August 17, 2007
Hastert Describes Loss Of Speakership As Liberating
UPDATED.
Illinois Rep. Dennis Hastert confirmed today that he will not seek re-election next year, bringing a 20-year career in Congress to an end.
"When I started in Congress I had two young boys, and it's really quite something to be here today with my grandson," Hastert said in front of the Kendall County courthouse, near his home in Plano, Ill. With his family standing in the background, Hastert told the cheering crowd of supporters, friends and associates, "As some have speculated, after much consideration, I have decided not to seek another term in Congress."
After listing the accomplishments he was proudest of, from reducing the "death tax" to President Bush's tax cuts to Congress' anti-terrorism efforts after 9/11, Hastert mused, "Who would have guessed that a wrestling coach from Kendall County in Illinois would be the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives?"
Even before losing the speakership last November, Hastert, 65, had expressed a wish to step down from the intense, daily duties of House leadership. According to the 2006 edition of the Almanac of American Politics (subscription), Hastert in recent years had traded his house in for a farm, "where he paints duck decoys and has a 1954 fire engine in the barn."
The "accidental speaker" has seen his party through the height of its power to some of its lowest moments. Just three years ago, Republicans believed they were just around the corner from a permanent majority. In that time, various scandals and the Iraq war have nearly cut Republican domination of Washington off at the knees.
Hastert is an almost cuddly figure in the House, but the protege of Tom DeLay is about as partisan as they come. After years of ruling the roost, Hastert found himself directly under fire for his puzzling management of the Jack Abramoff and Mark Foley scandals. By the November midterms, Hastert's name had become a political weapon for Democratic candidates in stump speeches and on the airwaves. If current trends continue, Hastert next year will leave behind an increasingly vulnerable GOP minority and a seat (Ill.-14) that's up for grabs.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune that ran this morning, Hastert indicated that his party's newfound minority status, which cost him the speakership, wasn't the sole reason for his departure.
"When you are speaker, you're almost a prisoner in that office," he said. "You really didn't go out of your office because they had 26 people asking you for something without an appointment, just trying to grab you."
Hastert added that becoming one of the rank and file had actually been liberating.
"I can get on the floor and talk with people and kind of touch everybody without the same people in your face asking for something all the time," he said.
Hastert denied that various GOP scandals helped cost his party control of Congress. Instead, he blamed the public's desire for a shortcut out of the Iraq war.
"The American people would like to see a war of three months and drop a bomb from 40,000 feet and say, 'We've done the job.' But to really make changes in government in a place like Iraq or Afghanistan is a long, hard, dirty process," the congressman said.
Judging by his previous comments, it seems likely that Hastert's departure actually is a retirement and not a means to trade up to a K Street salary. Still, Hastert told a radio program this morning that he won't disappear from public service altogether.
"Whatever I'm going to be doing, I'm going to still be [an] advocate for people in Illinois," he said. "Just a little different capacity maybe, and I'm not sure what that is yet."
Posted at 3:28 PM
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Campaigns, Congress, Dennis Hastert, House
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