I saw Hastert once when he brought a big delegation to Amsterdam and I was roped in to be part of the local greeting crew. He is just as impressive in person as he is on camera, LOL.
Hastert Fights to Overcome House Leadership Split (Update1)
By Jay Newton Small and Laura Litvan
Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert battled for political survival as Republican leaders fired at each other in a conflict fueled by new accusations over the handling of the Mark Foley sex scandal.
As Hastert wooed rebellious conservative groups, Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri became the third Republican leader to distance himself from the speaker, and a departing party staffer said he had told Hastert aides about Foley's inappropriate e-mails to teenage pages three years ago.
The scandal is dominating news coverage and providing voters with the spectacle of Republican leaders fighting with each other and diving for political cover little more than a month before Nov. 7 midterm elections in which they are struggling to maintain their control of both houses of Congress.
``It isn't dying down, it's going to continue to escalate,'' said Representative Jon Porter, a Nevada Republican who is facing a tough re-election race. ``People are just disgusted, and rightfully so.''
While Hastert persuaded at least one conservative group to suspend a call for his resignation, the scandal ``is going to have an impact,'' said Representative Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican. ``People are dismayed that our own leaders are not more committed to straightforward principles and human dignity.''
Kirk Fordham, chief aide to Representative Tom Reynolds, the head of the House Republican campaign organization, resigned amid accusations he tried to keep secret the torrid Internet messages that Foley sent to male teenage pages.
Inquiries
Fordham, who had formerly worked for Foley, denied trying to prevent an official investigation and told ABC News that he asked Hastert's aides in 2003 to intervene in Foley's contact with the pages, high school students who work as messengers on Capitol Hill.
``What Kirk Fordham said did not happen,'' responded Scott Palmer, Hastert's chief of staff.
Foley resigned his congressional seat Sept. 29 after ABC asked him about lurid communications with former House pages.
Amid the furor, Hastert and the Bush administration tried to shore up support among Christian voters. Conservative activist Paul Weyrich, president of the Washington-based Free Congress Foundation, said he reversed his call for Hastert to resign after getting a personal call from the speaker.
The efforts are unlikely to stem the tide of criticism about Hastert's handling of the issue. Some critics said he should have reacted more forcefully to protect the pages when he was informed of what Republicans said were ``overly friendly'' but not sexual e-mails Foley sent to a page in 2005.
Fund-Raiser Canceled
One lawmaker, Republican Ron Lewis of Kentucky, canceled a fund-raiser with Hastert until the facts of the Foley scandal are known, the Associated Press reported. A day earlier, Representative Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, one of the most vulnerable Republicans this November, canceled a scheduled fund- raiser with Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio.
In addition, Blunt, the No. 3 Republican, said he would have handled the issue differently than Hastert did had he known of Foley's conduct
``I could have given some good advice here, which is you have to be curious,'' Blunt said. ``You have to ask all the questions you can think of.''
Human Events, a conservative national weekly, will call on House Republicans to elect new leaders in an edition that goes to press today, said Tom Winter, the editor-in-chief. ``I don't think Hastert will be there much longer,'' Winter said.
Tom McClusky, vice president for government affairs at the Washington-based Family Research Council, said Hastert also contacted the group to discuss the scandal.
`Mishandled'
``It was definitely mishandled,'' McClusky said. ``It's a matter of trying to find out where it was mishandled.''
Hastert's office said last weekend that one of his top aides was told in the fall of 2005 by the office of Representative Rodney Alexander, a Louisiana Republican, about ``overly friendly'' e-mails that Foley sent to one of Alexander's pages.
Alexander later told Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, about the e-mails. Reynolds said he too alerted Hastert that Foley's messages had given a Louisiana page ``some discomfort.'' Hastert said he didn't remember the conversation.
No Democrats were informed about the e-mails. Democrat Dale Kildee of Michigan, a member of the board overseeing the page program, said he wasn't consulted about Foley's messages when Republicans first learned of them.
`Irritated'
Boehner said he told Hastert about Foley sending inappropriate e-mails to a page and believed Hastert was handling it.
Hastert, of Illinois, has said that after Republican leaders learned of e-mails Foley sent to a page, two officials confronted Foley and warned him against such contacts, resolving the issue in the way the youth's parents requested. Hastert has said leaders weren't aware of sexually explicit Internet text messages that became public the day Foley resigned.
Weyrich said it was clear in his conversation with Hastert that there is a rift now between the speaker and Boehner.
Hastert was ``irritated,'' Weyrich said, that Boehner told a radio station this week that he spoke to Hastert about Foley's ``overly friendly'' e-mails and considered it Hastert's ``responsibility.''
``I think Boehner gratuitously went out of his way to shaft the speaker,'' Weyrich said.
`Aggressive Advantage'
A spokesman for Boehner said he ``supports the speaker and the speaker enjoys the support of the conference.''
Vin Weber, a Republican Party strategist and former representative, said that Hastert may retain his job if he can recover the support of the party's conservative base quickly, yet new revelations about Foley's contacts with pages will make that more difficult.
Democrats in close House races are beginning to run TV ads attacking their Republican opponents over the scandal, and that may erode Hastert's support in the House, said Weber, a lobbyist at Clark and Weinstock in Washington. ``We're now about to go into the next phase, which is the Democrats taking very aggressive advantage of it,'' he said. |
