easy
to tell.
From the rather more noble position of what's best for America, on the
other hand, I think we all recognize that America as a whole would be
best served if a corrupted and incompetent leader took a long hike, and
in days, not weeks. There are some things that should result in the end
of a career, politics aside, and if this isn't one of them, at long
last, I'm not sure what would be.
Dennis Hastert is, more than any other single man, responsible for the
GOP code of omerta surrounding DeLay, Burns, Ney, Abramoff, and every
other Republican indicted conspirator, co-conspirator, felon and, now,
predator. He is responsible for the very culture that prevented this
investigation, like he prevented all the others. Reynolds assisted him.
Boehner assisted him. His entire party, until that one match that burned
too hot, assisted him.
Despite Hastert's red-faced bluster, that's not the Democrats' fault.
That's not the fault of a Jewish banker, or those
oh-too-attractive-for-a-congressman-to-leave-alone young high school
students. Hastert could have taken care of this and every other GOP
scandal that has rocked the house at any time. He didn't, by House and
Republican design. Now it's a campaign issue. He blew it, not some cabal
of hidden enemies with the audacity to be outraged at it all. Reynolds
can hide behind all the preadolescent kids he wants, and Hastert can
continue to swat at imaginary enemies circling his head like pixies, but
nobody's buying it. They look like chumps because they are chumps.
Enough. When you've got not just the scary, scary Democrats, but
everyone from Bay Buchanan to Richard Viguerie to Michael Reagan to Tony
Blankley to National Review contributors to nearly every
non-Fox-affiliated media commenter calling the behavior of the GOP
leadership an embarrassment and a fiasco, that pretty much by definition
counts as a national consensus.
Just, enough.
/end
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
.
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