In his post-mortem on Dennis Hastert’s tenure as House Speaker, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator, says he “deserve[s] obloquy”:
He became speaker in December 1998, after a dozen lackluster years in the House. He always is introduced in news stories as “a former small-town high school wrestling coach,” and … I wish Hastert had stayed in the gym. His period as speaker marked the Republican congressional delegation’s final decay from Reagan splendor to the provincial Republicanism of an earlier era. The late Harding again comes to mind.
Hastert did preside over tax cuts and did help hammer out legislative responses to the Sept. 11 sneak attacks on New York and Washington. Of course, both initiatives were pretty much devised by the Bush White House. He also opened the floodgates to congressional spending. He turned a blind eye to the petty corruption that beset the House during his term. He encouraged mediocrity and held back young principled Republicans of the Reaganite variety. He allowed the Republican Party to return to the era of pork barrel deal making.
