Denny Should Go

Does the Washington Times read this blog?

Okay, I'm being facetious, but only a little. Because it was only a few days ago that I wrote in this blog about House Speaker Denny Hastert's "handling" of Mark Foley's inappropriate behavior with Congressional pages that:

"House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL) not only knew about it but lied about it -- first saying that he only found out about it last week, then, according to the Washington Post account, changed his story and admitted that he'd know about Congressman Foley's fondness for ephebes for months. Will Denny Hastert take Congressman Foley's lead and resign for lying about this issue?"

Now the Washington Times is writing in its editorial page that:

"On Friday, Mr. Hastert dissembled, to put it charitably, before conceding that he, too, learned about the e-mail messages sometime earlier this year. Late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Hastert insisted that he learned of the most flagrant instant-message exchange from 2003 only last Friday, when it was reported by ABC News. This is irrelevant. The original e-mail messages were warning enough that a predator -- and, incredibly, the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children -- could be prowling the halls of Congress. The matter wasn't pursued aggressively. It was barely pursued at all. Moreover, all available evidence suggests that the Republican leadership did not share anything related to this matter with any Democrat."

They follow from these facts that:

"House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance."

So far so good -- as hard as it might be to believe, the Times and I are in perfect agreement on this issue. Who knew?

Now why is this important? Okay, it's a tacky scandal, but does it have a larger significance beyond the sad story of one creepy Congressman?

Well, yes it does. It has a symbolic significance. Speaker Hastert's behavior and the way he helped cover up this scandal and enable Rep. Foley's behavior is symbolic of the corrupt way Republicans do things in this Congress. Of the way that they put politics (in this case, trying to save a safe congressional seat in Florida) above principle (in this case, protecting children). Nothing could better point up the utter hypocrisy of Republicans pretending to be exemplars of moral values when all they care about is power than this shabby little scandal.

And coming as it does one month before the midterm election, it couldn't come at a more opportune time.

Tom Moran

Thanks to Robert A. George of Ragged Thots for bringing the Washington Times editorial to my attention.