Speaker Hastert Should Resign

Does Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert really understand what is going on? You would think he would resign if he did. This is not some members writing bank overdrafts, or even accepting bribes. While these things are wrong, I can understand Hastert protecting members of his own party.

But this matter is far worse. This is about a child molester being allowed to operate while being a member of the United States House of Representatives. This is about the House of Representatives not protecting the children put in their care. This is about the Speaker of the House protecting a child molester, allowing that molester to remain in office and on a committee dedicated to children's needs, and allowing that molester to continue to molest children for months after it was known by Republican leadership that his actions were not proper.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the third man in line for succession to the office of President of the United States. I don't think Hastert has shown enough good judgement to continue in such an important position. If he did not know Foley was a molester, he certainly had enough evidence to warrant an investigation to make sure the House pages were protected. But he did nothing.

Dennis Hastert has failed in his responsibilities to the House pages, his fellow members of Congress, and all Americans. He should resign his position as Speaker of the House.



UPDATE - Kirk Fordham, a senior Congressional aide who resigned today, now says that he personally informed Republican House leaders of Foley's disgusting behavior back in 2004. Fordham said he had several discussions with House leadership, including Speaker Hastert, and asked them to do something about Foley. This is a year earlier than the Republican leaders are currently admitting to. This thing just keeps getting worse and worse. Now we know that they covered for this child molester for at least two years. Inexcusable!