Duh

by DemFromCT

Apparently, the WaPo has noticed there's a Republican Speaker in the House.

With his affable demeanor and his open-door policy, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert remains unchallenged in the most powerful post in Congress, even as a growing corruption scandal roils the Republican leadership and more Congress-watchers say the speaker bears some responsibility for the troubles that have developed on his watch.

As details emerged about unsavory dealings between lobbyists and lawmakers -- including his top lieutenant, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) -- the House speaker stood on the sidelines. As DeLay's legal peril mounted, Hastert backed him at every turn, attempting to change House rules to allow an indicted leader to stay in power and even altering the leadership of the ethics committee, which had been exposing misconduct by the majority leader [emphasis mine].

Only now has Hastert publicly moved to address the ethics controversy, leading a push to tighten rules on lobbying and persuading Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) to temporarily relinquish the chairmanship of the House Administration Committee.

Although Hastert's job appears safe for now, there are rumblings among some lawmakers and aides that he waited too long to act -- and that his prior conduct has eluded close inspection, even when the speaker himself rubbed elbows with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients.

A culture of corruption means just that - and everyone in R leadership is involved. Hastert can only portray himself as a reformer if the press lies down and allows it. Kudos to Weisman for writing this. And let's help the WaPo and others remember when this story is forgotten that Hastert is smack in the middle of the Abramoff scandal. He's no more a reformer than Bush is a uniter.

Comments

[Tug]

So....we get the Illinois Democrats to re-dsitrict Hastert out of office the way deLay did in Texas.

Take them all down, one by one.

[clark]

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[richard]

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