Continued Foley Fallout, Over A Year Later

Before we get going on Iowa tonight, I think you should have a look at the depths to which the conservative movement will go to protect their own. Turns out Denny Hastert was paying Mark Foley's legal bills out of his own campaign coffers, and abruptly resigned before the Federal Election Commission smacked him with fines up the yin-yang.

According to FEC documents, Hastert last January initially failed to disclose that legal fees had wiped out the final bit of cash he had in his campaign account. The Illinois Republican and former high school wrestling coach filed an amended finance report in February showing that his '06 campaign had racked up $147,000 in legal expenses in connection with the Foley investigation. In order to avoid substantial fines (and further debt), Hastert quietly agreed last summer to shut down his campaign and pay a $1,000 penalty, the FEC documents show.

The lack of ethics and respect for election law here is unsurprising, but instructive. Why the hell was Denny Hastert paying for these legal bills? They say it was for the "representation of Mr. Hastert in the Foley investigation," but who was investigating him? This was just using one account to cover another, and failing to disclose it.

The Republicans will do absolutely whatever they need to do to win elections. Don't forget that.