Buh Bye Denny
posted by
Wally
8:58 AM
Take one look at Rep. Denny Hastert (R-IL) and you realize that if there's gravy around, he's pushing his way to the trough. So it's no surprise that he's at the front of the Republican parade marching out of Congress and onto the lobbying gravy-train, getting out while the revolving doors are still spinning.
As of Monday night, Denny is no longer a Congresscritter, and available on K-Street. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert resigned from Congress on Monday, bringing to an end his nearly 21 years representing the Fox Valley in Washington, D.C.
The 69-year-old Kendall County Republican delivered his final speech on the House floor earlier this month, announcing that he would retire before year's end, though he did not offer specifics. This summer, Hastert announced that he would not seek re-election after his 11th term ends in January 2009. He says, of course, that it's to spend more time with his family, but I doubt it.
Starting next year, according to new Congressional ethics rules, retiring congressmen will have to wait at least 2 years before moving into the extremely lucrative lobbying world. Currently, they don't even need to wait 2 minutes, leading to some blatant conflicts of interest, such as when Billy Tauzin (R-LA) wrote the Medicare drug law and then immediately quit congress to go work for the drug companies who will benefit from the new law. Then on Monday, Trent Lott (R-MS) suddenly announced that he's giving up his leadership positions to retire before the end of the year, amid suggestions that he too will be taking a high paid position with a lobbying firm.
Until Lott's announcement, I was naive enough to believe that maybe Denny Hastert actually was resigning early due to scandal and embarrassment, and to give the Republicans a better chance of winning his open seat because Illinois will have to hold a special election (rather than the GOP having their asses handed to them in the general election). In his letter to Blagojevich, Hastert said that he had been advised to resign by Monday to allow Blagojevich time to call the special primary on Feb. 5, the same day as the scheduled primary. "This will minimize inconvenience to the voters and expense to the counties in the 14th Congressional District," Hastert wrote. After seeing Lott's statement, however, I've changed my assessment. Denny is just smarter and/or faster than Lott - and how embarrassing is it to be slower than fat-Denny?
Any bets on how long until he's collecting a K-Street paycheck fat enough to be commensurate with his ass?
Good riddance
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