Hastert was against the emergency funding before he was for it

September 2, 2005

Despite earlier reports that Congress would not reconvene to address emergency funding for the Gulf Coast, lawmakers are poised to pass a $10-billion bill today. Good.

And while I’m pleased to see Congress respond, I can’t help but notice that Speaker Hastert’s office seems a little confused.

Just 48 hours ago, Roll Call reported that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged Speaker Dennis Hastert to have a special session to appropriate relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but the Speaker’s office said it didn’t plan to hold a vote this week because FEMA has things under control.

[Hastert spokesman Ron] Bonjean said calling Members back to town this week is not the best course of action.

“There is a humanitarian rescue operation going on right now, as we speak,” Bonjean said. “It is difficult to get a real assessment on the amount of damage done, which makes a special session unlikely. In addition, emergency relief services such as FEMA have billions of dollars at hand to help with the initial relief.”

Last night, however, Roll Call reported that Hastert’s office has not only embraced Pelosi’s idea, they now want credit for the whole thing.

Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), said the GOP Congressional leadership is committed to helping the victims in the Gulf region.

“We’ve approached the Minority Leader [Pelosi] with a proposal to bring the House back into emergency session to pass emergency funding for Hurricane Katrina victims,” Bonjean said.

What was that about not playing politics with the disaster? On Wednesday, Hastert’s office is rebuffing Pelosi’s idea for an emergency bill. On Thursday, Hastert’s office is saying it was their idea all along.

Ultimately, the credit for a good thing doesn’t matter and I’m just glad the money is on its way to FEMA. But Bonjean’s attempt to spin this seems unusually callous.

Did Hastert not realize that we’d notice if he took credit for Pelosi’s idea? It seems like he’s always hoping no one will notice his thugery.

  • I agree merlallen. We noticed, but nobody else will…and in the end all that matters is that the people in acroos the Gulf get assistance.
    Even if ShrubCo delivers it too late for some.

  • Oh you liberals, can’t you see that this isn’t a time for playing politics? That must wait until all the bucks have been passed and all of the asses sufficiently covered.

  • It’s not important that you or I notice. It is important that he have a soundbite in which he says the right thing, one he can feed to his ardent Republican followers so they can continue to believe in his purity of virtue. People who actually think about what politicians do and say are irrelevant.

  • Hastert’s little grab at looking like he actually cares may be too little too late. I mean, how many people are actually paying attention to what’s going on in Congress, when CNN is showing corpses of elderly lying for two days in chairs and story after story of people without food or water?

  • I guess Mr. Hastart had to “wrestle” with the idea for awhile before a final conclusion.

  • This fat ass Hastert and his rich and corrupt republican cronies only care about their tax cuts and estate tax breaks. Why in the world this corrupt and greedy gang of republican looters will care about average American?

  • People only whine about the blame game when they have something to be blamed for.

    They say now is not the time to point fingers, but they are wrong, now is the only time to point fingers.

    True leadership rises to the top during a crisis, and in this case we can see that the current lot of Republicans is nothing but sediment: dirt sinking to the bottom.

    I guess that bottom was lower than we even suspected.

  • Well, he has to look like he tried. When he loses his position as Speaker to Pelosi in 2006, he has to have something on to fall back on…

  • Was it not Speaker Hastert that also made the commnet that New Orleans shouldn’t even be rebuilt.

    The Governor has asked for an apology.

  • From the Pantagraph article above:
    “I will not rest until everyone that has been affected by this disaster has been given proper assistance,” Hastert said.

    Reminds me of:
    “I will not rest until the killer is caught.” – OJ Simpson.

  • “I will not rest until everyone that has been affected by this disaster has been given proper assistance,” Hastert said.

    Is he going to reimburse us all for the gas gouging
    going on? The profiteering that Bush said must
    not be tolerated?

    By the way, I heard a Louisiana official say that
    the supermarket looting, for food and water, that
    Hannity went apoplectic over is not considered
    a crime under these conditions, if the items taken
    like food, water, diapers etc. are needed for
    survival.

  • People have the attention span of a 2 year old these days. Hastert could say he personally went down there and fought off a gand of gun toting looters and saved a mother and her 6 children and our newsmedia wouldn’t contradict him. And 50 % of our population would believe him.

  • Brian,

    And 50 % of our population would believe him.

    I respectfully disagree. 35% would believe him. and 35% wouldn’t believe him even if he said the sky was blue (for the record, I’m part of the latter). The real key to change in the political landscape is the 30% that are not partisan. We can and must make the case to them that the GOP can’t be trusted with running the federal government. Their Reign of Error must end.

  • They ought to round up the whole crew, from the Chimp down to the Congressional majority “leadership”, impeach the impeachable, and prosecute them all for negligent homicide.

  • Has anyone seen or heard the reports that Hastert was scheduled to miss the vote on the relief package so he could attend a fundraiser today?

  • There is an impressive amount of intelligent people writing comments to these articles etc, all over these blog sites. I’ve been living abroad for 6 years now and it astounds me that intelligent, liberal (godforbid) minded people with a social conscience with enough critical thinking ability to see through right wing propaganda, and a desire to voice their opinions don’t seem to be penetrating the ranks of the Democratic leadership.

    If this were to happen, perhaps something could be done about the right’s attempt to usurp the Republic and turn it into an Empire.

  • “it astounds me that intelligent, liberal (godforbid) minded people with a social conscience with enough critical thinking ability to see through right wing propaganda, and a desire to voice their opinions don’t seem to be penetrating the ranks of the Democratic leadership.” – PC

    amen

  • Don’t you get it, God is on our side. Katrina, Tsunami all directed at sinners, all those that don’t believe in the right God. Of course GWB took his time, God tells him what to do. I’d write more but the Intelligent Design home school course book just arrived.

  • Has anyone noticed Dick Cheney is once again MIA? Probably hooked up to oxygen somewhere. So if GWB keels over from the stress and loss of his 10 hrs. of sleep nightly, that leaves…guess who in charge? HASTERT!

  • We haven’t forgotten how quickly these Republican masters of Congress rushed into action to “save” the dead vegetable girl, Terry Schiavo, for ideological reasons, not humanitarian ones.

  • I wrote a letter to Hastert. Have you? Just writing what we are all pissed off on blogs will not change a thing unless we take action now and let the members of congress know we want answers at to why emergency action wasn`t taken to aid these hurricane victims in New Orleans. One small town 60 miles away from New Orleans were prepared for the worst to aid the hurricane victims. Our government fell down on the job. Victims are still waiting.

  • Everyone is asking why it took our chimp for a leader so long to respond? Easy. Just think back to that dinner where he tells all those tuxedo-outfitted people something to the effect of: “Some people call you the elite… I call you my base.” (laughter) This chimp should be returned to the Crawford Zoo!

  • Yam (in comment 13) suggested that he will be replaced by Nancy Pelosi. Actually, we in the Illinois 14th are looking to see him replaced by Reuben Zamora.
    This cannibalistic pig has been consuming the litle pork that he ever brought to this district by purchasing the lands along the highway route that he’s advocating.
    The people he ostensibly “represents” want first crack at him. We don’t want him to even walk into the house to see his mawhority leader status removed.

  • It’s true that Hastert “had” to miss the emergency meeting for funding because of a fundraiser. As he put it “the fundraiser had been scheduled for quite some time” makes you wonder how someone so shallow could ever be elected in the first place.

  • It is time! Time to return the country to the people (all the people, not just the affluent). We must all make sure that everyone possible and able vote in the upcoming mid-terms. We must make sure that all the votes are counted (correctly) and that our voices are heard. Don’t let them steal another one! WE MUST ACT NOW!!!!! Volunteer to work the poles in your area. Volunteer to register voters. DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING. Let’s get to work to take back the country from the Whores in charge.

  • Did anyone ever think that maybe the plan to hold special session had changed between the time Pelosi called for it and Hastert decided it would happen. Pelosi is not the speaker and cannot call special session — only Hastert can do that. Tell Pelosi her party needs to win majority before she can call special sessions. Further, in unprecedented disasters such as this, things change from one minute to the next. You liberals will leach on to even the smallest apparent mistakes. Pathetic.

    I thought I would also break all of your hearts by informing you that the New Orleans post-hurricane evacuation tragedy was caused by none-other than Democrat governor Blanco. The federal government could not lawfully step in to take over operations without her permission. She was in control of everything until we all started seeing real progress with the evacuation. In fact, the president gave her a proposal that outlined a plan for the federal government to come in and take over all recovery/evacuation operations and Blanco needed 24 hours to think about it. That’s what the people of New Orleans get for voting in a liberal. Let that be a lesson to all of you.

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