HASTERT Leadership "On the line"? (Chicago Tribune-Front Page)

[kpete]

Hastert faces messy House
Scandal fosters talk of a GOP leadership purge, setting up a test of the Illinois lawmaker's skills

By Mike Dorning and Jeff Zeleny
Washington Bureau
Published January 16, 2006


WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert, his party engulfed in a potentially calamitous lobbying scandal, faces a formidable test of his leadership as he tries to remake the Republicans' image, soothe their anxiety about the November election and oversee a potentially divisive race for a party leadership post.

At the moment, no challenge to Hastert's continued tenure as speaker has emerged from rank-and-file congressional Republicans, who maintain a considerable reservoir of goodwill for the Illinois lawmaker as a fair and forthright broker to the party's many competing interests. And he continues to enjoy the support of President Bush.

"His leadership, not his position, is really on the line," said Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, an influential Republican moderate who remains a strong Hastert supporter.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0601160240jan16,1,7627181.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

At the same time, several Republican members of Congress described a general feeling that party leaders had let them down.

"There is real discontent," said Rep. Anne Northup (R-Ky.), who is pressing for new elections of virtually the entire party leadership, though she excludes Hastert. "There are some that are very angry."

[tanyev]

1. GOP. Leadership. Purge.

Remember when nobody could have ever predicted you would see those three words in the same sentence?

Aaaaah. Feels good.

[BOSSHOG]

2. "His leadership, not his position is on the line????"

So according to a republican his position of leadership is safe although there is no support for his leadership skills. In the Navy, a khaki in that position would be fired and put somewhere where his actions would cause the least amount of harm to mission or personnel.

If the gop had anyone with leadership skills in a leadership position, there would be no jackamoff scandal haunting them. Obviously, leadership, like a moral compass, is foreign to today's gop.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Denny's The Ultimate Scapegoat

It may take several shakes of the tree, but eventually Gym Teech Denny will have to take the blame for being a DeLay/Blount toadie and acting as godfather to a criminal operation. Somewhere I'm sure we'll find Denny's had his hand into some dirty dealings or got some other quid pro quo for being an enabler.

Right now, I'm getting out the :popcorn: for the Blount/Boenner/Shaedegg shinding. It's gonna be like watching rock'em sock'em robots...each sliming the other with each others slime. Denny's needed to keep things from getting too crazy, but soon, he'll have to pay the price. It probably won't be until a bunch more indictments and resignations happen, but it will happen.

In the meantime, I'm just glad the pantload got the money to build a new entrance to O'Hare for us suburbanites (pissing off his GOOP, anti-expansion supporters...ROFL).

[hedda_foil]

5. "Gym-teach" Denny has a multi-million $$$ mansion

He's had his hands in plenty of cookie jars to come up with that kind of moolah. I don't care how thrifty the Missus is, the savings of two middle class teachers just won't stretch that far!

[KharmaTrain]

6. Lotta Family Money

He was no poor "gym teech". What a pile of crap. He comes from an old-line family that made millions in greenhouses.

What a mean bastard. I first encountered him when I had to interview him on the radio. His predecessor, John Grotberg, was a kindly, moderate/conservative and always willing to talk with the locals and even mix it up at times. He died and Hastert was pushed in by the big money. Gone was the interactions with the locals...the interviews soon became a yes/no "press conference" and then gone altogether.

Denny sits in a fairly safe district still...but one that is changing. More and more of us city folks...including Hispanics and Blacks are moving into his lily white subdivisions and a descimated state party that will be lucky to win any statewide election this November. Methinks Denny might be looking at those timeshare and long cruise brochures these days.

[SophieZ]

7. Eggs-actly. Hastert was made by DeLay.

p. 270 DeLay made Denny Hastert Speaker and Roy Blunt majority whip. Both men were his assistants when he served as whip. "He is the first majority leader in the history of the Congress to decide who holds every position in the leadership, including his own."

-- The Hammer: Tom DeLay, God, Money and the United States Congress, published September 2004, by Lou Dubose

If I had to guess, I'd say Blunt would be more of the same garbage. And, if I had to guess, I'd say Blunt may not have been cleanly elected to the US House anyway.

[SpiralHawk]

4. Lipstick on a pig

Won't do the trick.

the repub culture of corruption does not need a new "image"

It needs jail cells

[On the Road]

8. It Must Have Been That Garrison Keillor Editorial

saying what a good president Hastert would make. Now the GOP will put someone in there so obnoxious that Congress won't dare remove Bush and Cheney from office.

:tinfoilhat:

[cantstandbush]

9. Hastert needs to be investigated along with Abramhoff. n/t