The speaker's inner circle is a political money-raising machine that provides a window on the way Washington worksWASHINGTON -- In his first campaign for the Illinois legislature nearly a quarter-century ago, Dennis Hastert had a problem. He had plenty of campaign posters, but no wooden stakes to make yard signs. His friend Dan Mattoon had the solution. Mattoon knew where former Rep. Tom Corcoran kept hundreds of wooden stakes and, as lore has it, he took them for Hastert without bothering to tell Corcoran. Since that time, Mattoon, 52, now one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists, and Hastert (R-Ill.), 63,...