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A number of U.S. congressmen and their families — including former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert — have personally profited from congressional earmarks they slipped into federal legislation, a FOX News documentary reveals. The documentary, “Porked: Earmarks for Profit,” hosted by Chris Wallace, premieres Sat., May 31, at 8 p.m. EDT on FOX News Channel. Budget earmarks became a national scandal — and a national joke — after some wasteful schemes made headlines recently: a $223 million “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska, a $500,000 teapot museum in North Carolina, a $10 million extension to Coconut Road in Florida. Many...

Mar 11 2008 Loss of Hastert Seat is Proof Conservatives Are Prepared to Sit Out This Year …It’s a wakeup call for John McCain… By Richard A. Viguerie Republicans’ loss of the House seat held for two decades by former Speaker Dennis Hastert is proof that conservatives are prepared to sit out the 2008 elections. Instead of contributing and volunteering, conservatives are closing their checkbooks and staying home.  Liberals and Democrats are enthusiastic to a degree not seen in decades, and grassroots conservatives are sitting on their hands. This is a wakeup call for John McCain.  Since securing the nomination,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The disgraced Eliot Spitzer had hardly resigned as governor of New York when Republican strategists began calculating a return to power in Albany via New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Lt. Gov. David Paterson, Spitzer's successor as governor, is considered a weak prospect for the 2010 election and might not even be the Democratic nominee. Bloomberg, finishing two successful terms as mayor in 2009, might find life as a private citizen boring enough to try for governor. Bloomberg, who changed his affiliation from Republican to independent, could obtain the Independence Party nomination for governor, and then be endorsed...

Saturday's special election has left area Republicans stunned, and some of them are directing their ire at Jim Oberweis and his campaign. Democrat Bill Foster defeated Oberweis by roughly 5,000 votes Saturday to become the new congressman in the 14th District. That seat has only been held by a Democrat once, immediately after Watergate, and has been in the hands of retired Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert for the past 21 years. The 14th District has long been considered a Republican stronghold. So how did Foster, a scientist and businessman from Geneva, muster enough votes to win?

CHICAGO -- Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today named two of the state’s most influential leaders, former Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert and Southern Illinois University (SIU) President and former U.S. Congressman Glenn Poshard, as co-chairs of the newly created Illinois Works Coalition. The new bipartisan working group will draw expertise from business, labor and local leaders across the state and will focus on helping pass a statewide infrastructure plan in Illinois. Last month in his annual budget address, Gov. Blagojevich proposed Illinois Works, a $25 billion capital plan, as the central piece of a statewide stimulus package aimed...

Democrat Bill Foster’s victory over Republican Jim Oberweis in Saturday’s special election in Illinois is evidence of the clamor for change in the countryside? Perhaps. Are exurban Chicagoans disgusted with Washington? Yes, they are. But there were some uniquely local factors that were more decisive. This was Oberweis’ fourth run for high office since 2002. Over the past six years, he has turned in more stale, lackluster, straight-to-video performances than Matthew McConaughey. The dairy magnate’s gaffe-filled campaigns have demonstrated one thing clearly: he has exponentially more personal wealth than good sense. He burst onto the scene in 2002 running for...

The retirement of Dennis Hastert, the former Speaker of the House, has led to the loss of his seat from the Republican ranks. In a low-turnout special election, political newcomer Bill Foster beat Jim Oberweis to win the seat for the Democrats. The loss leaves the GOP looking even more impotent in Illinois than ever before (via Memeorandum): In a stunning upset Saturday that could be a sign of trouble for Republicans this fall, a little-known Democratic physicist won the special election for a far west suburban congressional seat long held by former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert.Rookie candidate Bill...

A longtime Republican district fell to the Democrats Saturday when a wealthy businessman and scientist snatched former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's congressional seat in a closely watched special election. Democrat Bill Foster won 52 percent of the vote compared to 48 percent for Republican Jim Oberweis. With 565 of 568 precincts reporting, Foster had 51,140 votes to Oberweis' 46,270.

FOR REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS - 14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (Vote for 1) Votes % of Votes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Oberweis 4332 52.86% Bill Foster 3798 46.35%

Voters in former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's district will choose a new congressman in a special election Saturday, but there's one thing they won't replace: his clout. Hastert funneled millions of dollars to the district during his 21 years in Washington, but his retirement means his seat will go to either Democrat Bill Foster or Republican Jim Oberweis _ two wealthy businessmen with no seniority on Capitol Hill. "That's something he (Hastert) had to earn. It will be a learning curve for whoever gets in there," said William Barclay, an alderman in the Chicago suburb of Geneva. Democrats are eager...

Update: Special Election Saturday in the 14th Congressional Race to Replace GOP Former House Speaker Hastert. . . Oberweis vs. Foster Posted by: mcpundit | February 28th, 2008 | Category: HASTERT RACE McPundit Comment: Back in July, we had an exclusive that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was retiring as our source told us his staff had been informed to start looking for jobs; but also in July, Hastert said, “I’m running”. In October, he said he said he didn’t plan to retire; and then SURPRISE, HE WAS JUST KIDDING, he not only announced his retirement but he was also...

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert questioned John McCain’s Republican credentials today, saying he was always known among the GOP as “the undependable vote” in the Senate and always “allied with Democrats.”

GRAND BLANC -- On the evening before Michigan's primary, Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert had words of encouragement for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign volunteers. "You're work getting people to the polls and getting them to check the right delegate has paid off," Hastert told about 20 campaign volunteers and supporters Monday at Romney's Grand Blanc campaign operations center, 5225 E. Cook Road. "We can't do it without folks like you." Hastert -- who also has worked with Republican presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and John McCain during his political career -- said Romney has the background and...

In his retirement speech on the floor Thursday afternoon, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said his heart will always be in the House and called for greater civility in the lower chamber. The former Speaker thanked his wife, Jean, who was in the chamber, and also recognized the dean of the House, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.). After Hastert was introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), members rose and applauded him for several minutes. Senate GOP leaders Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Trent Lott (Miss.) attended the speech and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) wiped away tears as Hastert spoke. Hastert...

Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, who served as House speaker longer than any other Republican, bade farewell to his colleagues Thursday, confirming that he will not complete his 11th term. Hastert, 65, did not say exactly when he will resign, but indicated it will be soon. He said his speech would be his last from the House floor. The 110th Congress will end in January 2009. He later told reporters, "I think I'll be gone by the first of the year." In his 16-minute address, Hastert recounted his career's high points, concluding: "It's time for this legislator to return to being...

The Roll Call newspaper in Washington reported on its website this evening that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois intends to resign his House seat later this year. The subscription-only site said Hastert, who had already announced he would not seek reelection in 2008, was calling friends and associates today and telling them of his decision. His early departure would create the need for a special election in his exurban Chicago district, possibly on Illinois' Feb. 5 presidential primary day. The 65-year-old former high school teacher and wrestling coach, first elected to the U.S. House in 1986 after six...

Aurora Republican state Sen. Chris Lauzen will announce today his plans to run for Congress, seeking the seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert. "The reason why I'm running is I'd like to serve my neighbors by continuing to provide the best constituent service at home and then to reinforce those people in Washington who are using good judgment," Lauzen told the Daily Herald on Tuesday. The pending retirement of Hastert, the former Republican House speaker, is attracting a crowd in both the Republican and Democratic parties. On the Democratic side, Geneva scientist and businessman Bill Foster is...

Denny Hastert never met a problem he couldn’t solve. He was so good at legislating that it’s possible he would have been just as successful in his career had he never been Speaker at all. That is to say, Denny didn’t need the gavel to lead, but to a greater degree than many know, Congress needed him to govern. He was as committed a conservative and as loyal a Republican as I ever met, and yet principled liberals and partisan Democrats never had a harsh word for him. Whether as a back-bencher, as my chief deputy whip, or as Speaker...

WASHINGTON -- It is indicative of the bias that gusts through our media that when the most successful political strategist in memory, Karl Rove, retires from his powerful position in the Bush White House, the press reports his departure tsk-tskingly. Somehow Rove's departure must suggest his failure and disgrace. Or as some nitwit anchoring the midday CNN news broadcast, "Your World Today," put it when I was walking past a television monitor, "Does that mean the Bush administration is essentially over?" And we are told FOX News is biased. What about stupid? Well, who has been a finer political strategist...

(CBS) CHICAGO Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is in Asia, but he's scheduled a news conference in Kendall County for Friday. CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports exclusively sources say that they expect Hastert to announce he will not seek re-election next year. In personal terms, it's been a big year for him and wife, Jean. Denny Hastert turned 65, and the couple just welcomed their first grandchild, Jack Hastert, to the family. He also had to surrender the speaker's gavel to a Democrat. While sources tell CBS 2 that he’s leaving Congress after 22 years, he’s ridiculed...

The congressional retirement season has started, and it appears former Speaker Dennis Hastert may soon announce his own plans to ride off into the sunset. The Illinois Republican sent supporters a letter over the weekend asking them to join him for a speech this Friday at the Kendall County Courthouse in Yorkville, Ill. The letter does not say whether he'll run for reelection in 2008 or announce his retirement, but speculation skews heavily toward retirement. And neither Hastert nor his aides have done much to dispel the widely accepted opinion back home that he'll call it quits. For example, an...

The US House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday afternoon condemning a British call to boycott Israeli universities. The measure, approved 414 to 0, urged the European Union and governments around the world to reject the call by the leadership of the University and College Union of the United Kingdom to cease cooperation with Israeli institutions. The resolution describes the "senseless" boycott as "a dangerous assault on the principles of academic freedom and open exchange" and a move that "contributes to the deligitimization and demonization of the state of Israel." The resolution was the first bill freshman Representative Patrick...

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert "has indicated to a close former aide that it is likely he will not run for a 12th term from his northern Illinois district and may even resign from Congress before his present term concludes," Robert Novak reports. "That runs counter to widespread speculation on Capitol Hill that Hastert will continue in the House for another two years as a private member with no leadership responsibilities. Since last year's Democratic takeover of Congress moved him out of the speaker's office, he has enjoyed returning to his former specialty of energy issues as a member of...

Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will decide in a few weeks if he is going to seek another term, the Sun-Times has learned. Hastert, 65, is considering retiring, said chief of staff Mike Stokke. "I think that is a possibility," Stokke said. Stokke said Hastert "believes he needs to let people know by the next recess," referring to a congressional break in August. Hastert, who was the longest-serving GOP speaker before the Republicans lost the House in 2006, would be tempted to run again if he had work remaining on energy, health care, trade and anti-drug issues, Stokke...

Governor Mitt Romney Announces Support of Former Speaker Dennis Hastert Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007 Boston, MA - Today, Governor Mitt Romney announced that former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) will be joining the Romney for President Exploratory Committee. "I am honored to have the support of Speaker Hastert. As a leader in our Party and former Speaker, his long and continued career of service has been marked by a deep commitment to improving the lives of the American people. Under his leadership, Congress passed the most significant tax relief in a generation, and in...

Sources inside former Gov. Mitt Romney's camp tell The Politico that they've picked up yet another major Washington endorsement: former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. The Illinoisan is set to publicly endorse Romney today. Romney has cultivated the congressional wing of the GOP in an effort to cast himself as the consensus alternative to Sen. John McCain. Although the former Speaker is now just a rank-and-file member of the House, his support of Romney is a strong indicator of where much of the anti-McCain Republican establishment is headed. Also helpful to Team Mitt, Hastert still retains significant goodwill within the House...

It sounds like Iraq or some other foreign land, but it happened on U.S. soil last week. Outside Sasabe, Ariz., a band of armed assailants stormed a National Guard border post and forced the Guardsmen to retreat without a shot. It was a personal affront to the Guardsmen, who should never have been in the unnatural position of being incapable of defending themselves in the first place. But they were, thanks to the Bush administration's look-tough, act-weak immigration policy. *snip* It's past time to rethink this policy of placing Guardsmen at the border but defanging them with overly restrictive rules...

For a change it’s the Republicans who have some soul-searching to do after the elections. There is no doubt that the Republicans failed to control spending, failed to control illegal immigration, and failed to reform social security. Nevertheless, the biggest failure of the Republican Party has been communication with the American people. Ronald Reagan was the Great Communicator. George Bush can’t connect subject and predicate . Bill Frist looks like a doctor telling his patient that she has cancer and Denny Hastert just looks like he wants directions to the local pub. In spite of the proverbial six year itch,...

It?s pretty late at night and I?m not going to go into a lot of research but a rumor has been bubbling up that should be recorded ? even if it?s knocked down later as more information comes due. The rumor, substantiated by a number of people I?ve talked to who know the Denny Hastert people personally is this: Denny Hastert has determined to resign before his term as Speaker expires ? for one reason only. When you step down as Speaker your pension is calculated on your level of pay and Speaker?s pay is a lot more than that...

Hastert Will Step Down Exclusive: The Speaker bows out of the Republican leadership after Democrats take his power. The contest to succeed him will help define the Republican Party in a new era of divided government. By MIKE ALLEN/WASHINGTON House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will not seek reelection to the Republican leadership when his members return as a minority party after taking heavy losses in Tuesday's elections, a Republican official tells TIME. Hastert, 64, a low-key former high school wrestling coach, was beloved by members as a "good cop," compared to the enforcer style of the longtime number two leader,...

Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., told fellow Republican lawmakers on Wednesday he does not intend to run for minority leader when Democrats take control of the House in January, officials said. Hastert conveyed word in a conference call one day after Republicans lost control of the House in midterm elections. The officials who described Hastert's plans did so on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a formal announcement. His decision to step down cleared the way for a likely succession battle. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the majority leader, is expected to run, and Reps. Mike Pence...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) today commented on tomorrow's White House signing of the Secure Fence Act passed by the Republican Congress. "Our borders constitute the first line of defense in protecting the American people from terrorists. Last July I met with border security agents and other federal and local officials during my visit to the border, and I promised them we would address this national security crisis. The Republican Congress has responded to the American people's demand for a secure border by increasing the physical barriers and infrastructure along the...

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Dennis Hastert testified in private before ethics investigators Tuesday and then said they should work quickly to find out who knew about Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record)'s come-ons to congressional pages and what was done about it. Hastert spoke briefly after his closed-door testimony to the House ethics committee that is trying to pin down when he and his staff learned about Foley's actions. "I answered all the questions they asked to the best of my ability," Hastert said after testifying for almost three hours. "I also said that they need to move quickly...

Pelosi Doesn't Understand War on Terror, Hastert Says By Susan Jones CNSNews.com Senior Editor October 24, 2006 (CNSNews.com) - The United States cannot win the global war on terror if U.S. leaders don't understand it -- and Rep. Nancy Pelosi does not understand it, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said on Tuesday. Hastert -- who holds the job that Pelosi is eager to assume -- was reacting to Pelosi's remarks on the CBS program "60 Minutes." He said her comments should serve as a "bellwether" for the American people. "Democrat Leader Pelosi would trust the terrorists to give up their objective...

ROME - A Roman Catholic diocese has opened an investigation of a priest who said he fondled and shared saunas while naked with Mark Foley when the former U.S. congressman was a boy in Florida. In interviews in the past two days, the Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 69, who is now retired and lives on the Maltese island of Gozo, has given different details about his encounters with Foley four decades ago. On Wednesday, he told the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune by telephone that he massaged the boy in the nude, was naked in the same room on overnight trips with him...

The Washington Post, yesterday, posted a story raising questions about a House rules change that clearly delineates a line of succession should the Speaker of the House be unable to take his place as the third in line to succeed the president in a state of emergency or vacancy. In keeping the the liberal mantra that the Republican leadership is the most "secretive" ever, the Post seemed worried that the House rules change is somehow a danger to American democracy because the persons chosen by Speaker Hastert to succeed him has not been made public knowledge. The Post's story over...

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) shows no sign of resigning over the Mark Foley-House page scandal. But the mere suggestion that he might do so raises an intriguing political and constitutional question: Who would replace him while Congress is in recess? The answer, it appears, is on a piece of paper locked away in the House clerk's office. In a little-noticed action taken nearly four years ago, the House amended its rules dealing with the "continuity of Congress" in emergencies and the succession of speakers. The rule, cited recently in Roll Call, directs the speaker to "deliver to the...

CHICAGO -- President Bush stood shoulder-to-shoulder with embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Thursday, offering a powerful boost in his moment of need and declaring the country "better off" with Hastert in power. "I am proud to be standing with the current speaker of the House who is going to be the future speaker of the House," Bush said as he opened a speech to raise money for two Illinois congressional candidates. The $1.1 million fundraiser provided the first picture of Bush with Hastert since a scandal broke involving a Republican congressman pursuing underage male pages. Although the president has...

  Dog At Large!April 7, 2005 The Devil once made an offer to former Clinton lackey, Sandy Berger.  The Devil visited Berger's office and made him an offer. "I can arrange some things for you,” the devil said. " I’ll get you a top level security clearance; I’ll give you your 15 minutes of pathetic fame; I’ll make you the best liar in the world and I’ll let you get away with being a despicable scumbag. All I require in return is that your wife's soul, your children's souls, their children's souls and your country’s soul rot in hell for eternity." Berger...

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, with his job on the line because of the spiraling Mark Foley cyberspace page sex scandal, was duped Tuesday into letting a stranger into his Plano home -- a serious security breach. Hastert literally let his guard down and allowed in his house a hustling, self-promoting evangelist little known in this country, the Houston-based K.A. Paul, who at 7:30 a.m. arrived at the speaker's home with a camera-wielding associate. How Paul and his aide, Dennis Ryan, got to Hastert's door is a tale of apparent chance. How the publicity-hungry Paul and Ryan walked through it...

The Republican candidate who's trying to unseat Democratic Rep. Tom Allen on Tuesday called for the resignation of GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert over the congressional page sex scandal.Darlene Curley said Hastert has allowed attention to be drawn away from important issues facing Congress through his "failure to investigate the issue properly." The FBI is conducting a criminal investigation and the House ethics committee is investigating any potential violations of standards of conduct following the resignation of Florida Rep. Mark Foley's over his come-ons to male pages. Regardless of the outcome, Hastert should step down anyway, because he has...

Pundits glued to their Potomac seats, applying their usual Beltway explanations for everything that happens in America, would have it that House Speaker Dennis Hastert bollixed up the House page scandal because he is an unredeemed Republican partisan. Or that he doesn't care enough about congressmen hounding boys. Or that his conservatism made him do it.Blind partisanship, moral failings, hypocrisy, gay bashing or any of those other explanations that don't come close to the reality that Hastert was simply doing politics as it is practiced here, in Illinois.Hastert knows no other way, having been bred, born and raised in the...

A former five-term Boston city councilor pleaded not guilty today in Lawrence District Court to charges that he tried to seduce who he thought was a 15-year-old boy with sexually explicit instant Internet messages. David Scondras, 60, is accused of using the name "Topdadd" to send graphic photographs and sexual messages to a man who identified himself as a 15-year-old. Lawrence police arrested Scondras on Monday in the parking lot of a charter school where authorities say he had arranged to meet who he thought was a teenager. communicating with a 20-year-old security guard who alerted an officer after he...

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Tuesday he'll dismiss anyone on his staff found to have covered up concerns about ex-Rep. Mark Foley's approaches to former pages. Hastert said he huddled with his staff members last week and he believes they acted appropriately in handling information on Foley's conduct. But he also issued them a stern warning: "If they did cover something up, then they should not continue to have their jobs." The FBI is conducting a criminal investigation and the House ethics committee is investigating any potential violations of standards of conduct. Timeline pushed back Meanwhile, Rep. Jim...

Fox News on Air Story

Per Fox News: After addressing a group in Aurora, IL, Speaker Hastert will answer questions. He is currently speaking to the group, and the question and answer part will start thereafter.

(2006-10-09) — In the wake of the weekend detonation of North Korea’s first atomic bomb, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, called for the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL. “It’s important that lawmakers keep the main thing the main thing,” said Rep. Pelosi. “We can’t get so distracted by debates about North Korea’s sovereignty that we forget that Dennis Hastert is still on the loose, indirectly endangering America’s children.” The timing of the atomic bomb test raises questions, she said, about when President George Bush first knew of former Rep. Mark Foley’s lurid instant message chats with teenage...

Gary C. Knapp for The New York Times“That is the problem we have in society. Nobody polices anybody. Everybody has a ‘right’ to do whatever.”DAVID THOMAS, Father, Norfolk, Va. VIRGINIA BEACH, Oct. 7 — As word of Representative Mark Foley’s sexually explicit e-mail messages to former pages spread last week, Republican strategists worried — and Democrats hoped — that the sordid nature of the scandal would discourage conservative Christians from going to the polls. But in dozens of interviews here in southeastern Virginia, a conservative Christian stronghold that is a battleground in races for the House and Senate, many...

A poll conducted for Eyewitness News 4 shows that most Americans are calling for Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert to resign in the wake of the Mark Foley page scandal. Foley resigned from Congress last week after admitting to sending explicit instant messages to underage pages. SurveyUSA, which serves television stations throughout the country including KOB-TV, asked 1,000 adults whether Hastert should resign as speaker, resign from Congress or stay put. In all, 43 percent say Hastert should resign from Congress, while another 20 percent want him to resign from his leadership position. 27 percent say he should remain...

It is time to take seriously the possibility that the Democrats will assume control of the House of Representatives in the elections next month. The breaking of the Mark Foley scandal on the last day of the congressional session-Who held on to the incriminating instant messages until this strategic delivery date?-put the Republican leadership on the defensive and changed the political landscape. Speaker Dennis Hastert was right just to warn Foley off communicating with former pages when informed in 2005 of the "over friendly" E-mails that the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald independently concluded were so innocuous as to...