http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_061004_hastert_3a_should_he_s.htmOctober 4, 2006 at 11:30:10
Hastert: Should He Stay or Should He Go?
by Rob Kall
http://www.opednews.com Will dumping Hastert send a message that will hurt the Republicans? Or will keeping him send a worse message that they can't police their own, they refuse to confront their problems, their corruption, their failures?
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In Hastert's Illinois 14th district, his Democratic opponent,
John Laesch's campaign has been inundated with phone calls and emails from new volunteers and what had seemed to be a daunting race against a massively better funded opponent is looking better and better. Laesch, a veteran who served in the middle east, is seeing the campaign take off, with a big jump in campaign contributions over the weekend and a flock of mainstream media interviews including CNN, CBS, NPR, Washington Times, Ed Schultz...Up until recently, Hastert had refused to debate Laesch. The way things are going, Hastert may be begging Laesch for debates, if the beleaguered congressman even stays in the race.
If the Republican leadership decides to allow Hastert to stay, they'll be setting up the Dems with a beautifully ugly target.
Hastert, who has been able to stay in the background most of the time, really is an ugly politician, whose face alone is a real liability. And when he starts talking, he sound stupid, nasty, and like the sterotypical back-room, cigar smoking politician Americans have grown to despise.If the intensity of the media coverage continues even a few more days, Hastert's failure to do his job, his cover-up of the internet sexual predatiobns of Foley could collapse the whole republican termite hive down.