Should be no surprise. Sexual abuse, corruption, and hypocrisy. Politicians at work. Within the last decade’s tally of sexual transgressions by politician’s holding federal offices we had Senator John Ensign of Nevada (who slept with an employee who was his best friend’s wife), Senator David Vitter of Louisiana who frequented high-end prostitutes (but was forgiven by God and his wife and re-elected), Senator Larry Craig of Idaho who made advances to a plain clothes policeman in an airport bathroom, Representative Mark Foley of Florida who went after underage Senate pageboys, Representative Anthony Wiener who texted his genitals to uninterested women, and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina who was elected to Congress by the good citizens of South Carolina in spite of his affair and lying about his whereabouts as governor (took the Appalachian trail). We don’t know how many other sexual misadventures never saw the light of day. But if state and local officials were included, the list could become endless. Of course, we also had politicians who committed “only” financial crimes without illicit sexual activity. And now we have former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert in the spotlight.
Republican Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007, Dennis Hastert, previously one of the most powerful politicians in the nation, appears to have been involved in sexual crimes before his election to Congress, then committed financial crimes during and after his service in the House. These were done both to cover-up his sexual felonies and for personal enrichment. Though once second in line for the presidency, his office was a fountain of corruption while he was a member of Congress and particularly while he was Speaker. Involved in real estate deals and purchasing land with partners in Illinois, he used an earmark to fund a highway interchange a mile from the land he had bought (the interchange opposed by the Illinois Department of Transportation and local residents). Needless to say, he realized a huge profit from his transaction when the value of the land soared.
He also protected Tom DeLay and other ethically challenged Republican Congressmen, firing the Shutterstock_231013246GOP members of the Ethics Committee when they reprimanded DeLay in 2004. As the author of the “Hastert rule,” he would not allow bills to be voted on by the House unless they were first passed by a majority of Republicans, not permitting any Democratic input and increasing partisanship. Though subsisting on a high school teacher’s salary before his election to Congress, his net worth upon his departure was estimated at between $4 million and $17 million. And after leaving Congress, like so many of his colleagues, Hastert became a lobbyist.
His recent transgressions which resulted in his indictment involved lying to the FBI and conducting illegal bank transfers. It appears that much of this activity was to cover-up sexual felonies committed by Hastert while he was still a high school teacher and wrestling coach in Illinois. He apparently abused at least two male students at the school and was using the money he was withdrawing to pay for the silence of one of the students, having given him $1.7 million by the time he was indicted. The other boy with whom Hastert had relations subsequently died of AIDS in 1995. His told his sister before dying that he was gay and that his first homosexual contact had been with Hastert, their relationship lasting throughout his high school years. Hastert is a family values, conservative Republican, so hypocrisy can be placed on top of his criminal acts, immorality, and unethical behavior, not an unusual pathway for a politician.
Hastert was a man who might have been president in spite of the conduct noted above, and an individual of great power in Congress who helped determine the direction of the nation. Is there something wrong with the way citizens attain power in America’s democracy?
Resurrecting Democracy
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Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020