Forget George Soros and Nancy Pelosi - Now Hastert Tries to Pin the Blame on His Staff!
At a press conference this morning, Hastert suggested that his staff may be involved in a “cover up.”
“If they did cover something up, they should not continue to have their jobs.”
Obviously, Hastert doesn't trust his staff. And we're talking about the senior members of the Speaker's staff.
Or as Chris Matthews (video) observes, Denny Hastert just threw his staff "to the hounds."
Why is he waiting for an investigation by the ethics committee and the other to get information that he has a right to get, right this second, on the phone from his staff? Why doesn't he call his staff people up right now and asked them? Because, obviously, there is a question of legal jeopardy here and these people have rights to defense. So, he's already operation as if he can't talk to his own staff but I think that anyone watching this program better be warned by that behavior that the speaker is not in touch with his own staff right now. He's not vouching for them in the questions at hand.
I thought it was interesting, as you suggested, that he threw his staff out there to be judged separately from him. In other words, "don't blame me for what my staff may not have told me. Only blame me for what they actually told me." That's a hell of a distinction. . .
"On three different levels: throwing the staff to the hounds, then trying to retreat to some soft admission of guilt that mistakes were made -- the old passive voice was almost used there -- and third, trying to change the subject to taxes. You saw a classic damage control operation from the Speaker there."
As Think Progress suggests, this is just one more lame effort by Denny Hastert to avoid accountability at all costs:
It will be tough for Hastert to succeed in his efforts to pin the blame exclusively on his staff. Hastert was directly informed of Foley’s inappropriate emails last spring by both House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY).
It's beginning to look like this story really is going to fly all the way to election day!
Graphic seen at the very cool, All Hat No Cattle.
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