Hastert aide: Probe rumor is retaliation

[sabra]

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/28942.php/Hastert-aide:-Probe-rumor-is-retaliation

Hastert aide: Probe rumor is retaliation

WASHINGTON, May 25 (UPI) -- An aide to U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., claims news reports Hastert is being probed in a lobbying scandal is payback by the Justice Department.

Wednesday night, ABC News reported sources at the Justice Department said Hastert was among those involved in a probe of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In an unusual move, the department very quickly issued a denial.

Speaking to The Chicago Sun-Times, Hastert's deputy chief of staff Mike Stokke said he didn't blame ABC News for bad reporting but rather questioned the timing of the "leak." He referred to a stinging challenge Hastert and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made on Sunday that the FBI surrender documents it seized during an unprecedented weekend raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.

"We've been in discussion with them since Sunday, with the Department of Justice, on this other matter of unconstitutional search and seizure." Stokke told the newspaper. "I don't recall any threats being made, but this is what is called in baseball a brushback pitch. ABC News got this from somewhere. I don't think they made this up."

[ananda]

1. So...

... it's blame everyone else who reports or talks about your misdoings?
That sounds like typical Reeptile strategy:

One law for Dems (going after Wm Jefferson and reporting on it is OK)

and

No law for Reeps.

[William769]

2. Well one good this did come out of this if the story is false.

The Republicans are starting to eat their own & at high levels.

[babylonsister]

3. This has been a long time coming. Who's fooling who? And

how does it feel?

[Norquist Nemesis]

4. First Hastert says "somebody leaked it"

then he says it's false and demands retraction/apology. Can't be both! Personally, I just think it's hilarious! :rofl:

It occurred to me that the GOP coming out en masse about the 'unconstitutional' search (which had a signed warrant to go with it!) scares the crap out of them because of two things: Duke Cunningham and Jack Abramoff. Weren't there supposed to be something like 27 indictments? If any Congressperson has received subpoenas for papers or other evidence, just as Jefferson had, these same Congresspeople may need to be monitored to make sure they're not doing any 3 a.m. office cleanup.

[gratuitous]

5. Wait, doesn't bad-mouthing the administration help the terrorists?

This certainly is confusing! Doesn't Mr. Hastert know how hurtful it is to the government's morale to question their motives? I know that I've had that drilled at me for years because I question things like the rationale du jour for the invasion of Iraq.

[wicket]

6. Link here:

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/28942.php/Hastert-aide:-Probe-rumor-is-retaliation

[sabra]

8. thanks

:-)

[wicket]

10. No problem!

:D

[Zorro]

7. Hey, if they aren't guilty

then they shouldn't have anything to worry about if their offices are searched, right?

Hasn't that been the conservative Republican mantra over the past 5 years as they defended this administration's search and seizure policies?

[Buzz Clik]

9. Seeing how an impeachment would be started only by the GOP...

This may be the beginning. The paranoia in the White House has become so raging that they're starting to make big mistakes and with the wrong people.

Now we sit and watch.

[mourningdove92]

11. Retaliation, hmmm?

Welcome to Joe Wilson's and Valerie Plame's world.

[RebelDawg]

12. I got a feeling old Hastert

has been "probed" before. I'm just saying...

[Trouser Trout]

14. Damn RebelDawg, you stole my line

I was gonna say the probing of that fat bastard will begin when he goes to the BIG HOUSE.

[yellowcanine]

13. It may indeed be a "brushback pitch" and the strikeout pitch is next.

Just because it is a well-timed leak doesn't mean it is false. I think Denny is in some deep doo doo here.

[grasswire]

15. what the hell is Gonzales up to?

Hastert is DeLay's puppet. Of course he's dirty. But what's the DoJ doing leaking stuff about him in order to punish him for smacking them for searching Jefferson's office?

I suspect there's a bigger backstory.

[libertypirate]

16. Stupid is as stupid has no memory for the facts...

These people are going down... HARD!

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0804-06.htm


And while the Vanity Fair article reports that “there is no evidence that any payment was ever made to Hastert or to his campaigns,” it also reports that “a senior official at the Turkish Consulate is said to have claimed in one recording that the price for Hastert to withdraw the resolution would have been at least $500,000.”


The article reports that Edmonds testified that she heard about the payments when listening to “Turkish wiretap targets.”


In one wiretapped conversation, a Turkish official spoke to a State Department staffer.


“They agreed that the State Department staffer would send a representative at an appointed time to the American-Turkish Council office, at 1111 14th Street, N.W. where he would be given $7,000 in cash,” the article reports.


http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=51744

[wicket]

17. kick

:kick: