John McIntyre, editor of Real Clear Politics, sums up the ineptness of Speaker Hastert in handling the accusations hurled at him. It is already clear that he was not on top of the matter, but he is compounding the damage by changing his story.

... it is increasingly looking like Hastert's characterization of what his office knew and when they knew it has been less than honest. At worst, it looks like the Speaker's office deliberately misrepresented how much they knew of the Foley "problem." A more charitable — but still damning — interpretation is that it looks like they simply did not think it important enough to take the matter as seriously as they should have. Put simply, Hastert's assertion that all they knew about were a couple of overly "friendly" emails from Foley, and nothing more, until the salacious IM's this past Friday appears to be less than true.

Like many, I am not impressed with Hastert's skill as a leader. I wish he had been replaced when Tom Delay, a counterbalancing set of skills as Majority Leader, left his post. The case against him was so questionable that a grand jury turned down the indictment, so a second grand jury was empaneled.

The strategy of taking out GOP leaders is advancing, and Hastert's scalp wouold only fuel the effort. But the Speaker is not helping his case with anything but the truth.

Hat tip: Richard Baehr

Thomas Lifson   10 05 06