The press fool themselves over Dennis Hastert

Something that's gotten a bit lost in Hastert's handling of "Foleygate" is the fact that it was Tom DeLay's need for a frontman that put the hapless porker in the Speaker's chair to begin with. Fortunately, being in the number two instead of the number one slot didn't save DeLay from having to face the music for his corruption. But this piece from TNR highlights Hastert's incompetence and the role of the mainstream press in perpetuating this disgraceful Republican majority.

Reading back over the last several years of Hastert coverage, one is astonished by the lengths to which reporters go to avoid outing him as a guileless nincompoop. One common approach--frequently deployed in stories about dumb-but-powerful politicians--is to interpret Hastert's apparent lack of intelligence as evidence of his enigmatic character, as though Hastert were a walking riddle with jowls and a Midwestern accent. . . .

Typically, the reporter will then provide an account of Hastert's behind-the-scenes élan. Here is Denny Hastert, master legislative strategist, peerless vote-counter, party-unifier extraordinaire. But, wouldn't you know, absolutely none of these skills is evident in public. Invariably, one of two things strikes you about these stories. The first is that they're so small-bore that they actually underscore the point that Hastert is a nonentity. Many of them even have a faintly patronizing tone, like a mother bragging that her 6-year-old poured his own bowl of Kix this morning.