Hastert in Danger Even if GOP Keeps the House

WASHINGTON — The future of the House speaker, Rep. Dennis Hastert, is in doubt even if the Republicans retain control of the House because of unease among GOP lawmakers about his handling of the Foley page scandal and what a House ethics committee investigation might conclude about him, according to several Republican aides.House Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor, a Republican of Virginia, said last week that the House Republican leadership elections scheduled for November 15 should be postponed until the ethics committee delivers its final report. The House majority leader, Rep. John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, confirmed yesterday on “Fox News Sunday” that he and Mr. Hastert have discussed that possibility and said, “We’ll see how Tuesday goes, and then we’ll make some decisions.”If Democrats seize control of the House in tomorrow’s election, as many political analysts and pollsters are predicting, then Mr. Hastert is widely expected to exit the leadership stage and allow a new generation of Republican leaders to try to recapture the majority. Mr. Hastert, 64, the longest serving Republican speaker, remains personally popular with House Republicans, but the discontent with his often lackadaisical, hands-off style is palpable.“I believe that members have the highest regard for the speaker, his honesty, his integrity, and his high ethical standards,” Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican of North Carolina, said. “But the last two years have been very tough for us as a majority. There’s no doubt about that. Certainly, we need to have a better direction, vision, and drive than we’ve had during the 109th Congress.”The speaker and his top aides’ response to warnings that Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican of Florida, had for years been pursuing teenage male pages is part of an emerging pattern that is troubling Republican lawmakers.In early 2004,as House Appropriations Committee investigators prepared to launch a sensitive audit of highly classified Capitol Hill security upgrades, Mr. Hastert’s chief counsel made a surprise visit to the first meeting of the auditors.His message was clear, according to participants: The speaker’s office was not happy about the probe and would keep investigators on a tight leash. In September 2005, despite growing evidence of sweetheart deals, kickbacks, wasteful contracts, and shoddy work, the probe was suddenly shut down.Critics of Mr. Hastert say the incident — first reported by Congressional Quarterly last month — is emblematic of a speaker’s office dominated by powerful senior aides that has repeatedly thwarted aggressive policing of the inner workings of Congress. Two of Mr. Hastert’s top aides — chief of staff Scott Palmer and counsel Ted Van Der Meid — had been warned about Mr. Foley’s unimpeded pursuit of male pages long before ABC News broke the story September 28. Mr. Hastert and his aides orchestrated a purge of the ethics committee in February 2005, after the committee admonished then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Republican of Texas, for misconduct. And there have been massive cost overruns of a Capitol visitors center known derisively as “Hastert’s Hole.” A project once slated to cost $265 million now is expected to cost as much as $596 million.All of these actions point to serious failures on the part of the speaker’s office, critics say.

Hastert in Danger Even if GOP Keeps the House

Hastert in Danger Even if GOP Keeps the House

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