Denny's Mad

I have a whole other list of what Denny oughgt to be angry about. Wait a minute, an angry ReThug? What will we tell the children?

For years, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a genial former wrestling coach, has stood on the sidelines as President Bush seized power from a quiescent legislative branch. But this week, with the unlikeliest of provocations, the speaker has hit the administration with the political equivalent of a three-quarter face lock Russian leg sweep.

First, he came out to demand that the administration return documents seized in a raid of a Democrat's congressional office. Then, when ABC News reported Wednesday night that Hastert was under investigation in the Jack Abramoff affair, the Illinois Republican blamed the Bush administration for the dubious report.

"This is one of the leaks that come out to try to, you know, intimidate people," the usually mild speaker told Chicago's WGN radio yesterday. "We're just not going to be intimidated on it." Asked later if he was charging the Justice Department with retaliating for his stance in the congressional office raid, he answered: "Here are the dots. People can connect any dots they want to." If that wasn't clear enough, he added: "I thought it was an interesting sequence of events."
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The radicalization of Denny Hastert has been a marvel to behold after years in which Bush has urged him to stay on the job because of his fierce loyalty to the White House. First, Hastert groused about the Dubai port deal. Then, he criticized the administration's ouster of CIA chief Porter Goss. Now, his fury about the office search has come like a nor'easter merging with the tropical depression congressional Republicans already find themselves in -- and it's getting stormy on the Hill.
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The newfound passion for congressional prerogatives has amused Democrats, who have complained for years about what they say is the administration's contempt for congressional authority. The White House has stiffed requests from Congress on such key issues as probes of Hurricane Katrina to the eavesdropping programs at the National Security Agency.
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"I note your public outrage over this search of a Member of Congress because it is in stark contrast to the conspicuous lack of such concern regarding similar questions about this administration's actions regarding millions of average citizens," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) teased in a letter to Hastert. "[Y]ou and your Republican colleagues have ranged from largely silent to vehemently supportive of every action this Administration has taken to expand executive powers."