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Embattled Hastert was no friend to gun owners despite ‘A’ rating
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been indicted on “one count each of structuring currency transactions to evade currency transaction reports and making a false statement to the FBI,” NBC News reported Friday. Further reports citing “two federal law enforcement officials” suggest the politician-turned lobbyist has been paying hush money to cover up sexual abuse accusations dating back to when he was a high school teacher and wrestling coach.
That the charges come now, when Hillary Clinton’s star is rising amidst allegations of her past improprieties, is perhaps to be expected as a politically smart way to take such focus off the presumptive Democrat front-runner. In any case, it illustrates that the greatest danger to Republicans comes not from principled conservatives criticizing betrayals by party elites, but from those elites’ own actions. It also makes it fair to wonder if anyone else in the leadership is similarly vulnerable and compromised – a theory some have suggested as a potential explanation for a succession of seeming surrenders following last November's political polarity shift.
In any case, gun owners with long memories will shed no tears over Hastert being in the hot seat. Many of us still remember May, 1999, when, per CNN, “House Speaker Dennis Hastert entered the fierce debate on gun control ... saying he favored raising the minimum age for owning a handgun to 21 and requiring background checks for all sales at gun shows.”
It was especially “puzzling” at the time, as “[a]n aide from [then-Senate Majority Leader Trent] Lott's office told CNN that ... the gun control issue is not slated to come up in the House of Representatives anytime soon.”
“Where the hell is it within the Constitutional powers of the federal government to enact any kind of gun control legislation at all?” I asked in an angry open letter response to Hastert. “Where the hell do you get off endorsing a handgun ban for a segment of our population that is old enough to vote, to marry, to parent and to go to war and die protecting your sorry politically opportunistic @$$?”
Adding insult to injury, the following month, Hastert refused to use his position of influence “to ‘whip’ members into a unified party line” on guns, The Los Angeles Times noted. “Hastert has spoken favorably of new gun safety measures since the Littleton, Colo., high school massacre.”
Curiously, even after those betrayals, NRA still gave Hastert an “A” rating. Evidently giving them some of what they wanted, including access to his office, was enough to induce Fairfax to overlook the infringements he favored imposing. In any case, with the triumphant attacks on Republicans that are certain to come (and the “progressive” braying has already predictably started), principled “no compromise” gun owners can at least prove a substantial level of separation from the inevitable guilt-by-association conflation.
UPDATE: Indications are the allegations concern sexual misconduct with a student.
SUGGESTED LINKS
- Gun group warns against continuing resolution surrender by Republicans
- Republican 'leaders' block and derail campus carry in Nevada
- Koch money and GOP access may discourage pairing amnesty with gun rights
- Republicans leaving anti-rights restoration provision in appropriations bill
- Precinct Project provides blueprint to ‘take back Republican Party’
3 comments:
David, thanks for posting here. I had run into the 404 error using my stupid smart phone and figured I would check later. It wasn't until now that I was able to find this banned Examiner article. Sharing.
I was early enough to have gotten to the original article, and, as is my habit on significant articles, had saved it as a PDF. But thanks for chasing this. It will be amusing to learn WHY it was taken down.
It's beginning to look as if some of the serial trolls who troll most GRE columns are now making the rules.
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