One would think that the Republican Party would vet the man they elect to be Speaker of the House and third in line for the presidency.
I remember the late journalist Bob Novak (one of my favorites) predicting correctly that Hastert would be Gingrich’s successor when others were not sure who Hastert was. Bob talked about how everybody in the House liked Hastert. Obviously, Mr. Novak was fooled too, and he was supposedly one who could find where the bodies are buried.
Normally he probably would have been but with events at the time moving so quickly and with the need for a leader perceived as squeaky clean they may not have felt there was time for internal vetting. The rumors had certainly been circulating for a while even with no direct evidence. If nothing else, is a sad and instructive blowback to an era before domestic violence and rape laws that are so easy to idealize by current standards.