Republican Rep. Ray LaHood of East Peoria said he told Hastert to back down while flying on Air Force One after the April 19 dedication of the Lincoln library.
LaHood said he told the speaker: “You’re the one who has got to be able to turn this thing around. Because of your special relationship with DeLay and because you are the speaker and you are the one who changed the rules. . . . You’ve got to pivot, you probably have to eat a little crow, but we’ve got to get the ability for our members to go back home and talk about our issues.”
Kirk, from Highland Park, chairs the Tuesday Group, 45 moderates who wield enormous leverage. He said he told Hastert his group “felt that we should not change ethics rules in a partisan way.”
Biggert, a Hinsdale resident, said she talked to Hastert and said: “We needed to get our business done in the ethics committee, not on the front pages of the newspapers.”
Biggert’s line may simply be covering her butt, but traditionally Biggert isn’t on the right wing so who knows…
While there are still issues of staffing, the Democrats won this one, and more importantly, citizens did–the ethics deal made between the parties only served incumbents and not the integrity of the institution. If Democrats are to face more investigations because of this as well as DeLay–well good. That’s how it should be–not a farce of truce.