Picture Dennis Hastert Naked…

…and then pray to God, Zod, or Cthulhu that Congress passes a balanced-budget amendment or something so we never have to think of Dennis Hastert–a man who became speaker of the house in large part because his GOP colleagues figured he was the least likely member to have sex and hence a scandal–naked again.

The Wine Commonsewer sends along this suggestive and outraged missive from the American Conservative Union:

GOP leaders are naked

…The Republican congressional leaders want Indiana's Rep. Mike Pence to go away, or at least shut up.

They say that he's grandstanding by talking about cutting spending and that the effort of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which he chairs, to force them to look for offsets as they prepare to spend as much as $200 billion on hurricane relief, on top of the spending that already has conservatives rolling their eyes, is "counterproductive."

Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), among others, took Pence to the woodshed last week and, we are told, informed him in the bluntest terms that the problem is not runaway spending or the Democrats but him and the RSC. It seems to be the leaders' belief that, by criticizing spending, Pence and his hundred-odd followers are not the "team players" they should be because it is at least possible that whipping up popular anger on the issue could convince people that the GOP isn't doing all it can to deliver on decades of promises to America's voters.

…Mike Pence has been taken to the woodshed for pointing out the obvious—that today's GOP emperors are as naked as jaybirds—and for that he should be applauded.

Whole thing here.