Sunday, May 1, 2016

GOP Speaker of The House Is Child Predator



By Jeff Simpson

Recently, former GOP Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who actually served as the third in line from the Presidency longer than anyone in our history, is a child predator.  

Mr. Hastert is not only a child predator, but he will never be punished for his actions.   He was recently sentenced to 15 months in prison but it was because Hastert pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges of structuring financial transactions to conceal payments($3.5 Million) to an individual whom he had sexually abused decades earlier, when Hastert worked as a high school wrestling coach.  The Statute of Limitations has expired on his sexual preying on children(assuming he no longer does it).

Being in a 24 hour news cycle, let's take a quick refresher course on Denny Hastert and his career. Mr. Hastert was Speaker of the House from 1999-2007, when he resigned and cashed in for a few years as a lobbyist.   The former ALEC member, was rewarded for his years of service to them by a sweet lobbying job for a few years after he left office.   Has anyone asked if he was alone with any children at the lobbying office?   




Without getting too deep into his horrible political record, lets just take a look at the clues of his sexual preying.  The start of his downfall, was when he covered up the fact that fellow Republican Mark Foley was preying on interns in DC.   The GOP leadership knew what Foley was doing but as always, put party before people and allowed children to continue being prey.   

The interesting thing there, surprise surprise, was as Speaker, Hastert took a serious stand against child predators:

The longtime Republican lawmaker supported the Child Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Act of 2000 and called for stiffer penalties for sex offenders before his own pattern of abuse was revealed, reported the Chicago Tribune.
“It is important to have a national notification system to help safely recover children kidnapped by child predators,” Hastert said in 2003, after Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart was recovered after a nine-month ordeal of kidnapping and abuse.
“But it is equally important to stop those predators before they strike, to put repeat child molesters into jail for the rest of their lives and to help law enforcement with the tools they need to get the job done,” Hastert said at the time.
The former GOP lawmaker also spoke out against President Bill Clinton’s private conduct during the impeachment proceedings, saying he had abused and violated the public trust.
Yes irony and shame are long gone from our Government these days.   This is why it made it so interesting when Hastert begged for leniency from the judge.  Hastert even had over 60 people write letters of support for him ( although 20 cowards withdrew their letters when the judge said they would be made public).    

Hastert even trumped his own hypocrisy(who knew that was possible) by asking one of his victims brothers to write a letter in support for him.   

A good but really tough read is the judge's remarks in sentencing Dennis Hastert.   

NY Times correspondent @juliebosman tweeted the sentencing and here are some low lights:
 Apr 27Judge, on Hastert: "The defendant is a serial child molester."


 Apr 27Judge to Hastert: Any sentence I give you today would "pale" to what you would have received in state court for committing sexual abuse.

 Apr 27Judge, on Hastert: "If there’s a public shaming of the defendant because of the conduct he’s engaged in, so be it."
Finally this one:


 Apr 27Judge's final words before exiting: "This is a horrible case.. horrible for our country. I hope I never have to see a case like this again."


One last thought:














No comments:

Post a Comment