Speaker Dennis Hastert is going to jail
One wonders if Republican congresspersons will ever mention the Hastert Rule again. The master moralizers continue to have skeletons few knew existed.
Dennis Hastert is one of the latest to be exposed. Unfortunately, his bad deed hurt and damaged several lives. But he is getting his due now. Reuters
Dennis Hastert is going to jail. The judge called the Republican that once was second in line to the presidency, a serial sex abuser. Reuters reported the following.
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, once one of the country’s most powerful politicians, was sentenced on Wednesday to 15 months in federal prison for a financial crime related to sexual abuse of high school wrestlers he coached decades ago.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a serial sex abuser in handing down the sentence, which was longer than the zero to six months recommended by federal prosecutors. Durkin said the sentence would have been even longer if it weren’t for Hastert’s age, 74, and poor health.
Frail and clinging to a walker, Hastert apologized for sexually abusing boys when he was a teacher and coach in his hometown of Yorkville.
“I’m sorry to those I hurt and misled. I wanted to apologize for the boys I mistreated,” Hastert told Durkin at the two-hour sentencing hearing in federal court in Chicago.
The judge asked him if he acknowledged sexual abuse of his victims and Hastert said he did.
Hastert is getting much less than he deserves. This is the man who admonished Clinton as he moralized on the house floor.
It is sad that this story isn’t bigger than it is given the frivolities the media talks about on a daily basis. It is sad that the Republican-controlled United States House of Representatives have not seen it fit to publicly admonish Dennis Hastert.