Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has resigned from the board of advisers of his alma mater Wheaton College’s school of economics and government, which had been named in his honor.
Hastert had already resigned his positions at Washington, D.C. law and lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro and on futures exchange company CME Group’s board of directors upon his indictment Thursday. Federal prosecutors alleged that from 2010-2014, Hastert made illegal bank withdrawals towards paying out $3.5 million in hush money for “prior misconduct” against an unidentified individual that occurred years earlier.
The J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy said in a statement Friday that it had received and accepted Hastert’s resignation.
“The Center was established to pursue goals compatible with the mission of Wheaton College. Specifically, the mission statement of the Center is ‘to advance the training of Wheaton College students and the greater community in the understanding of market economies, representative democracies, limited government, and the redeeming effects of the Christian worldview on the practice of business, government and politics,'” the statement read. “The Center will continue to serve these purposes in conformity with the highest ethical and academic standards of excellence and integrity, in conformity with our institution’s identity.”
“The College respects Mr. Hastert’s distinguished public service record and the due process being afforded him pursuant to the charges that have been filed against him,” the statement added.
“… advance the training of Wheaton College students and the greater community in the understanding of market economies, representative democracies, limited government, and the redeeming effects of the Christian worldview on the practice of business, government and politics,”
Aaah, free-market Christianity.
Wheaton College is Ground Zero for American Christo-fundy zealotry. Bwaaah-Haa-ha-ha!
And he already paid half the blackmail, too! That must tick him off the most.
Look how wrong you can be.
I’ve seen several people question why Hastert was willing to pay $3.5 million to hush up Individual A. Some comments have suggested that the money was too much for any possible scandal and that it was more worth it to come clean.
Right here is one of many examples of why it was worth at least $3.5 million to Hastert, and probably is to other people like him.
His entire legacy is now soaked in nuclear napalm for the remainder of history. The entire Republican brand can never speak his name again with any credibility. Every vote he ever cast, every action he ever took will … and must be … filtered through the lens of:
Who was blackmailing him to do what he did?
Also the Republican Party, which vetted him to be fit to serve in Congress and to be THE Speaker of the House, directly in line to the Presidency after the Vice President, will forever have to answer for putting this man into such a position of power while being vulnerable to such blackmail.
Just try to imagine for a moment what it would have been like to have the President of the United States vulnerable to blackmail and pressure over this sort of sordid activity in his past. The Republican Party is so corrupt and incompetent that this is exactly what they did … although, it may seem pale in comparison to putting Bush in office under the Cheney Administration.
Yeah, $3.5 million is cheap at the price, but just how mind-numbingly stupid such a man would have to be to think he could hide such a thing while seeking the highest offices available in the country.