With Mark Foley now resigned and in disgrace, the search is on to see how far this thing spreads, and how firmly united the GOP will be behind their leaders. People are scurrying for cover and pointing fingers already. At each other. At clergy. At children. At Democrats. At the media. At alcohol. At Clinton. I'm waiting to see them try to blame this one on al-Qaeda or on Iran. Anyway, with all of the public statements being made by the star players in this sordid tale, I wanted to know where my "fine" Representative stood on the issue. Prompted by Josh Micah Marshall at TPM, and his suggestion to get people on record, I decided to call my local Representative and see where he stood in his degree of support for Rep. Hastert as Speaker of the House. I'm currently saddled with JD Hayworth, so I wasn't really surprised by the answer I received.
You won't be either... read on
I asked two questions. Question Number One: Does Representative Hayworth support Representative Hastert to continue on as Speaker of the House? JD's peeps on the phone didn't bat an eye in coming back with the answer, "There are no Republicans calling for Hastert to step down as Speaker." I replied, "So, does that mean that he supports Rep. Hastert in this role?" They answered quickly, "Yes". Not a bit of equivocation in the degree of support for a possibly criminal enabler of an (allegedly) felonious pedophile.
I asked another question. "If Hayworth is re-elected and the Republicans maintain a majority, would Hayworth vote for Hastert as Speaker?" Just a titch softer support here, in that the answer was, "That would depend on the outcome of ongoing investigations." I'm probably not going too far in assuming that the real answer is, "Unless Hastert is in jail, we will vote for him.... unless somebody else makes us a better offer."
I asked if Rep. Hayworth planned to make any statements about the whole issue and was told that "There's nothing to announce."
I think it would be great if we could compile the answers given by all of the Republican House members in one place for future reference. Get on the phones people and let this be the place.
Tomorrow I might call his office back to ask whether he supports or opposes adults using the internet to carry out sexually explicit communications with minors. Just asking.......you know...