The Hastert plot thickens - who is Scott Palmer?

[shance]

Who is Scott Palmer?

He is Speaker Hastert's chief of staff, which makes him the key player in the what-did-Hastert-know-and-when-did-he-know-it drama.

Scott Palmer has issued a statement flatly denying that Kirk Fordham, Mark Foley's former chief of staff, warned him that Foley was crossing the line with pages long before Foley's inappropriate email surfaced.

Palmer's denial of Fordham's headline-grabbing claim is the thread Hastert's Speakership is now hanging by.

In Hastert's brief, evasive press conference on Thursday, sharp reporters immediately zeroed in on Palmer's role in the Foley information flow. Did Hastert leap to the defense of his chief of staff's honor in the crucial credibility contest with Kirk Fordham? Did he say I know Scott Palmer and I know he's telling the truth? No. He avoided every question with Palmer's name in it. Hastert obviously does not want to talk about Scott Palmer.

If Fordham did warn Palmer about Foley a long time ago, what are the odds that Palmer did not tell Hastert? As close to zero as you can get. Many chiefs of staff are close, very close, to their bosses on Capitol Hill. But none are closer than Scott Palmer is to Denny Hastert. They don't just work together all day, they live together.

There are plenty of odd couple Congressmen who have roomed together on Capitol Hill, but I have never heard of a chief of staff who rooms with his boss. It is beyond unusual."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-odonnell/who-is-scott-palmer_b_31171.html

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. Things that make you go "hmmmmm"

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. things that make you hummer.

sorry about that..

gannongate squared?

[TomInTib]

2. I have been reading this for a couple of days.

Totally bizarre-world.

[Justice Is Comin]

3. I've been saying, I can see Hastert trying to get into a giving or

receiving position too. It would be hard for him to get on his knees. Laying down, not so much.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Does that explain why Hastert walks like he has a medical problem?

[WCGreen]

5. Scott Killed his sister Laura...

Up in the Northwest, at a lodge, where a quivering midget knew all....

[drm604]

6. The owls are not what they seem... n/t

[WCGreen]

7. But they sure make great pie up there...

[MagickMuffin]

8. Palmer offered to Resign

but Denny Jabba Hastert refused his resignation.

[MagickMuffin]

9. WaPo article from Sunday, May 29, 2005

When Scott B. Palmer received an honorary degree in 2002 from his alma mater, Aurora University in Illinois, he urged the graduating class to "give back to our university, to our community and to our country."

As chief of staff to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Palmer runs a congressional office that has been able to do just that for Aurora, the birthplace of his boss and the largest city in his boss's home district.

Nine months after Scott B. Palmer, left, chief of staff to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, got an honorary degree from Aurora University, $9.8 million was earmarked for the school in an appropriations bill. Both men are shown in a 1999 photo.

Hastert has earmarked $24 million in grants for Aurora-based nonprofit groups since becoming speaker in 1999, using an obscure section of the big federal spending bills passed each year.

Nine months after the cap-and-gown ceremony honoring Palmer, Aurora University got $9.8 million to construct a teacher training institute. Aurora's Rush-Copley Medical Center, where Palmer is an unpaid trustee, captured a total of $5.5 million in 2002 and 2003. About $3.4 million has gone to another Aurora hospital where another member of Hastert's staff had worked.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/28/AR2005052801183.html?nav=hcmodule

[shance]

12. Hastert sure has earmarked a lot of money (24 mil) for Aurora University

n/t

[The Count]

10. Condi also flatly denied Clinton left then a plan re: OBL

I think flat denials need the "word" treatment in the Colbert report.

[shance]

13. Is Hastert the next one "Foleygated"?

Here is Lawrence O'Donnell, writing on Hastert's Chief of Staff Scott Palmer,

"Many chiefs of staff are close, very close, to their bosses on Capitol Hill. But none are closer than Scott Palmer is to Denny Hastert. They don't just work together all day, they live together."

There are plenty of odd couple Congressmen who have roomed together on Capitol Hill, but I have never heard of a chief of staff who rooms with his boss. It is beyond unusual. But it must have its advantages. Anything they forget to tell each other at the office, they have until bedtime to catch up on. And then there's breakfast for anything they forgot to tell each other before falling asleep.

And then there's all day at the office.
What about the irresponsible rumor that Hastert's wife, when in DC, maintains Denny and Scotty's privacy by staying at a hotel? Turns out that "rumor" found ink in no lesser source than the Chicago Sun-Times -- in a column published on (get this!) Valentine's Day:

Just ran into Jean Hastert, the wife of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) in the hallway outside the speakers' Capitol office suite. She just dropped in on her husband.

It's a rare D.C. appearence for Mrs. Hastert. She was here a few weeks ago for President Bush's State of the Union address. She was off to an afternoon tea, at an ambassador's residence, sponsored by some international group.

When in Washington, the speaker lives in a group house with his chief of staff, Scott Palmer and top deputy, Mike Stokke.

I asked her if she is bunking with the guys.

She is not. She stays in a hotel.
Repeat: Valentine's Day.

Okay, so we have Denny and Scotty and Mikey under the same roof. Anyone else?

Well, according to Mike Rogers -- who may be the person behind the "Stop Sex Predators" blog -- Sam Lancaster, a $150,000 Director of Speaker Operations for Denny Hastert, is also gay. I do not know if this allegation is true; feel free to ask Rogers for confirmation.


WMR's State Department sources have also reported that the visits of Hastert and other congressional leaders and staff members to certain Southeast Asian nations and the Northern Marianas should come under the scrutiny of the House Ethics Committee, now officially investigating "Pagegate."

The Northern Marianas became infamous in the scandals involving Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff because of the presence in the US slave labor territory of Asian children being used as prostitutes. Conveniently, Foley co-chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, which would have had authority to investigate charges of child prostitution in the Northern Marianas.

Madsen has more, including the wildest theory on the John Mark Karr affair ever mooted.

All of which leaves humble bloggers such as myself in something of a quandary. Is it ethical for a progressive writer to discuss Denny Hastert's unusual living arrangements?

I can't pretend that writing this post has made me feel comfortable.

And yet...if Madsen's vague allegations pan out into something tangible, the Marianas angle may prove of genuine importance. We have every right to ask why this Republican congress has done nothing to staunch -- and much to enable -- enforced prostitution and child abuse on what is, after all, American territory.

Beyond that, I must confess that I became really, really, really pissed off by the recent G.O.P. attempts to blame Foley-gate on Nancy Pelosi, George Soros and Bill Clinton. Those damnable lies have expanded my definition of permissible return fire.

Beyond that, we have the undeniable facts that Hastert is Bush's enabler, and Bush would not have his job without the votes of this nation's gay-bashers. Force that constituency to see how the world really works and history will change.