Posted on 06/16/2007 9:58:42 AM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Few politicians fall as far and as fast as Dennis Hastert, but the longest-serving Republican House speaker in history landed with his sense of humor intact.
"I do have a schedule," he laughs when asked how he fills his time in the minority and proves it by holding up a printed card that lists his day's events.
He also has a postcard-gorgeous view of the National Mall from his Capitol office, one floor beneath his former suite. "Lower to the ground," Hastert chuckles, a self-deprecating reference to the lofty position he held for eight years in an era of terrorism and political tumult.
The memories are fresh.
Looking out his office on Sept. 11, 2001, Hastert could see smoke rising from the wounded Pentagon. Several attempts to reach Vice President Dick Cheney on a secure line had been unsuccessful. The phone rang in the speaker's office and without waiting for a secretary to answer, he picked up.
Instead of Cheney, "It was some wacko, saying, `What in the hell are you guys doing in Washington. Taxes are way too high,'" Hastert, R-Ill., recalls.
"I told him he had the wrong number."
A tough partisan, he has no apologies for the time Republicans kept the House in session all night to pass Medicare prescription drug legislation bitterly opposed by Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Name one thing Hastert did while he served as Speaker. I honestly cannot think of a single thing he was instumental in accomplishing.
Good riddance. The GOP was tragically ill-served by this turkey — not to mention Bill Frist.
Two pathetic contributors (among many) to the demise of the Republican Party.
Flame on, if you have done your homework, mates. *S*
PS: Have a great weekend.
Exactly this was a worth less speaker so to speak... did he not get his pants in a wad when the FBI raided William Jeffersons office?
“At home, Hastert no longer travels on a chartered jet raising millions for GOP candidates.”
You can bet your booties that PeloSICK has her chartered jet.
He got a freeway on and off ramp near some land he owns.
He got fatter.’
He lost the house.
BYE BYE Dennie, Don’t let the door bang you in the a$$ on you way out.
Gee, they're still telling us that only we have to press one for English first.
Too late for “grace.”
>>t was some wacko, saying, `What in the hell are you guys doing in Washington. Taxes are way too high,’” Hastert, R-Ill., recalls.<<
Of course, in his mind, this is what Bastert thinks of anyone who dares say such things. They are wackos.
He also thinks Congressmen are above the law (re: searching Wm. Jefferson’s office).
Good riddance to bad rubbish. There’s still plenty left to go, though.
I don’t think Hastert was that successful when he campaigned for colleagues, was he? I know he couldn’t help the conservative Jay Dickey in Clinton’s AR in 2000. And his help for Clyde Holloway in LA in 2002 didn’t make a difference.
On September 11, 2001, Hastert was a whole lot nicer to that idiot that called than I would have been, and I wasn't in a place where I could watch the smoke.
Hey fatso, with your new free time, you may want to brush up on the following, fecalith:
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
If one of us was in Hastert’s position we’d be furious at our minority status and fighting with all we had to prevent the liberals from enacting their agenda. Hastert tours Europe and champions global warming.
LOL! Hastert, due to his indolent regime, deserves to come down a bit in the world. Why everything important was put on hold during those years is beyond me, but not far beyond, I fear.
>>On September 11, 2001, Hastert was a whole lot nicer to that idiot that called than I would have been, and I wasn’t in a place where I could watch the smoke.<<
Maybe the “idiot” you refer to wasn’t near the TV or a radio, and was unaware we were under attack.
He was certainly right in what he said to Bastert, though.
Bastert has proven himself to be worthless. Good riddance.
All the bitchers on FR should take a hike to the Daily Kos.
Thank you for that. What a poet! What a tribute! God bless America.
Apparently he is as much a grifter as Pelosi, Clinton etc. I guess Dick Morris’ book Outrage tells about a lot of this - both Republican and Democrat.
Amazing how they go to D.C. as ordinary people and come out millionaires. Most are smarter at going about it than William Jefferson.
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