Hastert

Most of the pages and other boys Mark Foley was having sex with were in their late teens. He was careful to bring them to states where whatever age they were was the legal age of consent. Mark's smart. And, exerting some kind of power over a 17 year old doesn't seem nearly as big a deal as what the guy who was protecting Foley was doing. The guy who was protecting Foley was then-Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL) and what Mr.

When Florida Republican Mark Foley was caught molesting underage male pages, the establishment circled the wagons around their likable colleague and made sure he wasn't charged with years of raping underage boys but just with sending naughty electronic messages.

Conservative politicians want to give your underage sons some thrillsDenny Hastert didn't just molest 4 boys when he was a wrestling coach. Nor did he just molest 5 boys.

Ken, Gaius, Noah and I have, over the years, written a good number of posts about coal baron/murderer Donald Blankenship, mostly asking why he isn't in prison or when will he be in prison. It's taken a long, long time but yesterday he was finally sentenced to a year in prison-- but not for murder. He's too rich for that.

You may have read about Arkansas District Court Judge Joseph Boeckmann this week in relation to how he was able to manipulate young white males who came in front of him, offering them lighter sentences in return for sex.

On the day the House was bidding a fond adieu to one corrupt Speaker, the corrupt Republican who played Speaker before Boehner, Denny Hastert, pleaded guilty to one carefully constructed charge of "structuring," evading reporting requirements in connection to a multimillion dollar blackmail scheme.

I guess I sound especially bloodthirsty the way I always advocate ultra-harsh sentences for politicians caught breaking the law. There's a reason for that, of course. Someone given a position of trust who abuses it should, of course, be held to a high standard. But there's more. History shows that if a politician gets away from criminal behavior, it encourages other politicians to give it a try.

In 2006 Blue America was backing progressive John Laesch's campaign against Speaker Denny Hastert. Rumors of Hastert's predatory behavior towards underage boys were rampant, including more than one letter from boys who claimed to have had sex with him, including a male prostitute who kept saying he would testify and then that he didn't want his name used. It went back and forth for almost the entire campaign. But, in the end, he refused to let us use his name and the Laesch campaign had no way of confirming if there was any truth behind the allegations.

Denny Hastert is reportedly telling friends, "I am a victim too." And so he is, after the original facts. The feds seem to have weighed his victimhood against his young victim's.by KenIn time we'll presumably find out more about the moment when former House Speaker Denny Hastert realized he'd made a giant booboo.

John Laesch was one of the sharpest, most fearless and most dedicated congressional candidates Blue America ever got behind. John ran against powerful, unassailable Speaker of the House Denny Hastert in 2006 and again in 2008 (although Hastert was forced to resign from Congress as the campaign season started heating up).