WASHINGTON (AP) – Dennis Hastert’s career as House speaker both arose and ended amid the sex-related scandals of others.
Now, eight years after leaving Congress, Hastert’s own legacy is threatened by an indictment charging financial misdeeds – and cryptically referring to “misconduct” against an unnamed person.
It’s a stunning development for the former pol, who rose from obscurity to become the most powerful Republican in Congress for eight years, even as he mostly shunned the limelight. He faded quickly from view after leaving Congress in 2007.
Hastert was propelled to the speakership in 1998 on the tumultuous December day on which the House impeached President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair. During the raucous debate, the presumptive speaker, Bob Livingston of Louisiana, stunned the political world as he announced he would step down over revelations of his own marital infidelities.
Hastert rose from the junior ranks of leadership in large part because he was without controversy, unlike other contenders such as Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the politically toxic driving force behind Clinton’s impeachment. Hastert was a behind-the-scenes operative whose political identity came from small-town Illinois, where he was a high school wrestling coach and teacher before serving in the state House and then Congress.