Well, This Happened
Just just heard on the electric teevee that former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been indicted.
A statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago says the 73-year-old Illinois Republican is accused of structuring the withdrawal of $952,000 in cash in order to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions over $10,000. He’s also accused of lying to the FBI.
Let me tell you the last time I saw Dennis Hastert. It was on January 11, 2011, when he was the sole character witness at Tom DeLay’s sentencing hearing in Austin, Texas. Hastert said that DeLay was never motivated by power, but that he just liked to help people. Snickering could be heard throughout the courtroom.
Hastert arrived just as the court was called to order and left immediately after his testimony, obviously and openly trying to avoid DeLay.
I wonder if DeLay will testify for him?
UPDATED: Holy cow! Holy cow! Check this out:
Around 2010, Hastert met with the person several times and discussed past misconduct by Hastert. Eventually, Hastert agreed to pay the person $3.5 million in compensation and to conceal unspecified misconduct, the indictment said.
Hastert is a former wrestling coach. What possible “past misconduct” could we be talking about?
The meeting to arrange the payoff was in 2010, so when Hastert testified for DeLay’s character he was already agreeing to be extorted for $3.5 million. Honey, whatever he did must have been a doozy.
Republicans. I hate them.
Saw this on-line about a half-hour ago myself!! Serves him right … just another of those schmucks!! LOL
1From Illinois so this has to be Obama’s fault as well.
Wingnut family values they aren’t what they used to be
2All wingnuts go to hell because of Hussein Obamy.
Texas has produced its loonies like Louie Gohmert, but Illinois is no slouch when it comes to producing crooked pols. Not exactly a point of pride, just a simple fact.
3Why am I not surprised? As for the past misconduct, don’t worry. It will pop up like kudzu and take over the news cycle.
4Just waiting for “Individual A” and the unspecified conduct to come out. So Hastert gets taken to the cleaners trying to cover it up, gets indicted, and I bet it comes out anyway.
>>Hastert unexpectedly became speaker in 1999, after Newt Gingrich resigned from the House following a terrible election year for the GOP in 1998, and Rep. Bob Livingston, his designated successor, also resigned following revelations that he’d had an affair.
During his tenure, Hastert was widely regarded as a figurehead, with real power residing in Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, whose career ended amid corruption allegations.
–DailyKos
A real parade of winners there.
5Someone has suggested that Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” be rewritten as “Republican Bites the Dust”…. not that we’re gloating, because gloating is so unattractive.
Just for info, that song is a good one to sing while doing CPR because it’s just the right tempo. But you might not want to let friends and family of the patient hear you singing it. The BeeGees’ “Stayin’ Alive” works too.
6The adage is two things ruin a male politicians career getting caught in bed with a live boy or dead girl, looks like the former for Hastert.
7Rhea, you just gave me my best laugh of the day.
8Dead girls?
Live boys?
Definitely something worth 3.5 million to keep secret.
9PKM: My thoughts, exactly. Whatever he did, it was bad enough that he paid all the money to keep it under the rug and continue to cash in on his “public serve” as a lobbyist.
I wonder how long it will be before the firm thay pays him cuts him loose and disavows any knowledge of him?
10Oh Boy! You wouldn’t suppose it might be another one of those “In The Closet” Gay Old Party Republicans that like to wrestle with young boys would you?
Speaker Dennis Hastert did room with former Rep Tom Reynolds in DC, and when Hastert’s wife was in DC she stayed in a hotel. He also roomed with his chief of staff Scott Palmer, andand top deputy, Mike Stokke. Stokke, Hastert’s deputy chief of staff and chief political operative, has a history with the speaker that dates to 1981, when Hastert was a freshman state legislator and Stokke was a college intern in the legislative liaison office for the Illinois Department of Conservation
Rep Tom Reynolds had an openly gay chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, and talked Mark Foley into running for re-election before it was revealed that the gay Florida Republican had sent inappropriate emails to a teenage House page. After retiring he worked as a lobbyist for American Unity Fund, in an effort to win Republican support for gay rights issues…
Does that set off your Gaydar?
11If I was a betting woman I would put money on sexual misconduct (bc it refers to the time he was a coach and his association with the person he was paying off is alleged to have been through out that persons life) I’d put a strong side bet on drugs, I can’t remember the name of the FBI whistle blower gal who alleged that she was translating wire taps she heard a drug dealer mentioning elected officials.
I’d also like to know where the heck Hastert got that kind of money.
I like @Rhea’s idea! “Another re-thug bites the dust!”
I can hardly wait to see the clips on John Stewart!
12Yeah, I read the indictment on Mother Jones. I do that sort of thing for fun because I’m a Writ Twit.
13Rhea said, “The BeeGees’ “Stayin’ Alive” works too.”
No. The BeeGees don’t work for anything. I hate the BeeGees.
Just sayin . . .
14Oooh, thanks, Rhea. Now that song is stuck in my head (good thing I like it).
Marcia in CO — thanks to republican shenanigans, you’re having way too much fun with that word, although I can’t think of a more appropriate or more accurate one. Good job!
Does anybody in the salon wish that once — just once — you could say you were surprised by republican crap? I know I never am, even though I know that gloating is a very low human emotion.
15Funny thing is, Denny was always regarded as an amiable go-along, get-along guy during his time in the Illinois House and the U.S. House. Sort of a “leader by default” – not a sly wheeler-dealer out beyond ethical bounds. First saw him in Springfield when he arrived in 1980. The last time was September 12, 2001 – the day after 9/11 – when he was seated at a table of four, having dinner at a restaurant in the district across the dining room from my wife and me. A couple of strapping federal bodyguards sat a couple tables away, not eating and glaring around at the dozen or so other diners. It seemed surreal at the time, but not as surreal as the bizarre behavior of Dubya’s administration during the rest of its first term. And Denny, a guy I had admired heretofore, had turned into a willing co-conspirator. Now this.
16And the thought hit both of us that we were sitting in that room with the person third in line for the presidency. The restaurant is a long-time favorite for fried chicken. That night at least, Denny didn’t choke on his chicken.
17I’m sorry (NOT!) that my very favorite word for several years has been “Schadenfreude.” Turns out that it was listed in this year’s Spelling Bee (which just ended in a tie for the second year in a row).
Seriously: Do we ever tire of Rethugs getting caught in the cookie jar/with their pants down?
18“Do we ever tire of Rethugs getting caught in the cookie jar/with their pants down?”
Well, no, not if they’re also massive hypocrites who condemned everybody else for what they were doing all along. But it does get just a *little* bit old when it happens again and again and again, so that you’re just waiting for the inevitable when one of them gets up on his high horse and starts pointing fingers at other people.
19This has Jack Nicholson movie written all over it. A tip O’ the Hat to the Speaker. Republicans, the brand that keeps on giving
20(long after you wish they’d jes’ go home).
Hey, up here around D.C. it is already showing up on the teevee as sexual misbehavior. The other party was either way too young or married or both.
21I’d go along with Nicholson as he has ruined every movie he has appeared in. Nicholson was jumping the shark before the shark had a clue.
Hastert’s friends will complain the charges are too old and wingnuts never pursue Dems on old charges,unless it is…….
22Just for the record, Hastert was a classroom teacher primarily. He also coached wrestling. He associated with many students, boys and girls and other school staff. Speculation about his past, until all is revealed, is silly and maybe waaaay off the mark. Get a grip folks.
23@ maggie – From the Chicago Tribune last night:
“While details of the relationship and Hastert’s alleged wrongdoing were not provided, the indictment clearly indicated that Hastert’s early career at Yorkville High School was material to the charges, Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor, told the Tribune.
” ‘The feds don’t put superfluous facts in an indictment,’ said Cramer, who is head of the Chicago division of the private security company Kroll. ‘If it’s in there, it’s relevant.’ ”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-dennis-hastert-indictment-pdf-20150528-htmlstory.html
24The irony is that if Hastert was involved in any criminal sexual conduct while teaching in high school or coaching, the statute of limitations has long since expired under the Illinois Criminal Code. He’d be paying a whole lot of extortion money just to protect his reputation, not to stay out of jail. So trite but true: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
25BarbinDC says: “… caught in the cookie jar/with their pants down …”
There’s a mental image: Dennis Hastert bottled up in a giant cookie jar with those huge hams exposed!
26I love that Hastart told the fed that “he kept the withdrawn money because he didn’t trust the banking system.” I wonder if they tore up his mattress looking for it.
27I was born and raised (more or less) in Illinois so this is no surprise. Last decent Republicans to come out of IL were Ev Dierksen and Charles Percy. And by the way, in Illinois the term is rasslin’ coach.
28UmptyDump, That would be hilarious if it was like you stated and there was sexual misconduct that he couldn’t be charged with due to statute of limitations. But, in spending $3.5M to protect his image he broke laws that he could be charged with, and sentenced to 10 years in Hotel Graybar…
Sounds like good lawyering to me… LOL
29Wrestlemania, DeeCee-style. How corrupt is Washington? A former high school teacher/coach comes up with $3.5 million to pay an extortionist after “serving” in the US congress, that’s how corrupt. We the people are so screwed.
30@ Deb: he’s been a lobbyist since 2007! You can hate Rethugs all you want, but it’s lobbyists of any stripe, including PACs and SuperPACs that I hate. They have done more to destroy our democracy (republic?) than any other type of group I can think of; they are the tentacles of the 1%, and they reach into everything. That’s why I want the house to start teleconferencing instead of meeting in DC; the lobby contingent would have to fly their oily thugs to every state in the Union to wine and dine and bribe them
31astert’s ability to make such large cash payments probably came from his career as a K Street lobbyist. He entered Congress in 1987 with a net worth of no more than $270,000 and then exited worth somewhere between $4 million and $17 million, according to congressional disclosure documents.
32Hopefully someone will not stop until they get the rest of the story. That 3.5 million has a lot of pressure behind it. I bet we will find out more.
33It’s all gonna be so sleazy. I’m getting kind of sick of these slow motion train wrecks, but none of my suggestions for corrections ever seem to go over very well 🙁
34Well, Slate is referencing an LA Times article that says the payment was to cover up sexual misconduct.
The slow motion train wreck is gaining some speed.
35And the Rs say their leaders are saints. Of what?
36The bucket is leaking already. Two unnamed law enforcement people have told reporters that Individual A is male and the misconduct occurred before Hastert’s political career. If his attorneys thought they could bottle up the particulars with the Feds, they were extremely naive. Nothing left for it now. Hastert’s gonna have to run for President.
37There will be no shame shown from any GOP. The familar song is being played softly right now and once details begin to emerge the story will be that he used his authority as a coach to “do things he shouldn’t” and he prayed, God forgave him and commanded him to go to Congress and pass laws that would protect others from this sort of sinning. Now he paid because he harmed that child, he had God’s forgiveness but not the victim’s. He will publicly beat his chest going on about God’s forgiveness has washed his sins away and if people don’t drop the subject then they are heathen haters.
38Corrine Sabo that is say(it)ain’t(so) saint.
39Old Denny was caught doing the Duggard Dance. Don’t expect him to appreciate the fact that the Fibbies only mentioned “Individual A.” Individual “B” is already leaking out of Denny’s bucket list. With all the references back to the Foley Follies and some other DC scuttlebutt emerging, also something about Nebraska, looks as if old Denny sinned, and kept on sinning. That old “three strikes” law the Republicans love appears to be headed straight for his snout.
“Ring” is not the sound on his cellphone, but a description of how deep in the doo doo his snout may be.
40Wingnuts scandals “sin till eight”, maybe till half past nine.
41@Marlene, if I was a betting woman, I’d be betting that you nailed it!
@Aggieland Liz, they may not be listening to you but darned if those aren’t great ideas!
These guys are indeed the gift that keeps on giving!
42According to the “Economic Times” Thursday’s federal indictment described the victim, “Individual A,” as a man, the newspaper reported, saying the alleged misconduct dated from Hastert’s time as a high school wrestling coach and teacher.
Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47479015.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
There is at least one more male victim.
43Now there is some talk of Asian Sex Tours that Hastert went on…
WMR’s State Department sources have also reported that the visits of Hastert and other congressional leaders and staff members to certain Southeast Asian nations and the Northern Marianas should come under the scrutiny of the House Ethics Committee, now officially investigating ‘Pagegate.’ The Northern Marianas became infamous in the scandals involving Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff because of the presence in the US slave labor territory of Asian children being used as prostitutes. Conveniently, Foley co-chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, which would have had authority to investigate charges of child prostitution in the Northern Marianas. Hastert visited Vietnam, along with Palmer, in April of this year and spent three days in the country. Hastert, along with Illinois GOP Rep. Ray LaHood, canceled a visit to Thailand and Vietnam in January 2006. Hastert was also in Thailand in January 2002.”
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/ quoted by Alex Jones so who knows if there is any credibility or not?
44