Family values

["Robert L Bass" <robertbass1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

But now the Republican rowboat is leaking, and the longest-serving GOP speaker in history is at the center of the storm.

As investigators probe whether Hastert ignored warnings about former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.), Democrats across the
country are portraying him as a symbol of a see-no-evil Republican House. They say Hastert's intense partisanship repeatedly blinded
him to GOP misconduct -- not only Foley's inappropriate electronic messages with teenage pages but the corruption of lawmakers such
as Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), as well as Bush's missteps in Iraq and New Orleans. Even Hastert's defenders acknowledge that his
top priority as speaker has been protecting the GOP majority, not investigating the president or his own caucus.

Hastert doesn't seem capable of intense anything; he has a conservative voting record but a moderate temperament. He looks like a
cross between actor Wilford Brimley and Jabba the Hutt, and his unassuming Midwestern public demeanor makes for dull television. He
has shown none of the restless intellectual energy of Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), the frenetic revolutionary who preceded him as speaker;
and he has often been dismissed as a frontman for former majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), the conservative firebrand who anointed
him.

Hastert does not deliver the polished speeches and Sunday-show ripostes that typify leadership in Washington. But he sees himself as
a coach, and his overriding goal is to help his team -- the Republican caucus, not the House. That team has enjoyed quite a winning
streak over the past seven years. Republicans agree that if good-cop Hastert couldn't have done it without bad-cop DeLay, DeLay
couldn't have done it without Hastert, either.

"Denny really smooths out the rough edges in the caucus," said former representative Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is now Bush's budget
director. "He's a kinder, gentler guy, but when he puts that big arm around you and says he needs you, it's hard to say no."

Coach Hastert is still beloved by his players, which is why he's survived the Foley mess so far. They appreciate how he listens to
their concerns, shares credit and works overtime to keep the team together. He schlepped to 42 districts in August to try to
maintain the GOP majority; it's no coincidence that his political arm is called the Keep Our Majority PAC.

"No one ever thinks he's put himself ahead of the team," said Rep. Adam Putnam (Fla.), a 32-year-old Hastert protégé who chairs the
Republican Policy Committee.

Taint his legacy?
The question is whether Hastert's quiet commitment to winning at almost any cost will taint his legacy. He has always been loyal to
team players like Foley, who defied his longtime supporters in the sugar industry last year to help Hastert pass a Central American
trade bill. He eviscerated the House ethics committee after it admonished DeLay, and tried to change the House ethics rules to help
DeLay stay in power. He didn't pay for a fundraiser he held at disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's restaurant until reporters asked
about it two years later; the same month of the fundraiser, he wrote a letter opposing an Indian casino that Abramoff was trying to
kill, and received $27,500 from Abramoff and five Indian tribes.

Now Hastert finds himself disputing his leadership team over what he knew about Foley, insisting he did not know about Foley's
inappropriate behavior until recently, while others say they warned him last spring. He is also under fire for a multimillion-dollar
windfall he earned by buying land and then promoting a federal highway nearby.

Suddenly, Republicans such as Reps. Don Sherwood (Pa.) and Ron Lewis (Ky.) are canceling fundraisers with him, and Democrats are
running ads attacking Rep. Michael E. Sodrel (Ind.) and Iowa candidate Mike Whalen for ties to the speaker. Even Hastert's lead over
John Laesch, an unknown and under-funded challenger, in his heavily Republican district has shrunk to 10 points, according to a poll
last week.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, says Hastert is a perfect symbol of a
hypocritical party that always claimed to distrust government power until it discovered it liked the taste.



"When it's come to a choice between the integrity of the House or the Republican majority, he's always put his thumb on the scale to
protect the majority," Emanuel said.

Hastert is 64 and diabetic, and many Republican insiders think he'll step down no matter what happens in November. But he's
confounded expectations all his life.

Denny Hastert was an unlikely politician, a mild-mannered country boy whose father owned a feed-supply store. He inherited a stolid
Midwestern conservatism from his parents, and accepted Jesus as his savior in high school. His autobiography overflows with 1950s
nostalgia, with Denny waking up at 3 a.m. to drive a milk truck, and operating on his own infected shoulder.

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"I learned from experience that when bad things happen, don't complain," Hastert wrote. "You play the cards you're dealt and
remember there is a way to win."

He became a teacher and coach, then led a charmed life in politics, winning a race for state representative in 1980 after a GOP
incumbent got sick, then jumping to Congress in 1986 after another GOP incumbent got sick. (The designer of his first yard sign,
Scott Palmer, is still his top aide; and is embroiled in the Foley case.) He was a popular backbencher, and DeLay made him chief
deputy whip after the Republicans seized Congress in 1994.

The Livingston affair
In 1998, Gingrich was ousted and Rep. Bob Livingston (La.) chosen to replace him. Hastert didn't know Livingston well, so he made a
date to see a private-sector headhunter. But the day before the appointment, Livingston suddenly stepped down because of an
extramarital affair, and DeLay within hours orchestrated Hastert's ascension to speaker.

In his first speech as speaker, Hastert vowed to reach out to Democrats, declaring that "solutions to problems cannot be found in a
pool of bitterness." But Hastert soon concluded there was no point working with Democrats. In his autobiography, he suggests he
started to feel this way when he visited the office of House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) and saw a "Gephardt for
Speaker" sign. The relationship fell apart after a controversy over the House chaplain, when a few Democrats accused Hastert of
anti-Catholic bias. "I have never seen a more cynical and more destructive political campaign," Hastert declared.

Hastert's team has shut House Democrats out of the governing process, refusing to allow their bills on the floor, limiting debate,
calling midnight votes on complex bills that few have read. The Hastert Rule decrees that the House will consider only bills
approved by the GOP caucus -- "a majority of the majority" -- and the speaker has enforced it with few exceptions.

"After the chaplain, he focused on winning," said lobbyist John Feehery, another former Hastert aide. "And with such a small
majority, winning meant keeping the caucus together."

It was DeLay who spearheaded the K Street Project that made corporate lobbyists and rank-and-file Republicans so dependent on party
leaders. And early in Hastert's tenure, DeLay whipped Republicans to defeat a resolution that Hastert supported on the Kosovo war,
fueling perceptions that "the Hammer" was the real power in the House. But Hastert and DeLay agreed about almost everything else.
And Hastert's influence gradually increased, especially as DeLay became distracted by scandal.

For example, Hastert encouraged an effort to oust Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) as a committee chairman after Smith bucked
party leaders on veterans benefits. He angrily chewed out then-Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.) for holding up a bill full of
pork-barrel projects for vulnerable House members before the 2000 election. He held open a 3 a.m. vote in 2003 on the prescription
drug bill for three hours until he could round up a majority, and persuaded Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) to switch his vote to pass the
Central American trade bill.

Republicans say Hastert wins by appealing to party loyalty and taking care of members with earmarks, campaign cash and other
goodies. Conservatives aren't happy that earmarks have quadrupled under the GOP Congress, but they recognize that the House has
passed almost everything Bush has requested, including his efforts to expand executive power.

"He doesn't beat people over the head, but he's kept them in line," said conservative activist Grover Norquist. "Do I wish he made
spending restraint a priority? Of course. But everyone knows he represents the caucus agenda, not his own agenda."

Disparate directions
It is only recently that GOP oars have started rowing in disparate directions -- not only over Foley, but policy issues such as
Social Security and immigration. Some insiders think the loss of DeLay has created a breakdown in discipline. "Everybody in the
caucus loves Denny. The problem is that nobody really fears him," said one GOP lobbyist who spoke only on condition of anonymity. "I
think he's done."

Hastert aides say he intends to fight to protect his job, and he intends to win. After all, his legacy is at stake on Nov. 7. He'll
either be the unbeaten coach, or the coach who lost the big one. Either way, he'll be the speaker who presided over an era of
unprecedented partisanship, an era when winning seemed to be the only thing that mattered.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company



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