Jake and the Fatman (minus Jake)

Dennis Hastert wants to be third in line for the Presidency again:

"But, yeah, I think we can hold on to the majority," said Hastert, who indicated he would like to run for House speaker again. "Sometimes I look at the things we try to do. We try to pass real legislation, and we have good ideas about what to do about immigration, what to do about energy, what to do about taxes. And our friends on the other side of the aisle want us to swirl around in all this (Foley) controversy. I think American voters understand right and wrong and the people who are really working to get things done in this country, and I think they'll return a Republican Congress.

Actually, the Foley controversy has become more of a backdrop, as the Iraq war has taken center stage. But when the Speraker of the House has to testify before the Ethics Committee, you have to wonder if the Democrats can make a cogent argument about whether that's the person you want running the House of Representatives. For all the bluster Republicans are making about demonizing Nancy Pelosi and asking voters if they want a "San Francisco liberal" running the House, Democrats could probably go further asking voters if they want the guy running the House who covered for a sexual predator in order to save a seat.

...by the way, Denny continues to claim he didn't know anything about Foley's salacious emails until the time the story broke, despite the fact that Foley's chief of staff continues to claim that he told Hastert about it as far back as 2003. Just thought I'd mention that.