Hastert is now claiming that he did that, and taking credit for asking Foley to step down. But when this all broke a week ago, Hastert claimed no such thing, actually stating to the press that Foley resigned of his own volition.
I just continue to be completely amazed that the Republican Sound Machine is fumbling this so badly, a full week after the storm broke.
What can we say? The Republicans clearly aren’t all on the same page.
snerk 
Yes, in fact the root of our problem here is that one Republican was trying to be on all the pages.
My favorite part is that Rep Reynolds (who also knew about the emails and all the rumors about what a creepy SOB Foley was) actively encouraged him to run again. They weren’t just keeping this quiet to keep him in the seat in the short-term, they fully intended to keep hm there, and protect that seat, as long as they could.
So what if he was requesting oral sex and pictures of erect penises from the pages? Priorities, people! Priorities!
Today the Republicans are rallying around Hastert.
My Predictions:
The investigation will center on what the Democrats knew about Foley and when they knew it, and when they leaked it.
The Republican base will turn out, mobilized by their distaste over the Foley affair and accepting the concept being put forth that it was the fault of the Democrats. By election day, at least half of them will believe that Foley was a Democrat.
Yeah, I can just see the policital ads now:
“At a pivotal point in history, who will you vote for- The party of righteousness and purity, or the party who ignored child molestation for years in order to advance their own political power? Vote Republican. Vote American.”
The sad thing is, it’ll probably work on a good chunk of the population.
Given the source (Fox News), it’s likely that the ultimate source is a GOP faction that wants to take out Hastert, for either of the two obvious reasons:
Damage control
“Now, you die, and we all move up in rank!”
Oof! Please, for the love of Og, don’t tell me he’s going to move on to doing - glurk - Viagra ads!
A desperate, pitiful cry for a barf smiley, mods…pleeze! 
I’m signing up for auto news alerts to my cell phone. I wanna see this live and in action when it happens.
::silver1 stands up and applauds::
I agree. He will fall on his sword in an effort to stamp out the fire. It won’t work. I now believe that the Democrats may be able to retake the House.
This just gets better and better. Please, Dems, don’t screw this up!
If it can be screwed up, I trust they will screw it up.
Really, I’m certainly no fan of the Repugs. But the Dim-o-craps ought to be able to come up with something better in response to what the current leadership has done to our nation than “vote for us, we’re not them!” :rolleyes:
Give 'em a hundred hours. Maybe there’s hope yet.
Daniel
The smartest thing for the Dems to do would be to shut up about the Foley stuff, talk about Iraq and the erosion of civil liberties (the fact that we are no offcially a police state where the president is allowed to vanish any citizen at any time for no reason should be chilling enough all by itself if the Dems could be loud enough about it).
They should let the media pursue the Foley stuff and if asked for comment just issue safe, boring statements about “letting the investigation take its course” and change the subject back to Iraq and Bush’s despotism. One of the cardinal rules of politics is that you do not interrupt while your opponent is self-destructing. Plus a lot of conservatives are finally starting to look at the Pubs a little more critically and are a little less blinded by partisanship. It’s the perfect time to remind them of all the OTHER reasons the Republicans suck and they might actually listen this time.
Actually, I think this would be the perfect time to go big with Pelosi’s program.
Imagine the evening news. First story? Another deadly bombing in Iraq. Second story? Hastert’s latest version of the troof. Third story? Democrats unveil a plan to raise the minimum wage.
That’s gotta play in Peoria. Let the news draw a contrast between the Republican’s failed foreign policy and nasty current scandal, and the Democrat’s plans for changing the country.
We WANT the Democrats to be in the news with a good story to match every Republican bad story.
Daniel
But the Dems still need a leader, dammit. Someone who can get elected, which means moderate and charismatic.
Anybody?
Bueller?
To some people it might seem like going back to the well but I think Al Gore would have a better than even shot and he’s somebody a lot of us would feel more confident in voting for than we did for Kerry (or necessarily would for HRC). Seriously, Gore now looks like George Washington compared to Dubya.
I’m not convinced Hastert is finished. His House seat is still apparently secure (I know that story is a few days old but I looked and haven’t found anything to contradict it since). And a House Ethics committee and FBI investigations are great for putting the lid on things, ie “We can’t comment during ongoing investigations”.
There certainly isn’t time between now and the elections to complete either investigation and vote for censure or expulsion for anyone; let alone publish conclusions. So yet another holdout position is to claim. "We will all abide by the results of the inquiry. It’s premature to make judgements until all the facts are in.
So if he does go, it will be “voluntarily, for the good of the party. blahblahblah.” And it will only be for his Speaker position, not his House seat.
I do agree that if there is a continuing stream of leaks and emails, he’ll be pressured out. But if worst is already out, Hastert might just brazen it through.
I don’t think anyone really expects this to cost his his seat, just (potentially) the Speaker-ship. The fact that he’s hanging tough is a God Send to Democratic candidates in tight races. Hastert is calling in all the favors he’s owed on this one in order to try and hang onto this seat, and has already apparently fibbed about the scope of his prior knowledge toward that end.
If they get him in front of an ethics committee they’ll roast him like chestnut. His hanging on and denials are going to cost the Republicans a considerable chunk of votes across the board.