New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | March 3, 2005

Dennis Hastert is apparently the kind of guy who rises to positions of high political authority in contemporary America. Charles Oliver takes that as a reason to be afraid. Be very afraid.

Comments

|3.3.05 @ 11:38AM|#

"He just doesn't seem to have considered the possibility that his peers elected him because they considered him the House Republican least likely to be having sex."

That is funny. I figure he got his job because he's an affable front man for Tom DeLay, who really wears the pants in that family. DeLay, unlike Newt, seems to understand that he's a black hole of anti-charisma, and stays off TV as much as possible.

|3.3.05 @ 1:12PM|#

"Hastert writes that one of his fellow coaches would tell players with injured fingers or feet to "spit on it and rub it." If Hastert had offered that same advice to some of his fellow congressmen, he might never have become speaker."

Awesome!

|3.3.05 @ 1:51PM|#

The future speaker showed he was a politician, not a lover, at heart with the way he asked his then-girlfriend to marry him: "Well, people think we ought to get married."

Wow. Cue the friggin' fireworks.

|3.3.05 @ 1:53PM|#

House Republicans under Hastert's leadership have undergone a similar metamorphosis. They've grown comfortable with government power now that they wield it. They may mouth the occasional "small government" words, but they are far more interested in process than principles.

That must be what it means to become the governing party.

Well, duh!

|3.3.05 @ 2:06PM|#

Julian Sanchez,

Great review. Keep up the good work. :)

From the time Hastert entered government, he has seen his job as cutting deals, passing bills, and getting re-elected. He really seems to come alive when detailing all the arm twisting and deal making behind various pieces of legislation.

Did the institution make the man, or did the man make the institution?

|3.3.05 @ 2:08PM|#

Hilarious article. :) Bravo!

|3.3.05 @ 2:33PM|#

There's no keeping a mediocre man down.

|3.3.05 @ 2:40PM|#

There's no keeping a mediocre man down.

I think you've just perfectly described Hastert!

clarityiniowa|3.4.05 @ 9:50AM|#

I agree with Brian. Hastert is a human cloaking device.