Hastert Resignation Watch--Special Extended Edition

When I wrote a post about Denny Hastert early on Friday morning, I assumed that I wouldn't get another opportunity before what seemed like his imminent resignation. Well, that didn't happen on Friday, but resignation seems even more inevitable now that it did then. In yesterday morning's Washington Post, a front-page story revealed a current Congressional staffer's assertion that Denny's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, confronted Foley about his conduct way back in 2003. Mark Fordham, who resigned as Representative Tom Reynolds's chief of staff earlier this week, had already made the same claim, so this is just further confirmation. If Palmer didn't tell Hastert about such a meeting, then he's completely incompetent (and there's no reason to believe that's the case). Palmer and Hastert are unusually close, as they share a Washington townhouse when they're in the nation's capitol.

That's bad enough, but in tomorrow's Post, Representative Jim Kolbe states through his staff that he was aware of Foley's e-mails to pages as far back as 2000. Although this doesn't provide a direct line to Hastert, just expanding the pool of Republican Congressmen who were aware of the problem makes it harder to limit Hastert's reputed lack of knowledge and proven lack of response. I don't know if he might get some sort of reprieve for Columbus Day tomorrow, but I don't see how he can possibly survive through the end of the week. Although Hastert will almost certainly resign from the speakership, I doubt that he'll resign from Congress altogether. I don't know what the scandal is doing for his own reelection chances, but any readers we might have in the 14th District of Illinois should probably avail themselves of a look at the Website of John Laesch, the Dem nominee running for Hastert's seat.

I can't help but think that Hastert's mentor (and reputed patron and puppet master) Tom DeLay would've handled all this much differently. He may well have tossed Denny to the wolves, but he would've fought much harder to keep the Republican majority in line and keep a lid on this dribbling out of information. I never had any regard for DeLay and his vision of Congress, but you had to respect the fact that he came by his nickname, "The Hammer," honestly.