THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dennis Hastert was the longest-serving Republican House speaker in U.S. history. But how will history look upon his time in the seat?
BY MIKE CETERA
There isn't much doubt about Dennis Hastert's legacy within his own Congressional District.
He has enjoyed consistent and strong support at the ballot box during his tenure, is credited with bringing millions of dollars in projects back home and he put Kendall County in the rare spotlight when he ascended to U.S. House speaker eight years ago. The job made him a celebrity in his own back yard.
But Hastert's legacy outside the 14th Congressional District is another matter entirely (Yes, I know he has his critics here, too). The view of the boys from the coffee shop down the street is unlikely to define the 11-term congressman for future generations. And if he's remembered at all, it doesn't appear the national pundits are going to let him be remembered fondly.
His supporters at home applaud Hastert for not letting politics change him. It's what has endeared Denny to so many. But his critics have a word for his refusal to change: stubbornness. Stubbornness in his support for President Bush and stubbornness in his support for the war in Iraq, in particular.
Already, much has been written predicting Hastert's legacy. Below, you can find a sampling:
* Lynn Sweet: Former speaker's legacy will include the "Hastert Highway," Metra stations and his record term at the top
* Washington Post: "Good cop" to Tom Delay's "bad cop"
* The National Journal: "An almost cuddly figure" who "found himself directly under fire for his puzzling management of the Jack Abramoff and Mark Foley scandals"
* The Nation: "The worst House speaker in American history"
* Human Events: "Opened the floodgates to congressional spending," "turned a blind eye to the petty corruption that beset the House," "allowed the Republican Party to return to the era of pork barrel deal making"
* New York Times: Led during "what the G.O.P. considered the legislative achievements of the Bush tax cuts and the Medicare drug prescription benefit..."
* USA Today: "Shared power with his Republican colleagues," and in turn "legislative achievements were built almost entirely with Republican votes."
Let's remember this paper trashed Denny Hastert with that so-called land deal at the same time this paper looked the other way on an actual land scam involving Bigelow and Weisner (that land scam was "endorsed" by this paper). The Beacon lost credibility on any opinion of Hastert.
OpenlineBlog.com has a mesmerizing visual review of Hastert's career and I thought it gave a perspective in a way I have not seen anywhere in any media.
Here's the address for the review:
http://www.openlineblog.com
Denny was both Tom DeLay's and George Bush's puppet. History will judge him as the Speaker of the House that fully embraced the failure of the Bush presidency.
Thanks Denny! We appreciate all you've done!
I will always appreciate Denny's consistent pro-life, pro- tax cut, and pro- 2nd Amendment positions. His replacement should be Chris Lauzen who is consistently conservative in those areas and has a voting record to prove it.
Hastert let the American people down by refusing to challenge the Bush regime's unnecessary wars that led to a gigantic ripoff of the Federal Treasury by Bush's corporate allies.We are currently deeper in debt than ever before in history. The Speaker of the House is supposed to control the Federal purse strings, but Hastert failed miserably. His methodology of running the house was crude and tended to support people who worked to enrich corporate crooks. He was truly the worst Speaker in US History.