CNN: Leadership Staff Says Hastert Will ‘Go On The Offense,’ ‘Try To Be More Aggressive’
CNN: Leadership Staff Says Hastert Will ‘Go On The Offense,’ ‘Try To Be More Aggressive’
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has delayed a scheduled press conference for hours, and has reportedly been in “lockdown” in his Illinois home for most of the day. According to CNN, he’s finally decided on a strategy: dig in.
CNN’s Dana Bash moments ago:
Now just to give you a little context here, what the speaker’s office is trying to do today in the wake of all of these new questions about what his office knew and when they knew it is to try to be more aggressive and to try to go more on the offense. We understand that there was actually a meeting here on Capitol Hill just a short while ago with Republican press secretaries where the Speaker’s staff told the Republican press secretaries that they’re going to try very hard to change the mood, change the atmosphere, go on the offense. And that, we understand, will include at least the speaker making it clear he does take full responsibility for this. We don’t believe — we don’t believe that he is going to announce, though, that he’s going to step down or in the near future.
UPDATE: Hastert has cancelled his fundraisers over the next two weeks, according to an MSNBC reporter:
[Hastert] has canceled all of his fundraisers. You know, he was bragging recently that he was gonna hit, it was 34 districts in 30 days to do fundraisers. He has canceled all of his fundraisers for this week and for next week. That is big.
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You know what that means – this is all the Democrats and George Soros’ fault.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:01 pmThis is going to be hilarious! Going on the offensive by blaming Democrats through tortured logic. “The Democrats are the minority party and so they are always trying to undermine this great country of ours. They are worse than terrorists.” (Lots of Republicans waving flags in the background.)
October 5th, 2006 at 1:06 pmHe can’t fire people for knowing and doing nothing, if he knew and did nothing. By his own words he is convicted on that score and he should resign, pure and simple.
Know what though? With this Foley Scandal a lot of races are probably drawing ever closer, because the Republicans involved are either going to be ballot poison in the midterms, or are going to resign, leaving a candidate who is relatively unknown this close to the midterms.
If the Democrats can capitilise on this, if they can stop spending all of their time flying under the radar and actually come out strong, with a platform people can vote for, then they should win every seat available, including those that the Republicans consider a lock.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:09 pmI, Dennis Hassert, am unashamedly, aggressively standing behind my pedophilic sex predator colleague..No wait, I mean that I ‘m so glad that we are on the same page…uh. Vote Qwimby.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:11 pmOk, so your responsible but not accountable… Nice offence.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:11 pmHe’s probably just delaying because he needs a full four hours to finish his lunch.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:13 pmAttn:
October 5th, 2006 at 1:13 pmWeasel alert, weasel alert!
Step right up and get your weasel alert programs!
Can’t tell the scoundrels from the victims without a program!
Weasel alert!
Hastert’s news conference begins at 1:45 PM > rumours are circulating that he is going to fire Gay members of GOP staffs to blame them for the Sexual Predator Scandal > wrong move fatso Denny, because they will out every closeted GOP Representative and Senator, so let the blood bath begin!
October 5th, 2006 at 1:20 pmSo when Denny spews forth his lies in this upcoming news conference, will the MSM call him on it?
October 5th, 2006 at 1:20 pmI sense that the effort has already begun. I find Hastert & Co. very offensive.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:21 pmThe democrats should take note though. Fight Back! It actually works.
The next time the Pres. calls the dems weak on defense. Go on the offensive and call him out for all his incompentencies in the War on Terror.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:24 pmI hope he doesn’t step down, this has been a great boon for Dems and if he did, it would minimize the scandal faster.
So keep up the fight Denny! Your helping out your opponents no matter what you do.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:26 pmClue to Hastert and Republicans: This is exactly what you should not do. Trying to blame innocent people through a witch hunt and not taking responsibility for your inaction will make voters even more angry with you. Hastert, quit now and get it over with. The longer you wait the more painful it will be for everyone. Drop the partisan politics and think of America for once.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:27 pmThat’s the only thing the Repubs know how to do: “be offensive”. It’s been Dubya’s modus operandi for quite some time, and has worked better than it should in a perfect world, but at some point (like when the Repubs start blaming the kids), I think a lot of people are going to say that “Enough is enough, I thought you were resolute and strong, but now I see that you’re justa bunch of bullying azos….”
Cheers,
October 5th, 2006 at 1:27 pmGreat work so far. But now is the time to switch back and hit them brutally in Iraq. They are distracted and vulnerable.
There’s $20,000,000 for another Mission Accomplished ceremony, but no money for wounded vets at the VA?
Highest casualties for the US in Iraq, but no accoutability.
And when they turn around to respond to that, change up and hit them in North Korea.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:30 pmhow can you be aggressive when in lock-down mode…
October 5th, 2006 at 1:30 pmThey’re already offensive enough as it is! LOL!
So let me guess, Hastert is going to hold the Page for Foley… now THAT would be aggressive!!!
October 5th, 2006 at 1:30 pm#15 I agree. let’s hear more on the Police Brigade that was just decommissioned because of ties to Death Squads. What’s the status of the US embassy in Iraq? Still ahead of schedule and under budget? didn’t think so. And let’s not forget Mr. Frist’s new inclusion form of government in Afghanistan. Sexual predator coverups aren’t the only things going on.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:34 pmHastert isn’t stepping down. I can’t think of better news for the Democrats.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:35 pmPLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE go on the offense! Blame everyone else. As more and more pages come forward – blame them! As the media reports it all – blame them. As the Democrats decry preying on children blame them. Compare consenual sex between adults to molesting children. Blame the Catholic Church, alcohol and gay staff members. Blame everyone except rich, white, fat, old lechers. Then, once everyone else has been blamed, stand in a circle and shoot each other!
October 5th, 2006 at 1:35 pm#15…..with Republicans it’s all about image and pageantry, just like the Naz….
October 5th, 2006 at 1:36 pmHastert covered up for years this same issue. He has done nothing but blame the democrats for outing this sleezy mess(newsflash, ABC says their source a a Republican ).
He has no one to blame but himself for not doing the right thing to begin with.
Resign you pedophile enabler.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:36 pmSchadenfreude time!!!!!!!!
October 5th, 2006 at 1:36 pmI think she means ‘as they try to be less defensive’ rather than more agressive which is gay bashing if your too agressive according to Mr Hastert, but if your agressive, but not too much, thats a good thing during lock-down mode when changing the mood from defense to offense and blaming your own staffers, that is you can’t be too agressive when going after staffers that might rat you out gay or not, So lock down mode is the sacrifice someone else mode, an offensive tactic not meant to offend, too much. I think.
WTF is Hastert saying…
October 5th, 2006 at 1:39 pmthe offensive = blame everyone but his fat pathetic self
October 5th, 2006 at 1:39 pmThe GOP version of the Nazi “Night of the Long Knives” has begun, to blame Gays for Foley being a sexual predator, but it’s the deeply closeted GOP Representatives and Senators who hate themselves who are the big problem! Closeted GOP men like Mark Foley and Rush Limbaugh are the real danger to America’s youth > not average Gay men! All of the closeted GOP membership must be OUTED in DC immediately!
October 5th, 2006 at 1:40 pmBefore you have your press conf. mr haster, we will put the lie detector on you…hold stilll…mm….there…BEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
October 5th, 2006 at 1:41 pmThe night of the little peckers maybe..
October 5th, 2006 at 1:44 pm“The GOP: Rewriting American History, One Page at a Time.”
Here are more ads for the GOP we’d like to
see…
October 5th, 2006 at 1:49 pmEvery minute that they have to waste on this issue is another minute that they can’t be out raising money and campaigning. Excellent.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:54 pmAmerica’s Least Wanted
What a bunch of CACA. I seem remember a democratic representative that was caught having sex with an underage person back in the 70’s, and not only did he not resign, and not only did all the democrats support him, but when he was chastized, he turned his back on the proceedings.
talk about offensive.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:03 pmThe strategy that was discussed that I believe they’ll use…
…was the Repulsivescum leadership cabal will convince hastert to step up and announce that he’ll step down from the House Speakership NEXT YEAR…
…to as the pundits put it, “stop the bleeding and cauterize the wound”…
…the electorate has a short memory and after a week or two will have forgotten all about this latest scandal…
…C-Span had a Repulsivescum lovefest this morning with Repulsivescum callers ONLY the first 20 minutes…
…Democrats ONLY the second answering the “loaded” question, “should Dems take over Congress?”…
…where MOST of the air(chat)time was given to the obviously FAKE Democrats who called in answering “no”…
…what was MOST telling about the segment and the anchor facilitating it was:
during the Repulsivescum ONLY segment the anchor replied to a caller’s accusation that the Repulsivescum callers calling in on the “NO” (republicans should not retain control of the Congress”…
…”What can I say, people lie”…
…implying that no TRUE partisan Repulsivescum would call in on the “NO” line (and break Party ranks)…
…no such mention of “Dems” doing the same was forthcoming…
…Yes, I’m saying that the C-Span anchorwoman named Susan (whatever her last name is- the OLD broad)…
… is a biased partisan Repulsivescum female genitalia…
October 5th, 2006 at 2:06 pmThere is no question that if Hastert resigns, it’s a HUGE advantage for the Democrats. Having him linger a little is probably ok, but only if he’s resigns soon in discrace, would the advantage be to the Dems.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:26 pmThere is more advantage to Democrats the longer Hastert takes to resign in disgrace. This will make the whole sordid thing look more like a cover-up, and make Republicans look more inept, more indecisive, and more irresponsible…I hope this takes at least several weeks.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:55 pmHe better get a good quarterback, we know he surely isn’t one.
October 5th, 2006 at 3:00 pmHis mind may not be fast enough to go on the offensive.
October 5th, 2006 at 3:02 pmHe should not resign, but stand tall, just like the DUMBOCRATS did, (yes, I stooped to name calling, after all the people called republicans all their vulger slan terms). Read the below.
In 1983, Democratic congressman Gerry Studds was found to have sexually propositioned House pages and actually buggered a 17-year-old male page whom he took on a trip to Portugal. The 46-year-old Studds indignantly attacked those who criticized him for what he called a “mutually voluntary, private relationship between adults.”
When the House censured Studds for his sex romp with a male page, Studds — not one to be shy about presenting his backside to a large group of men — defiantly turned his back on the House during the vote. He ran for re-election and was happily returned to office SIX more times by liberal Democratic voters in his Martha’s Vineyard district. (They really liked his campaign slogan: “It’s the outfit, stupid.”)
Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy referred to Studds’ affair with a teenage page as “a brief consenting homosexual relationship” and denounced Studds’ detractors for engaging in a “witch hunt” against gays: “New England witch trials belong to the past, or so it is thought. This summer on Cape Cod, the reputation of Rep Gerry Studds was burned at the stake by a large number of his constituents determined to torch the congressman for his private life.”
Meanwhile, Foley is hiding in a hole someplace.
No one demanded to know why the Democrat Speaker of the House, Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, took one full decade to figure out that Studds was propositioning male pages.
But now, the same Democrats who are incensed that Bush’s National Security Agency was listening in on al-Qaida phone calls are incensed that Republicans were not reading a gay congressman’s instant messages.
Let’s run this past the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: The suspect sent an inappropriately friendly e-mail to a teenager — oh also, we think he’s gay. Can we spy on his instant messages? On a scale of 1 to 10, what are the odds that any court in the nation would have said: YOU BET! Put a tail on that guy — and a credit check, too!
When Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee found unprotected e-mails from the Democrats about their plan to oppose Miguel Estrada’s judicial nomination because he was Hispanic, Democrats erupted in rage that their e-mails were being read. The Republican staffer responsible was forced to resign.
October 5th, 2006 at 3:16 pmDouglas.G
You are a typical Republican, whatever you do it is okay provided some Democrat did it over 20 years ago. Gee I wonder why I keep on bringing up that a country should not be being run by a bunch of four year olds.
October 5th, 2006 at 3:37 pmMan, Drudge is going nuts throwing every single manufactured talking point up that he can, to the point of being downright hysterical…
Yesterday, he posted a story alledging that the page was 18 when the incident happened…
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashmfa.htm
Today, he is saying that the whole incedent was merely a prank…
http://www.drudgereport.com/page.htm
What next?
October 5th, 2006 at 3:39 pmI can see it all now….The Republicans come back and convince the media that “who knew what and when†and try to refocus on who leaked the emails and IM’s. They pull it off and the media picks up the trail and start going on the trail of who leaked and it will somehow turn out to be Dems…. The story will get all cloudy and the Democrats will screw it up again and not be able stay on point. And finally we lose the election yay, Nice job! You laugh? Watch
October 5th, 2006 at 4:05 pmFOLEY IM’s WERE PRANK
According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL IM exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, it was revealed today.
According to one Oklahoma source who knows the former page very well, Edmund, goaded an unwitting Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos. The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of Dem political operatives.
The primary source, an ally of Edmund, adamantly proclaims that the former page is not a homosexual. The prank scenario was confirmed by a second associate of Edmund. Both are fearful that their political careers will be affected if they are publicly brought into the matter.
The news come on the heels that Edmund has hired former Timothy McVeigh attorney, Stephen Jones.
October 5th, 2006 at 4:59 pmBruce+Gorton,
I am not saying it’s right, I am saying that you can’t have one set of standards and morals for one group, and hold another group to differing standards.
You also can’t say it’s ok last year, but not ok this year, or vice versa.
All I was saying, hold all senator’s and representatives equally responsible.
October 5th, 2006 at 6:05 pmTime for the FBI to seize Hastert’s computers and get his emails.
October 5th, 2006 at 6:31 pmDouglas.G
The law was different back then. Morally Studds was wrong, but the law was such that his actions didn’t violate it, therefore there wasn’t a great deal the Dems or the Republicans could do about it. His constituents voted for him, as was their right, and he got in.
Now there are new laws which outlaw the behavior demonstrated by Foley, and all we are saying is, enforce the law.
Your argument fails on the concept that you cannot punish old behavior based on new laws.
Take this as an example: Lets say the government changes the law as of today saying that you can’t wear yellow, yet you wore yellow yesterday, can you be punished for that?
October 6th, 2006 at 4:03 amDouglas.G
The Democrats have never actively tried to really make sexual morality a major argument, I mean Democrats are pro-Gay rights because ultimately, most Democrats just point blank don’t care who is screwing who. The Republicans, however, have made a huge thing of sexual morality. They have also been anti-Gay, as well as being the party which is first in most cases to make sexual misconduct an issue of public debate. I mean, remember the Clinton scandal? That was not an argument over whether Clinton lied in Congress, lets be honest here, it was an argument over Clinton having extra-marital sex.
The major point of outrage is not just the exploitation of a minor, but also the fact that Hastert covered it up for fear of what it would do to the elections. Here he demonstrated that of all the things he was worried about, how it would look to the electorate was the most important, he put the party before the pages, and before what a lot of people see as having been his responsibility. With the Studds scandal so far as I am aware there wasn’t this culture of “Hide it quick” with the Democrats.
Like a lot of people have pointed out, if Hastert had revealed it when he first knew about it, had he called for Foley’s resignation then, then this wouldn’t have been an issue. It was the fact that it was a cover-up and a cover-up that demonstrated yet again, where the Republican’s priorities lie, that has caused the major moral outrage.
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