Word: hastert
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...have the most to fear from the guys across the aisle in Congress. He and Democratic leader Dick Gephardt are barely on speaking terms, and have locked horns over everything from scheduling votes on bills to the appointment of the House chaplain. Democrats complain that behind Hastert's aw-shucks mien is a take-no-prisoners pol. When they belittle him as DeLay's puppet, Hastert just smiles. "Nobody's running the show but me." While it's true that DeLay was instrumental in seeing Hastert, then his deputy whip, get the top job, the Speaker...
...Saturday mornings back home in Illinois, Hastert and his wife Jean drive for groceries. Afterward, Hastert likes to drop in on the local Republican headquarters several shops down to catch up on town gossip, then head to nearby Bristol, where a buddy owns a garage. Hastert loves to restore old cars and fire trucks. "Being powerful is something I never sought," he said, riding in his SUV last month past miles of corn and soybean fields in his district. "But I understand this is a fickle business, and we need to grab the moment...
...modern House of Representatives, though, has a nasty tendency to devour its leader. The Speaker's gavel has changed hands four times in the past 14 years. Tip O'Neill was the last Speaker to leave without being ousted by scandal or electoral defeat. Denny Hastert may hope for a long reign in the top job. But if the economy keeps going south, Hastert, the former high school economics teacher, may be undone by the subject he once taught...
...Thursday morning, Sept. 13: The country's most powerful legislators gathered together on couches and chairs in Speaker Dennis Hastert's private office in the Capitol. Hastert and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt sat together on a couch. In the previous two days, they had talked to each other more than they had in the entire past year. (So bitter had been their political feuding in the past, when Hastert had information to pass along to Gephardt he had Minority Leader Dick Armey make the phone call.) Now Hastert and Gephardt sat side by side - grumpy...
...Hastert served as the moderator, staying mostly silent himself and recognizing others to speak. The faces in the room looked worried and tired. Many had gotten only a few hours sleep the past two nights. And they were still feeling emotional about what the country had been through. "We're not Democrats here and we're not Republicans," Daschle said at one point to the group. "We're Americans. So let's do the right thing." Others nodded their heads to second that sentiment...