Posted on 10/04/2006 5:41:58 AM PDT by Matchett-PI
Sometime during the Autumn of 1986 I found myself sitting at the kitchen table of a member of the Illinois House of Representatives who was running for Congress.
The reason for being at that table with candidate Dennis Hastert was to rehearse for a debate with his Democratic opponent. Hastert won the debate and won the seat.
Shift forward 12 years. On December 19, 1998 I was sitting in a hotel room in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In 1998 the GOP, then led by Speaker Newt Gingrich, was supposed to pick up seats in that mid-term election, but ended up losing five despite Bill Clinton being in the throes of the Lewinsky scandal.
The day after that election, Newt found he had lost the confidence of his Republican colleagues and, two days later, announced he would not seek re-election to Speaker and would not take his House seat when the new Congress opened the next January.
Louisiana Congressman Bill Livingston had the inside track and, with Newt's announcement, became the Speaker-presumptive.
On this particular night - late morning, in Washington, DC - the House was taking up the matter of voting on the Articles of Impeachment which had been voted out of the House Judiciary Committee chaired, at the time, by senior Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde.
The atmosphere on the House floor, I knew, was toxic, and when I tuned in to CNN I expected to see angry Members on both sides making their case for or against impeaching a President for only the second time in US history.
The first thing I heard was about a "shocker Bill Livingston." Having no frame of reference, I feared he had been in an accident, or had been physically attacked. It was neither. He had announced he would not be standing for election as Speaker and, in fact, would be resigning from the House.
This was December 19, a little over two weeks before the new Congress was scheduled to be sworn in. The last thing a weakened GOP needed was a leadership fight as the Senate was preparing for the trial of President Clinton.
The phone in my hotel room rang and it was Newt. He said, approximately this: "I need you to call the guys you talk to and tell them it's going to be Hastert." The "guys" I talked to were national political reporters.
I asked him if he knew where I was. He said he knew I was out of town. "Out of town? I'm as far away from you as I can be and still be on the surface of the planet," I said.
"We can't have a vacuum for Speaker, so I need you to do this."
"Newt," I said, "there must be 10 press people within 20 feet of you. Have them do it."
"They won't get through," he said.
"What does that tell you about how we got to where we are?"
"This is not the time for that discussion," he said. "Will you do it?"
I said I would and hung up. The CNN Washington bureau chief in those days was Frank Sesno. I could see him on TV, so I waited until he left the set, called his office and told him what Newt had told me.
It was like that scene from "Broadcast News." He came right back on and told CNN's worldwide viewers what I had said.
I made the other calls and the race for Speaker was over more-or-less before it got started and Dennis Hastert was sworn in as Speaker of the House on January 6, 1999.
Yesterday, the Washington Times had an editorial calling for Hastert to resign and suggesting that Henry Hyde who "has a long and principled career, and is respected on both sides of the aisle" be the interim Speaker.
I don't have anything against Mr. Hyde, but it will not be lost on House Democrats that he chaired the Judiciary Committee which voted out the Articles of Impeachment and then led the House Managers in prosecuting the Articles during the Senate trial.
Henry Hyde, even though he is retiring, would not be the calming force the Washington Times editorial writers suggest.
For his part, Speaker Hastert has been a low-key but stalwart steward of the history, rules, and traditions of the House. Tom DeLay became the target of House Democrats in part because Hastert didn't give them any ammunition.
In Washington, this week, you would think that the Mark Foley scandal was the biggest thing to happen around here since 1812.
On that night in December of 1998, a President was being impeached; a Congressman renounced his claim on Speaker; and, the US was bombing Baghdad.
Nevertheless, the House righted itself. The Republic survived. And Dennis Hastert became a very good Speaker.
Losers are losers. It is not possible to save them from themselves, and DemocRATS have every justification to believe that they can manipulate them at will.
There are only two viable political parties. In only one of those parties do conservatives even have any voice at all. Unless we vote straight ticket to keep that political party in power, we not only will have no voice in the party we will be allowing to come back into power, but they will come back into power with a vengence to silence us everywhere.
THAT is just what is at stake in 2006.
Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way and keep your mouth shut if you can't support the only VIABLE party in which you have a voice.
Don't worry, he ain't, despite the DC beltway metrosexual thumbsuckers at NRO and Wash Times.
Please ping your lists.
Translation: Please give us more ammo
EVERYTIME, anything happens the dems yell for someone to resign. It is their standard op. Nam a time when they did not want someone to resign for something as long as it is a republican.
Let them yell and pay them no attention.
Moreover, why all the fuss over Hastern stepping down.
All the Democrats have to do is get some bogus indictment on him and he will have to step down.
That was a stupid editorial about a very stupid idea. Hastert is not guilty of anything at all. What do they want implemented up there on the Hill, a zero tolerance policy (the liberals love that "zero tolerance" stuff) toward any homosexual having any contact with young people, and particularly young men. Are we going to implement "sex patrols" for the Hill that will monitor the behavior of anyone who is deemed to be "suspect." Think of the squeals from the left.
The dems are very anxious to not let the conversation about the proclivities of homosexuals toward young men even be had. Bub Shrum yesterday was yelling, YELLING, that there was no evidence connecting homosexuas to an attraction to young people. OH REALLY!!!
Why did the Republicans and Hastert not investigate these emails more considering everyone knew foley was gay and here were these young male pages?
While I blame foley for being so self centered to risk all this, I also blame Hastert for not checking into all the types of situations the Dems could take advantage of. In this day and age, Hastert was that naive?
Rush or Glenn Beck are bound to get to the real scoop--maybe just before Nov. 7th. hehehehe
Please ping your lists. It is VITAL that we stay focused on the bottom line - and that's to make sure that the only VIABLE political party in which we have a voice stays in power. We cannot be distracted by the tactics of the political party that has no agenda that's good for America, but despises, and needs to silence our voices at all costs.
Shame on us if we are stupid enough to let them get away with it.
Heard someone on the radio this morning say that in Nancy Pelosi's district (San Francisco) it is not uncommon for underage boys to be in bars with gay men. Now, it seems to me that it would be easier for her to know about that than for Denny Hastert to know the contents of what Mark Foley is IM'ing in the privacy of his own home.
So, has Nancy Pelosi done anything to make sure that there are no boys under 18 in those gay bars?
The battle cry should be "What is Nancy doing to protect the children?"
See #10. There is only one bottom line. bttt
You do know that age of consent in DC is 16. You or I may not like it, but that's a fact. foley as of now, never e-mailed or IM'ed anyone under 16 and also foley's resignation is in clear contrast to pimp house barney frank's current prestige within the democrat party.
While the ones who are calling for Hastert's head(Tony Blankley and the Wash Times) have a sex scandal of their own. Their HR Director has been charged with trying to make actual contact with a 13 year old girl.
I don't need any convincing :)
I'm not a Democrat, I don't think like a Democrat, I don't have the same disgusting values as a Democrat, and if a real adult over 21 or a 50+ year old congressman/woman make a pass at or have any kind of sex with my 16/17 year old son or daughter, that adult will find out that the age of consent or their definition of the word is, failed to protect them from me.
Exactly. Whatever the RAT Party is screaming the loudest about is what they are guilty of themselves. We must stay on offense and not accept their phony premises.
Nancy Pelosi only has credibility with anti-American leftists who hate and fight against G. W. Bush while insisting on a terrorists' bill of rights.
Rush's idea for a bumper sticker says it all:
Hard on Bush - Soft on Terrorists
DemocRATS 2006
That self-respecting American patriots would allow someone who represents such ignoble mentalities to put them on defensive is ludricrous.
BUMP!!
They're taking on a tough,principled, Leader!!---NOT--- a lilly-livered, chicken-hearted, Bo Peep!
Way NOT to go!! Mr. Hastert
Washington Times---needs to get out of the Septic Tank--The disease of Liberalism can be contagious!!
Good evening, my darlings... You know I ain't goin' nowhere without y'all. Smootches................FRegards
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