Former House Speaker Denny Hastert
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s sentencing hearing on child molestation charges was held last week. He faces five years in prison. Defense lawyers asked for probation.
In this age of outrage over bathroom usage and protecting our children, there has been quite a bit of outrage demanding the child molester be punished severely and made an example.
Here’s a sample of what Republicans, who support the recently created bathroom laws in Mississippi and North Carolina, had to say.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay wrote: “He has never disappointed me in any way. He is a man of strong faith that guides him. He is a man of great integrity. He loves and respects his fellow man.”
Wait. What? You mean he loves fellow boys, right? Loves them too much.
“We all have flaws,” DeLay wrote, “but Dennis Hastert has very few.”
One of those flaws, however, is molesting minors, something some people are outraged that transgender women are doing, even though they’re not.
One of the 41 support letters that I particularly enjoyed was from Joseph Ritchie, founder and CEO of Chicago Research and Trading. Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of the letter:
“I was working on a plan to bring the former King of Afghanistan back to the country, and so undermine the Taliban. As it turned out, we needed some cooperation from Washington, particularly in Congress.”
I love when private citizens create their own foreign policy and then go to members of Congress to help them, maybe lend an army battalion or two, air force cover, whatever I happen to need. So this supporter of Hastert used his own questionably legal activity as a justification for Hastert getting a lighter sentence. If that letter doesn’t get him an extra year in prison, nothing will.
Jeff Scrima, a friend, argues, “Regarding his recently revealed transgressions, he has already received his penalty — financially (with money already paid out) and with his reputation (which is now completely shot.)”
Hush money paid is not usually considered part of someone’s sentence for committing a crime. In fact, it’s part of his cover up and lying to the FBI that he’s convicted of doing. And, yes, most people who commit a felony lose their reputation. Let me give you an example: Let’s say you’re Speaker of the House of Representatives and have some major accomplishments. You retire with a good reputation. Then you’re arrested and convicted of molesting adolescents and cover up that involves avoiding banking regulations. Your reputation is then, as you put it, shot. Clear?
But again, one thing is clear: A former Speaker of the House who is cisgender molested teens. Transgender people didn’t.
