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Former House Speaker Hastert leaving Congress after this term

By David Espo
AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who served as speaker of the House longer than any Republican in history, intends to retire next year at the end of his current term, party officials said Tuesday.

A formal announcement was planned for Friday at the Kendall County Courthouse in his Illinois district that stretches from his Plano home south of Chicago all the way to the Mississippi River.

Hastert’s planned retirement is likely to set off a lively scramble between the two political parties for a House seat that he has held easily since 1986.

Hastert’s decision has been expected since the GOP lost control of the House last November, costing him his powerful post. He had been speaker, second in the line of presidential succession behind the vice president, for eight years.

The officials who discussed his plans did so on condition of anonymity because there had been no public announcement.

Hastert’s decision to remain in the House after his speakership was unusual.

His immediate predecessor, Republican Newt Gingrich of Georgia, was dogged by scandal when he stepped down as speaker after two terms, then resigned from Congress a short while later.

Before Gingrich, Democratic Rep. Tom Foley of Washington was defeated for re-election in 1994. Foley’s predecessor, Democratic Rep. Jim Wright of Texas, resigned under an ethics cloud in 1989.

Hastert, 65, declined to run for minority leader after his party’s defeat in the 2006 elections, taking on a role as elder statesman among Republicans.

He has been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq. And as speaker during President Bush’s first six years in office, he labored successfully to pass the administration’s tax cuts as well as landmark Medicare legislation that provides a prescription drug benefit.

Democrats said Hastert’s decision will make it more difficult for Republicans to hold his congressional seat.

“Any Republican running will have to answer for their party’s failure to be nothing more than a rubber stamp for George Bush’s endless war in Iraq and his irresponsible fiscal policies,” said Doug Thornell, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Among the possible GOP candidates is Illinois State Sen. Chris Lauzen, an Aurora Republican who lost a 1998 bid to become state comptroller and who has said he would be run if Hastert retired. Jim Oberweis, a failed candidate for governor and U.S. senator, recently attended the National Republican Congressional Committee’s school for candidates.

Illinois congressional candidates this month began circulating petitions to qualify for the state’s February primary ballot. Meantime, Hastert’s campaign Web site has been taken down, and his campaign fund had only $75,672 on July 1.

Hastert had raised about $447,000 during the first half of this year, with much of it used for fundraising, printing, salary and payroll taxes.

Almost $130,000 went for legal bills incurred while Hastert sought to defend himself during last year’s scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who resigned his seat in the wake of news that he had sent sexually explicit messages to teenage male Capitol Hill pages.

The House ethics committee criticized Hastert following the scandal, saying evidence showed he was told of the problem months before he acknowledged learning of Foley’s questionable e-mails to a former Louisiana page. It rejected Hastert’s contention that he couldn’t recall separate warnings from two House Republican leaders.

Associated Press Writer Dennis Conrad contributed to this report.

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Reader comments on this story - 6 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Native wrote on Aug 15, 2007 4:14 PM:

" Why do you need marching orders from anyone? Are you another political Lemming? "

to Native wrote on Aug 15, 2007 3:14 PM:

" I'll think for myself as soon as Rush gives me my marching orders! "

Native wrote on Aug 15, 2007 2:32 PM:

" I see the good little democrats are here. Got to spout the party line. Quit spewing your hate and try to think for yourselves. "

Good wrote on Aug 15, 2007 9:15 AM:

" Riddance! "

ES wrote on Aug 15, 2007 7:19 AM:

" Boom boom boom; another one bites the dust; and another one's gone, and another one's gone; another one bites the dust: YEAH! More and more people leaving office who blindly supported George Bush. Good riddence to bad rubish. "

Longtimegone wrote on Aug 15, 2007 7:09 AM:

" Another rat leaving the sinking ship, the cauga aux foiles. "

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