WALLACE: Let me switch subjects. You both had very deep reservations about McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform before it was passed. In fact, I think you say in your book, Mr. Speaker, that you thought it was the worst piece of legislation that had been passed by a Republican Congress since you’ve come to Washington.<\/p>\n
Now that everyone seems upset with these so-called independent 527 groups, whether it’s MoveOn.org on the liberal side of the spectrum or Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on the conservative side, do you feel like saying, “I told you so”?<\/p>\n
HASTERT: Well, you know, that doesn’t do any good. You know, but look behind us at this convention. I remember when I was a kid watching my first convention in 1992, when both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party laid out their platform, laid out their philosophy, and that’s what they followed.<\/p>\n
Here in this campaign, quote, unquote, “reform,” you take party power away from the party, you take the philosophical ideas away from the party, and give them to these independent groups.<\/p>\n
You know, I don’t know where George Soros gets his money. I don’t know where — if it comes overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from. And I…<\/p>\n
WALLACE: Excuse me?<\/p>\n
HASTERT: Well, that’s what he’s been for a number years — George Soros has been for legalizing drugs in this country. So, I mean, he’s got a lot of ancillary interests out there.<\/p>\n
WALLACE: You think he may be getting money from the drug cartel?<\/p>\n
HASTERT: I’m saying I don’t know where groups — could be people who support this type of thing. I’m saying we don’t know. The fact is we don’t know where this money comes from.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Absolutely stunning. Where to begin…
\n
\nIf some right-wing blog had accused Soros of acquiring some of his vast wealth from a drug cartel, I’d just shake my head and assume that the writer was a moron. But this isn’t just some random conservative — Hastert is the Speaker of the House, two heartbeats from the presidency.<\/p>\n
In his twisted worldview, Hastert finds it appropriate to slander a philanthropist — without proof or a hint of support — because his rival is supporting Democrats. The desperation of Republican attacks is not only getting more strident as the campaign goes on; it’s getting pathological. It’s genuinely frightening.<\/p>\n
What’s almost as troubling for me is how the incident was almost entirely ignored<\/a> by the mainstream press. Nothing in the AP, Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, etc. We’ve reached a point in which the popular press seems to more or less expect<\/i> outrageous rhetoric from high-ranking Republican officials, so when the House Speaker slanders someone on national television, it’s just another day in Washington.<\/p>\nClowns like Hastert clearly have no shame, but they have a built-in incentive for flouting the traditional norms of public discourse — they know they can get away with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know this was everywhere yesterday, but I wanted to mention it and add my two cents. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was on Fox News over the weekend, gearing up for the GOP convention. The conversation shifted to independent political ads and Hastert, remarkably, decided to slander a well-known liberal philanthropist. WALLACE: Let me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}