Gee I’ll take “Kick-Backs” and “Pay-Offs” for $500, Alex.
You don’t get enough money to pay off $3.5 million to an extorter by good business sense, investments or through work as a public servant - I should add, honestly.
Obviously he has been a gigolo for all these years. That's the secret he's been paying to keep. Right?
lying, cheating, and stealing, Thats how.
All these “so called reps” get into it for the inside dealing everyone else would be imprisoned for.
So what else is new? Only the GOP seems to be affected or charged in large part.
Hastert was able to keep all of his campaign donations when he retired. He was unopposed for several terms yet continued his fund raising efforts.
Politicians should be made to give the extra money they raise back to the party. It would eliminate the monetary incentive to serve term after term.
I remember reading a book by one of the McClure Magazine muckrakers who devoted a few chapters to George Washington Plunkitt. He was a colorful character as well as a crook, but he understood his limitations. He spent more than a few paragraphs explaining the difference between honest and dishonest graft.
At best, Denny might have lived up to the George Washington Plunkitt standard, unlike more contemporary politicians whom I could name that do not.
Unfortunately, most politicians are corrupt, but since we can’t say with certain that all of them are, we tend to believe that it’s those other politicians who are the crooks, not our politicians.
Until we stop voting for crooks, we will get more crooks. They are in politics because that’s where the money is. At the Presidential level, we had to elect Nixon to find out that he was a crook. We were pretty sure that Clinton was a crook, but people loved him anyway. Next year will will have an opportunity to vote for someone who is beyond question a liar and a crook. She may well be our next President.
There is a difference that we need to remember about Republicans and Democrats. When Republicans are caught in the cookie jar, they are usually finished in politics. When Democrats are caught, that becomes a resume enhancement.
He and Jane Harmon both after leaving congress became lobbyists for the US defense industry and sold military weapons to middle eastern countries. They both likely made millions.
Maybe he had good partners...
Land deals with Reid?
Cattle futures with Hillary?
Pervert or not and this is not about that but about illegal withdrawal limits of yer own $$......I am still curious if blackmail is now legal and what bout that guys status..he is still unnamed?
And this is why we are not likely to have term limits any time soon even though a majority of Americans favor them. Public service is way too lucrative.
What cabal is controlling the Republican leadership. I think Hastert is not the only homosexual that has been in house leadership. What pedophilia rings exist that service these “men”? There have been stories in the press and only now is it bubbling up to the top.
Could it be that he was put into this position by people who knew of his "proclivities" and knew he would do what he was told for fear of being exposed?
If it's true that someone has the power to put a pedophile into the Speaker's chair, then our entire government is a corrupt criminal enterprise.
Wake up and face this fact! We have a One-Party system that is controlled by elites. They hate freedom and lust for totalitarian control. If you think the GOP is going to save America, you are under mind control.
Winning an election = winning a lottery to most of them. This is just more proof.
“How Did Denny Hastert Get Rich Enough to Pay Millions to an Accuser?”
These political hacks have been picking our pockets for years.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dennis-hastert-scandal/story?id=31443570
I HAVE said over and over, the law that is bringing down Hastert is probably illegal and the crap about Tom Delay by Austin DA more CRAP but those two did more to ruin the Republican brand than anybody in the past 20 years. Glad there was some way they had to pay a price.