Posted on 11/09/2006 9:39:54 AM PST by meg88
Hastert Will Step Down Exclusive: The Speaker bows out of the Republican leadership after Democrats take his power. The contest to succeed him will help define the Republican Party in a new era of divided government. By MIKE ALLEN/WASHINGTON
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will not seek reelection to the Republican leadership when his members return as a minority party after taking heavy losses in Tuesday's elections, a Republican official tells TIME.
Hastert, 64, a low-key former high school wrestling coach, was beloved by members as a "good cop," compared to the enforcer style of the longtime number two leader, former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).
But Hastert was badly damaged by questions about how much he had known about former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and his contact with pages, and members felt Hastert also handled the aftermath of the revelations clumsily.
The battle to succeed him will be bruising, as members attempt to allocate blame for the Foley mess.
Among those seeking to replace him at the top of the House leadership, which will now be the minority leader, are House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), now second in the House leadership, and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the House conservative caucus, the Republican Study Committee.
Other possible candidates are Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), now chief deputy whip and one of the most popular and hard-working members of the leadership, and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), now chairman of Energy and Committee.
The Speaker plans to announce his departure this week and perhaps as soon as today, officials said. Leadership elections are scheduled for next Wednesday but are likely to be pushed back to closer to the deadline under party rules, which is Dec. 20.
Hastert had long planned not to seek reelection to his House seat in 2008.
His official biography says he is the first Republican Speaker in more than a century and one of only two Republicans to preside over consecutive electoral seat gains in the U.S House of Representatives, and is also one of two Republicans to be reelected Speaker for four consecutive terms.
Heading for the tall grass is more like it.........
About time. He was tone-deaf, idea-deficient leader. We need someone like Mike Pence to deliver the conservative message.
Hasstert take Bohnier, Blunt, Retnolds, Melhman and Liddy Dole with you.
JUST SAY NO TO TRENT LOTT!
Hope they reinforced the floor under the step.
This is a good start in helping to clean up the mess...
The Delay/Hastert era ran its course...I'd like to see new leadership there.
He was part of the "useless agenda". Glad he is going. He was NOT A LEADER.
Duh award.. LOL!
never really had much faith in Hastert. Probably a heck of a nice guy, but quite frankly, not a clever politician.
His political career is over, I don't think he has the stomach (no pun intended) to run in 2008 and be a back-bencher.
Good! Needs someone with a spine.
He was no Newt .. that is for sure!
Did we really lose the Senate?
I dont think we really had it anyway.
But I am thankful that we got two judges.
I dont think the Sheeple understand how we get judges
though.
Mike Pence sounds good to me.
I tend to agree with that. Defending Jefferson was indefensible.
That was the problem. DeLay supported Hastert knowing he (DeLay) would never be Speaker. For his part Hastert supported Delay in pushing Armey out.
WHY do they (DBM) always refer to Hastert as a "low-key former high school wrestling coach"? I have seen that several times, but I've never seen anyone in the lamestream refer to, oh say Robert Bird as a "high-strung former Klan recruiter"!
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