Hastert to Retire -- Leaves Legacy of Enabling a Sex Predator

The networks have been announcing all day long that Hastert will not seek re-election in 2008. I say it's about damn time he left the House of Representatives.

I haven't forgotten that the House Ethics Committee Report on the Foley scandal gave us clear evidence that he knew that Mark Foley was engaged in unethical conduct with House pages. In spite of this, he did nothing to stop Foley from continuing his inappropriate behavior.

Further, he was fully willing to allow his staff to blame the entire ordeal on Kirk Fordham and Jeff Trandahl, Foley's former chief of staff and the former house clerk, respectively. We know from that same ethics report that Kirk and Jeff are the only Republicans that did anything to stop Foley's actions. In fact, they went to great lengths to stop it.

Below is a local news report in Illinois in the wake of the Foley scandal where Hastert does what Republicans do best: blame Democrats and the media for their troubles.

Yesterday, Karl Rove. Today, Dennis Hastert. This could be a good week.