Hastert: The buck stops… over there

I guess when he says he “takes full responsibility” he really means he’s going to take responsibility for firing other people. Nice guy.
He used to teach and coach at the high school level. Can anyone – Republican or Democrat – honestly say that if this were going on in a high school that the principal would still have a job when a teacher was found to have had dalliances with a number of underage boys? (Especially when it was established that his staff knew of this for years?)

And one other thing: let’s take Hastert at his word on the “vast left-wing conspiracy” that was out to use the Foley debacle for partisan gain. Let’s just assume (in the absence of any evidence supporting it) that it’s true. So the Democrats apparently blew the whistle on a chronic abuser of the public trust, a sexual predator who preyed on underage children. And the Republicans did what, exactly? At least some of them looked the other way. Some passed the buck and said (as did Reynolds) “I notified my supervisor” and did nothing else. In a situation in which children are being abused, which group is more culpable?

For the record, I’ve seen no evidence whatsoever that Democrats had anything to do with the leaking of this info to ABC News. But let’s just suppose that such evidence exists. They went public with it. And those Republicans who did know, preferred to keep this heinous crime private, and even encouraged Foley to run again to keep the seat in Republican hands.

You really don’t want to go down this path, Denny.

2 responses to “Hastert: The buck stops… over there”

  1. This issue is, unfortunately, being transformed into a political issue rather than being addressed as the crime it is. It really is very simple – if you knew and withheld the information, you are gone. If Hastert knew, he is gone. If any Democrats knew and held the info to expose when the timing was right, they are gone. Address the crime, not the politics, and it really is quite simple.

  2. […] The Speaker of the House, meanwhile, Illinois’ own Dennis Hastert, pledges he’s taking responsibility for the failure of the Republican Congress to keep Congressional Pages safe, while actively trying to lay blame at the feet of anyone but himself. […]

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