“The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest monthly level in nearly two years as American GIs fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war.”

In the latest false defense of Speaker Hastert, Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL) said today on CBS’s Face the Nation that Hastert showed “strong leadership” in dealing with the Tom DeLay scandal. LaHood falsely claimed, “When Tom [DeLay] was having ethical problems, the speaker wen to him and asked him to leave.” Watch it:

In reality, Hastert repeatedly defended DeLay’s ethical misconduct and attempted to shield him from any responsibility. Hastert replaced the Republican Chairman of the House ethics committee, Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO), after the committee admonished DeLay. The House, under Hastert’s leadership, then passed a rule change that would have shielded DeLay from having to step down from his leadership post if he were indicted. The rule was later rescinded. DeLay resigned only after “a Texas grand jury indicted him and two associates on charges of conspiracy in fundraising.”

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“For the past five years, Sen. George Allen, has failed to tell Congress about stock options he got for his work as a director of a high-tech company,” an AP analysis shows. “Congressional rules require senators to disclose to the Senate all deferred compensation, such as stock options.”

Today on Meet the Press, Bob Woodward described how Vice President Dick Cheney called him 10 days ago about Woodward’s new book State of Denial. Woodward says Cheney cursed at him (“he said what I was saying was bull-something”) and then hung up the phone.

Woodward called Cheney’s behavior a “metaphor for what’s going on. Hang up when somebody has a different point of view or information you don’t want to deal with.” Watch it:

Digg It!

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Freshman Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has been appearing on television shows all week suggesting that the Foley scandal was engineered by Democrats for electoral advantage. Today on CNN’s Late Edition, he said “all the fact points lead to one question”: whether House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) timed the release of the Foley emails.

In response to his talk of “fact points,” Wolf Blitzer asked McHenry five separate times whether he had any evidence whatsoever to support his conspiracy theory. McHenry had no answer. Watch it:

The Hill reported last week that the source who gave Foley’s emails to news media says the documents came from a congressional aide “who has been a registered Republican since becoming eligible to vote.”

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Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), the top House Republican campaign official who was told of Foley’s emails last spring, was “booked weeks ago” for an appearance on ABC’s This Week, and “confirmed his appearance on Wednesday.” But by Saturday, “his office canceled without explanation.” A spokesman later said he had “flu-like symptoms.” A new poll shows him 15 points behind his opponent.

In an effort to defend Speaker Dennis Hastert’s failure to act on warnings about Mark Foley’s predatory behavior, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), the vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, claimed on Fox News this morning, “The speaker’s job is to protect the majority. … Why would the speaker protect one member in a safe Republican seat? He would not try to risk the majority for that. There would be no reason for him to have that motivation.” Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA) responded that the prescise reason Hastert didn’t act was due to political considerations: “He didn’t want to risk his majority.” Watch it:

Hastert’s duty to protect the pages should have superceded his desire to “protect the majority.” Kingston’s comments underscore the reason why the House leadership has landed in the trouble they are now in. Rather than addressing the Foley scandal from the perspective of protecting children, the leadership turned a blind eye to the problem, viewing it as a threat to its political power. Some examples:

– Hastert acknowledged Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) came to inform him of Foley’s inappropriate emails “in the context of maybe a half a dozen or a dozen other things…that might have affected campaigns.”

– Hastert said the Foley scandal “is a political issue” and that “there are some people that try to tear us down.”

– Rather than address the issue in a bipartisan way that would have underscored a common desire to protect the young interns, the conservative chair of the House Page Board — Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) — refused to inform the Democrat on the committee — Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI).

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