Hastert to screw conservatives, again

As I discussed earlier, former Speaker of the House, Congressman Denny Hastert is no friend of the conservative movement.

It's too early to pop the champagne to celebrate his retirement, because Hastert may be lining up to screw conservatives again. It is being rumored that Hastert may resign in November to ensure succession by his hand-picked (and liberal) associate.

From Evans-Novak Political Report (via Politico.com):

According to the Evans-Novak Political Report, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will be resigning from Congress in November, instead of retiring at the end of his term. If true, this could have significant ramifications in determining his successor.

A shortened special election campaign would likely benefit the candidates with the highest name recognition and the deepest pockets. Among Republicans, that status belongs to dairy owner Jim Oberweis, who has run unsuccessfully in three previous statewide bids for governor and for the Senate.

Conservative state Sen. Chris Lauzen is Oberweis’ main challenger, but he has feuded with Hastert in the past. Several Illinois Republicans speculate that Hastert’s decision to resign stems from wanting to help Oberweis win the nomination. [emphasis added]

The truth about Denny

American Spectator editor R. Emmett Tyrrell has an excellent piece unmasking former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert's real legacy.

The highlights:

His period as Speaker marked the Republican congressional delegation's final decay from Reagan splendor to the provincial Republicanism of an earlier era...

He also opened the floodgates to Congressional spending. He also turned a blind eye to the petty corruption that beset the House during his term. He encouraged mediocrity and held back young principled Republicans of the Reaganite variety. He allowed the Republican Party to return to the era of pork barrel deal making...

The result was the Reagan Administration, an amalgam of the best of the rising right and the old liberal consensus developed at the beginning of the Cold War. It was a politics of ideas. Irving Kristol had pronounced modern politics the domain of ideas and he was right. Hastert, the retired high school wrestling coach, had no appetite for ideas. Until Republicans return to a politics of Reaganite ideas, they will be as antiquated as the Democrats and infinitely less interesting.