You might be right, but he obviously pressured Jack Ryan out of the race, and if he did that not knowing who was going to replace him, that shows idiotic judgement if nothing else.
I tend to think that, Ryan, like Fitzgerald, would have gained enough power had he been elected to appoint some people that would have cleaned house, and threatened too many of his friends. That's why Fitzgerald was chased out, and that's why I simply don't trust Hastert.
I don't know that he is a bad man, but I do not trust him. I'd much rather see Dreier or DeLay as speaker. Or heck, even Roy Blunt.
However, unlike Sir Slickenstein, he believes in a philosophy-which unfortunately, as in the case of the fraudulent and wasteful expansion of Medicare, he occasionally corrupts, in a misguided pursuit of conservative goals, in that case, the reelection of President Bush-that extends beyond his own parochial interests.
Believe me, he knows the field.
You will never see him attempting to become Speaker of the House, come what may.