It’s far more massive than that.
Note to the Illinois press who haven’t figured it out–Hastert’s lying and it’s up to you to make this crystal clear. Fornek had the better of the articles in the Sun-Times on Friday with a very simple point
The GOP leader also lashed out at the Democrats, suggesting that they orchestrated release of the political bombshell to impact the November mid-term elections.
“Our friends on the other side of the aisle really don’t have a story to tell, and maybe they’re resolving to another way to, to, to — another political tactic,” he said.
Hastert ended the news conference without offering any evidence that Democrats were involved.
I have to admit I’ve bought into the Denny is decent guy bit, but I think we can see what DC has done to him. It should have been clear when he claimed Soros was behind drug cartels. It is crystal clear now that Hastert believes he can say anything as crazy as he wants and not have to support it or be held accountable. It’s Soros! It’s the Clintons! It’s ABC! It’s Rahm! It’s the fucking tooth fairy!
Fornek and Rosek wrote a straight article that put the simple facts out there-some others, not so much.
You have a situation where a guy gets slapped on the wrist after multiple complaints and the information kept from other members of the relevant committee–both Democratic and Republican members and the House Leadership decides the way to defend themselves is to say the Democrats knew too and waited for the point of maximum impact to release the information.
There is no evidence of this at all. It’s not even smooth how they’ve tried to get this out there. On Hardball Kingston kept saying “he’s just asking questions about what Rahm knew and when”. Mathews almost burst the veins in his head it was so pathetic and unbelievable.
Even if there was even a shred of evidence the logic of it is bizarre–the Dems withheld information for a shorter period of time than the Republicans and so they are to blame…
Wait, no you see Rahm was letting these poor kids be at risk so he could release it right before the election and the Republicans are the victims of big mean Rahm because he released a true story that led to the very public scandal. So Rahm is really the one using the kids—never mind no one has any claims that Rahm did know, but several claims indicate Hastert and the leadership knew much more.
Wait, no you see Rahm and Pelosi really were part of a massive conspiracy in which Foley was a political Manchurian Candidate.
If the members of the press don’t call bullshit on all of this, they need new lines of work. Read what Hastert said yesterday. He didn’t take responsibility for anything and has continued to blame any handy Democrat for being at fault in this scandal. That’s either a gross lie or evidence that Denny is not mentally capable of being a dogcatcher let alone 3rd in line to the Presidency.