So House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) had his big day in the sun yesterday, where he kind of apologized, kind of announced an independent probe of the page program, kind of blamed the Democrats for everything, and kind of admitted that the GOP leadership could have handled the whole mess a little better.
What he pointedly didn’t do was thank ABC for bringing the sordid scandal to light, as Reader JL noted:
It seems to me that if Denny Hastert were sincere, he would thank ABC News for uncovering Rep. Foley’s conduct with pages. The FBI had already passed on a chance to investigate this, which means that Foley would still be IMing pages.
To jaded politicos, this likely sounds like a naive observation. But it’s sincere, and direct. For the pages, Congress is in loco parentis, as Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) pointed out at the House Ethics Committee press conference yesterday.
If Hastert is supposed to consider the kids like they were his own, and his own staff and colleagues hid from him that they were being recruited as vulnerable partners for sexual hijinks, shouldn’t he be a little more appreciative ABC brought it to his attention?
