The American Spectator

Dave Bossie, Michael Reagan, the Washington Times and others who have called for the political scalp of Speaker Hastert deserve credit for their courage in taking on the bloated, sclerotic, spoiled, self-absorbed GOP Washington establishment. As I wrote on this blog yesterday, the problem isn’t merely that Hastert was asleep at the switch when told about what to him appeared only slightly icky e-mails from Foley; the problem is that his ethical blindness is part of a longstanding pattern of treating incumbent congressmen of both parties (see the idiotic rush to the defense of Rep. William Jefferson), but especially of Republicans, as if congressmen are a protected class immune to ordinary ethical concerns. There has long been something rotten in the state of the congressional leadership, and this latest outrage should be the cement block that breaks the dinosaur’s back. Bossie, Reagan, et al are to be commended for stepping forward immediately to say so.