GOP hopes Hastert can quell uproar
"The speaker has taken responsibility and is taking control of the situation," his spokesman, Ron Bonjean, said Friday afternoon.
After a chaotic week that began with the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., other lawmakers were assessing whether Hastert's announcement on Thursday that he would not resign but would punish anyone found to have been derelict in the Foley case would be enough to calm the furor. They were hoping to avoid more leadership turmoil just one month before the midterm elections.
One senior Republican official who would speak about internal party matters only without being named said Hastert in his remarks had accomplished two goals sought by his colleagues: He had accepted some responsibility and had acknowledged that the response to complaints about the initial e-mail sent to a former teenage page in Louisiana had been inadequate.
"I'm hoping this is gone," said the official, who, like others, cautioned that new disclosures could quickly imÉperil Hastert and that the coming elections could answer the question of his future regardless.
Republicans and some Democrats said the ethics committee had bought Hastert some relief by promising a full and relatively quick inquiry, though it was unclear whether the committee's findings would be known before the elections. Aides in leadership offices said Friday that they were not aware of any staff members receiving requests to meet with the panel, which on Thursday approved nearly four dozen potential subpoenas for testimony and documents.
James A. Baker, a leading Republican and former secretary of state with strong ties to the Bush family, also expressed support for Hastert on Friday, saying his resignation would do little to stem the uproar.
"If you think that's going to stop the story, you've been smoking dope, because the minute they get Denny, they'll go after the next person who might have known something about this," Baker said on Fox News. "I think the speaker's done the right thing by calling for an investigation."
In Oklahoma, a lawyer for a former page who has been identified as the recipient of explicit messages from Foley dismissed reports that the now 21-year-old youth was engaging in a practical joke. "From what I do know, this was not a prank," the lawyer, Stephen Jones, said on CNN.
You can be the first to comment on this story.