Okay, this is in some ways a repeat of my earliest reactions to Hastert and company yelling bloody murder about the PERFECTLY LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SEARCH of Rep. William Jefferson’s office, but now that I see that Hastert is claiming the ABC report amounts to FBI payback against him for his temper tantrum on the search, it’s worth saying again: Mr. Speaker, please, uh, stop speaking! On legal grounds, you are embarrassing yourself and your whole institution; politically, your yelling has been doubly disastrous (first because it takes the focus off of Jeff — as Jefferson is commonly known in person, and second because it actually puts the GOP on the defensive again because the yelling itself is so deservedly and hideously unpopular). And now to charge the FBI with a political leak based on this whole shouting match does even more to tie the alleged investigation of you with the investigation of Jefferson in the public mind — which harms not just you, but your whole caucus, because the public does see you as the titular head of, and as representative of, the entire congressional GOP.

Nuff said.