Yesterday, when the Hastert news first broke, I went in thinking that the timeline made sense because Denny Hastert, like so many other politicians, got an extremely lucrative job as a lobbyist after leaving Congress. When Individual A approached Hastert in 2010 asking for money, that made sense because it was only then that he had the kind of wealth that would make it even remotely conceivable for him to pay out $3.5 million.
I’d assumed that he’d started making money in 2007 from a cold start. But I’d forgotten that Hastert, who entered public life in the middle class, left public office a very wealth man.
We now have the first indication of the underlying ‘misconduct’ that led to Denny Hastert’s downfall: he paid off a man over sexual abuse in the distant past, seemingly when Hastert was a wrestling coach in Yorkville.
Ever since yesterday’s shock revelations, it seemed like news like this would come out as the underlying bad act behind Denny Hastert’s public downfall. Because of that, the almost decade old Mark Foley scandal has rushed back into the minds of everyone who covered that story at the time. To review, if you weren’t around at the time, in the death throes of the old Republican majority, in September 2006 it emerged that Congressman Mark Foley had had sexual interactions with male members of the Congressional page program, i.e., high school age students. Foley was not out as a gay man; though I think it was widely known or at least assumed that he was gay.
News just broke that Vice President Biden’s son, Beau Biden, former Delaware Attorney General, has died of brain cancer.
Statement from the VP’s office …
It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life.
The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us—especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter.
Beau’s life was defined by service to others. As a young lawyer, he worked to establish the rule of law in war-torn Kosovo. A major in the Delaware National Guard, he was an Iraq War veteran and was awarded the Bronze Star. As Delaware’s Attorney General, he fought for the powerless and made it his mission to protect children from abuse.
More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother. His absolute honor made him a role model for our family. Beau embodied my father’s saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did.
In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.
UPDATE: We’re now back up and running with a new and pretty dramatically improved version of the software that runs public comments and The Hive. We’ll be working on minor fixes through the day.
We’re currently doing an upgrade to the software that manages our commenting system and The Hive. So they are currently offline and will remain so overnight. We will update you here when they are back online.
Denny Hastert’s Alma Mater, Wheaton College, a highly regarded Christian college in Illinois, has removed his name for the school’s public policy center.
Rachael Bade and Jennifer Haberkorn have a nice, concise piece on how the GOP big talkers on Obamacare repeal are finding it exceedingly difficult to walk the walk. Turns out health care policy is complicated.
John McCain not at all happy with what Rand Paul is doing on NSA: “I know what this is about — I think it’s very clear – this is, to some degree, a fundraising exercise. He obviously has a higher priority for his fundraising and political ambitions than for the security of the nation.”
KFC suing Chinese companies for spreading online rumors about KFC using mutant chickens.