They may madden you, but without them you are looking at less than 200 seats in the house, and 40 senators.
Good luck with that. The party has aligned itself with the values voters, and it's not easy to re-align a party to win back disaffected non-value fiscal conservatives who have gone to the democrats or two 3rd parties or are just out of politics.
We've spent 30 years picking and choosing wedge issues on both sides of the aisle trying to find that illusive 51% majority.
Value voters are easy to get (just a few issues), are hard workers, and show up to vote. Unless they don't see the difference between the parties.
Frankly, I don't think it is too much to ask as a voter that the leadership take more seriously e-mails which make young men uncomfortable, or at least to fully follow their OWN PROCESS, which should have included the entire 3-member page panel. And it wouldn't have killed Hastert to actually READ the e-mails.
That, plus Hastert's botching of the issue on Friday with his dismissive comments, make it nearly impossible for him to look good now. He had a good story, but once you get it wrong, it looks like you are lying to cover it up.
Hastert deserves better, because he's a good man, but the fact that he didn't see the importance of getting his team together and getting all the facts before everybody started speaking is enough to show that he has some pretty serious flaws as a leader.