House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was scheduled to be interviewed tonight by Chicago radio host John Williams. His previous radio appearances had been exclusively with conservative sympathizers like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Williams is a moderate who planned to ask tough questions.

But Hastert never showed.

This evening, National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez published this face-saving post at The Corner:

A top source in the speaker’s office tells me: “We never booked WGN. Am not aware of a call.”

But according to the show’s producer Matt Bubala, who spoke to ThinkProgress tonight, the interview was very much scheduled, and Hastert staffers apparently were not telling the truth about why Hastert bailed on the show.

Bubala said the statement by the anonymous Hastert staffer was a “flat out lie.” He says that Hastert’s deputy press secretary Chris Taylor emailed him midday — before Kirk Fordham’s revelations were made public — requesting an interview with Williams for tonight. As the scheduled time for the interview approached, Bubala said, Taylor called several times claiming that Hastert was on an important call and likely might not be available in time for the interview. But according to Bubala, an employee for WGN’s sister television station said that while Hastert was supposedly on a telephone call, a WGN cameraman was filming Hastert arriving at and entering his home in Illinois.

Blame it all on a gay cabal.

A newly translated letter from al-Qaeda’s leadership to their Iraq organization shows the Bush administration’s “stay the course” Iraq strategy is exactly what al Qaeda wants:

The most important thing is that you continue in your jihad in Iraq, and that you be patient and forbearing, even in weakness, and even with fewer operations; even if each day had half of the number of current daily operations, that is not a problem, or even less than that. So, do not be hasty. The most important thing is that the jihad continues with steadfastness and firm rooting, and that it grows in terms of supporters, strength, clarity of justification, and visible proof each day. Indeed, prolonging the war is in our interest, with God’s permission.

This summer, Bush administration officials repeatedly justified their Iraq policy by pointing to al Qaeda propaganda. One example of many:

DAN BARTLETT: So, it doesn’t matter what we say. We should be taking the – the words of the enemy seriously. They think [Iraq is] the fight of the war on terror, so, we must as well. [8/31/06]

Will the White House change its tune now that al Qaeda has endorsed “stay the course”?

(HT: Abu Aardvark)

Digg It!

Here’s the AP:

A senior congressional aide said Wednesday that he alerted House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s office two years ago about worrisome conduct by former Rep. Mark Foley with teenage pages.

Kirk Fordham told The Associated Press that when he was told about Foley’s inappropriate behavior toward pages, he had “more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene.”

The conversations took place long before the e-mail scandal broke, Fordham said, and at least a year earlier than members of the House GOP leadership have acknowledged.

UPDATE: Hastert’s spokesman says Fordham is lying:

Despite claims by senior congressional aide Kirk Fordham that he notified House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s office more than two years ago about possible inappropriate contact between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and underage congressional pages, the Speaker’s office is insisting it did nothing wrong in its handling of the situation.

“That never happened,” Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean told ABC News about the report.

UPDATE II: CNN has Fordham’s full statement. An excerpt:

Rather than trying to shift the blame on me, those who are employed by these House Leaders should acknowledge what they know about their action or inaction in response to the information they knew about Mr. Foley prior to 2005.

UPDATE III: Newest AP story says Fordham told Hastert’s top staffers three years ago.