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Nonsense

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So Dennis Hastert just came out of hibernation to give the most pointless press conference ever. Louis Freeh, who would have made a comically terrible choice for “independent” investigator revising the Page program (say what?), turned it down and Nancy Pelosi would have killed the idea anyway. So all we have now is yesterday’s news, half-formed rumors about even bigger shoes waiting to drop and Dennis Hastert taking back what he said before he even says it. In the midst of all this, Steve Benen suggests the GOP strategy going forward:

Hastert reportedly wants to seize control of this situation and go on the offensive.

Hastert wants to go on the offensive? Against whom? The scandal was started by a leak from a lifelong Republican. Claims that people who knew about Foley’s behavior did not contact the authorities are plainly false.

Maybe Hastert seriously thinks that he can win by inventing a conspiracy of limp-wristed GOP staffers on whom to pin the whole mess. For Hastert’s sake I hope not. Scapegoating Kirk Fordham worked so well for them and Fordham is just one guy. How will they like dozens of burned John Deans leaking what they know to the press? Good staffers keep track of their Reps’ dirty secrets, in order to keep them out of the press. Great ones keep the documentation.

On second thought, Hastert should go for it. Show that velvet mafia who’s boss.

Heckuva job, Denny.

Reader Interactions

23Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve

    Freeh wasn’t even going to be an investigator, although that’s clearly the impression they wanted to leave. He was going to recommend improvements to the PAGE PROGRAM!

    Yes… that’s clearly what the American people are demanding here… a better page program. How about better leadership.

  2. 2.

    Pb

    Yeesh, it’s sad that even the FBI has to cover for their apparent inaction in this scandal. Of course they can’t investigate everything, but they shouldn’t waste their time lying about it either. Who’s going to investigate the FBI? The Justice Department? Don’t make me laugh. Oh Patrick Fitzgerald, got a minute…

  3. 3.

    Keith

    This is venturing into the surreal. Although we may have hit that point with the Reynolds & Friends presser, this new Press Conference About Nothing is a beaut.

  4. 4.

    Tsulagi

    Ken Starr available?

    Sort of shorter Hastert: We want to dump this commission on someone loyal. Then we can say we can’t talk about an ongoing investigation while we get our stories straight and reinforce order not to shoot each other. Let history decide…after the midterms at least.

  5. 5.

    docg

    In a vice-presidential debate 20 years from now, words we will never hear:

    “Senator, I knew Denny Hastert. Denny Hastert was a friend of mine. And Senator, you’re no Denny Hastert.”

  6. 6.

    Davebo

    Wow, the wingnuts are truly getting desperate!

    A sample blogosphere reaction via hit and run

    “Foley is a complete sleaze, he has got a real problem, but let me say, this kid is not an innocent kid. You read those things, he’s leading him on. He’s like a little Lolita. And what I picture, I picture this kid, he’s in his dorm room, or wherever he is, and he has got 3 or 4 friends on and they’re just giggling themselves silly. “Look what I got this Congressman to say.” That’s why he saved these IM messages, so he could send it around to all his friends and they could laugh at this poor, middle-aged Congressman who is so pitiful and has got some real sick problems. It just seems to be the type of thing that teenaged boys would have thought was so funny. This isn’t some kid who is innocently appalled at what he’s getting. He’s leading that guy on.”

  7. 7.

    Cyrus

    Call me partisan, small-minded, whatever you want, but this whole ongoing story reminds me of nothing more than a picture posted at the Poor Man blog a week or so ago – an oil well of ponies.

  8. 8.

    Gary Farber

    “So Dennis Hastert just came out of hibernation to give the most pointless press conference ever. Louis Freeh, who would have made a comically terrible choice for “independent” investigator revising the Page program (say what?), turned it down and Nancy Pelosi would have killed the idea anyway. ”

    Um, Tim, this is very interesting, but I seem to recall “blogs” being about the “links.” Where is a link to any and all of this?

    It’s possible that some don’t keep up with you, and might want a “link” to these developments.

  9. 9.

    p.lukasiak

    Wow, the wingnuts are truly getting desperate!

    that sounds like the latest “official” explanation — drudge is apparently reporting that two of the identified page’s friends called the IM’s a “prank”, and that “political enemies” somehow got a hold of them…

    which sounds kinda fishy to me, since ABC didn’t get the IMs until after the “overly friendly” email story was released….

  10. 10.

    Richard 23

    Gee, did Denny think of asking Freeh before he did the press conference? Yeah, this guy’s competant enough…for me to poop on!

    Maybe Kissinger can take Freeh’s place. He’ll get to the bottom of things. Of course people will be killed, but that’s only natural during the course of a sensitive investigation.

  11. 11.

    Shochu John

    “that sounds like the latest “official” explanation—drudge is apparently reporting that two of the identified page’s friends called the IM’s a “prank”, and that “political enemies” somehow got a hold of them…”

    And if that one works, they should try it on Iraq too. The violence is just a friendly prank between the grateful Iraqis and their liberators.

  12. 12.

    Pb

    two of the identified page’s friends called the IM’s a “prank”, and that “political enemies” somehow got a hold of them…

    BREAKING: Friends of former Republican page shift blame to Democrats, film at 11! And in other news, new research reveals that cats and dogs often don’t get along… Developing…

  13. 13.

    fwiffo

    Sure, Republicans have let the fucked the budget, fucked Iraq and cyberfucked underage pages, but if Nancy Pelosi were speaker, all of those problems would be fucked/cyberfucked even more.

  14. 14.

    Sstarr

    Hastert is toast, and the damage he does on the way out could be extreme. Here’s an article on the Fox News web site that claims that internal party pollsters are telling the Repbulicans that the consequences of Hastert remaining will be dire.

    “The data suggests Americans have bailed on the speaker,” a Republican source briefed on the polling data told FOX News. “And the difference could be between a 20-seat loss and 50-seat loss.”

  16. 16.

    Pb

    fwiffo,

    Sure, Republicans have let the fucked the budget, fucked Iraq and cyberfucked underage pages, but if Nancy Pelosi were speaker, all of those problems would be fucked/cyberfucked even more.

    Link / cite? Oh, ok, this’ll do:

    The Democrats would work to undermine the effectiveness of the President and military in fighting the global war on terror. There are men in this world who want to kill us, and staying home gives the keys of government to the most useful idiots these men could hope to have helping them. Say what you will about GOP domestic policies in Congress — they’ve been right when it comes to the war.

    etc., etc.

  17. 17.

    Punchy

    The scandal was started by a leak from a lifelong Republican. Claims that people who knew about Foley’s behavior did not contact the authorities are plainly false.

    Like these facts matter. “Plainly false” means absolutely nothing to these clowns.

  19. 19.

    Zifnab

    I liked the Fox News take on all this. Sure, Foley is a perv, but if the Democrats had only investigated this like they should have – some time back in ’05 when it wasn’t politically inconvinent – then all this never would have happened. Where is the oversight? Where. Is. The. Oversight? If Pelosi let this happen on her watch as minority leader, just imagine how bad things will get when she’s Speaker.

    Also, flip on talk radio sometime and see how many times the names “Nancy Pelosi” and “George Soros” compared to “Fordham” and “Hastert”. Or… better yet, check out the Sean Hannity Forum if you really want to get detached from reality.

    My personal favorite forum topics are:
    FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE MESSAGES WERE PAGE PRANK GONE AWRY
    Wonder Why Kennedy So Quiet On Foley Scandal? Look what I found.
    Now that The Foley IMs are a fraud, Nancy Pelosi SHOULD RESIGN!
    …
    And my personal favorite

    Was Watergate A Liberal Democrat Set-Up?

    Now we know where the Darrels come from.

  20. 20.

    jaime

    This shit just WONT end!

    It’s a perpetual motion machine. The salaciousness keeps it in the headlines, it’s a gift to Democrats for the elections, and the desperate Rush/Bush/Conservo/bots are determined to prove some Soros-Clinton-ABC-DNC conspiracy.

  21. 21.

    ThymeZone

    Part of me is distressed that the GOP could lose not because of spending recklessness, corruption, torture, big government, pork, and a hideously botched war … but because of a sex scandal which doesn’t even have (so far as we know) any actual sex. But part of me also sees the karmic payback here. They rode this tiger; now it’s turning on them. And it’s dinner time.

    Sullivan, via WaMo.

    Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

  23. 23.

    Derrick

    Hastert reportedly wants to seize control of this situation and go on the offensive.

    I made the comment earlier on a republican board that somehow this party installed Steve Spurrier as coach. There will never be a problem that a little slanging the old ball around won’t help. Their whole strategy amounts to offense, and if they can’t find someone to go on offense with they’ll make them up.

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