EXTRA: Can we move on from Hastert?

I hope the general public, or at least the segment of our society that was obsessed with knowing all the sordid details of what it was that one-time Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert did, is satisfied.

How long 'til portrait viewed sympathetically

For on the day this week that Hastert had to appear before a judge (being permitted to sit in his wheelchair even though he tried to stand himself up at the crucial moment), it seems we finally got to know what it was the one-time high school wrestling coach “did” with his boys all those decades ago.

IT SEEMS HE’S a groper. He likes to touch them. He probably justified it in his mind as harmless fun. Just being one of the guys.

But one of them died carrying what he considered to be a shameful secret, and others also felt like they were abused. Which ultimately is the key to understanding such cases.

Hastert may not have intended as such, but it is what he caused.

Which is why the judge in U.S. District Court rejected his statement that he “mistreated” his athletes, and wound up referring to Hastert as a “serial child molester.”

WHICH IS A moment I’m sure made Hastert wince inside. I’m sure he realizes the lede of his obituary is no longer “one-time House Speaker” but instead the words that Judge James Durkin spoke.

It was curious that it all came out this week. Because for the more than a year that this case has been pending, prosecutors have resisted getting into the details of what it was that Hastert did back at Yorkville High School.

For Denny, who in the years after his service in Congress became a lobbyist and finally accumulated some wealth, was using it to pay off at least one person from the past to keep their mouths shut. In fact, one person claims Hastert reneged on the agreement, and now wants their money.

The charges to which Hastert pleaded guilty to and were sentenced for this week were financial violations – he withdrew so much money from his bank accounts and did not report it to the federal government, as is required.

IT’S A LAW meant to go after organized-crime types who deal so much in cash. As a fictional example, remember that episode of “The Sopranos” where we learn Tony has bundles of cash hidden in the bird feed, with the amounts just below the dollar figure that would have to be reported.

There was the sense that the U.S. attorney’s office people who prosecute financial crimes were so eager for their case to not get emotional or sloppy that they were willing to downplay what the money was for.

I’m sure there were many people who were disgusted with the legal proceedings until this week, when the case, according to a Crain’s Chicago Business headline, “live(d) down to all expectations.”

Personally, I wasn’t obsessed with knowing every sordid detail because that’s not what he got the 15-month sentence. I try not to get my kicks from other people’s unseemly moments.

BESIDES, I HAVE covered too many capital crimes proceedings where everybody claims that only execution will ease the pain and suffering. Only to realize it doesn’t. The suffering will be the same for the "victims" regardless of what happened to Hastert. It certainly doesn't matter what that wrestling Hall of Fame does with Denny's memory of his athletic days.

He got the prison sentence that will keep him locked away for just over a year (presuming he behaves himself and doesn’t become a prison disciplinary case). It was even said that federal prisons are equipped to handle older inmates with medical conditions that Hastert’s attorneys tried using to justify a sentence of purely probation.

So now Hastert goes away, so to speak. He does his time. With any luck, he lives out his sentence even though, as Judge Durkin said, his “good name is gone.”

Because it’s a sex-related crime instead of merely financially-related, does this mean the collection of political bribe-takers, shake-down artists and other corrupt politicos we have here in Illinois will think they can look down upon Denny?

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EDITOR'S NOTE: I deliberately held off a day before trying to write anything about the Hastert predicament; for fear I'd write hysterics I'd later regret. Besides, both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz acted like goofs on Wednesday, making it possible to take a pass on Denny.

Good, or bad, that Hastert may never actually go to trial on his charges?

I can already hear the rants and rages that will come about due to the word that one-time House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is considering a “guilty” plea to the charges that claim he made financial payoffs to keep a one-time student of his quiet about alleged sexual misconduct.


HASTERT: May learn next month if trial required

For it seems that Hastert’s attorneys on Monday (Hastert himself wasn’t in court) told U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin that they wanted a continuance because they believed they were very close to negotiating a plea deal with the U.S. attorney’s office.

WHICH WOULD HAVE Hastert shift his “not guilty” pleas on at least part of the charges, in exchange for eliminating the need for a criminal trial at which time evidence would have to be presented about the alleged wrongdoing.

If there is never a trial, then the general public will never get more than the speculation that currently exists about what exactly it was that Hastert did wrong.

Federal prosecutors have said that Hastert, after he ceased being the House speaker, made an agreement with one of his former students back when he was a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School to pay some $3.5 million.

Prosecutors say he made withdrawals of his own money in ways that were meant to evade detection – which is a technical violation. Although one can argue that Hastert has the right to spend his money however he wants – no matter how strange it seems to pay it to a former student.

WHAT WE DON’T know specifically is why Hastert would want to do so. Although the Chicago Tribune reported claims that Hastert had taken advantage of the student in a sexual manner, and now wanted to make sure the one-time student kept his mouth shut.

But that is speculation. We don’t have that “on the record” in any way.

And there are people who are eager for that to come out publicly in the form of a trial. They want to know sordid details of whether Hastert really did do something wrong with one of his students.

Mostly for their own cheap titillation factor. Although I’m sure some political operatives will find ways to use the fact that a one-time House speaker who was Republican somehow reflects upon all of his GOP colleagues.

WHICH MAY WELL be why Hastert would consider entering a “guilty” plea, particularly if his legal counsel is capable of working out an agreement that would put the potential for incarceration at a minimum.

Perhaps even no prison time, but some sort of significant fine. I don’t know for sure what is being considered. Although I’m sure Hastert is most concerned with reducing his level of shame to the bare minimum – as in no more than he has already suffered.

While those people eager for a trial are most concerned with bolstering the shame level to the maximum – even if it means playing off the homophobic fears and thoughts that some in our society are determined to cling to.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing this case go away – largely because the offenses that might be considered the most serious aren’t going to be the key to any criminal prosecution of Hastert. The statute of limitations on any acts committed against students is long past – they’re so old.

THIS WOULD TURN into a technical trial on financial matters that some will try to exaggerate into titillation for their own benefits.

There’s also the fact that Hastert is a retired politico – similar to Edward R. Vrdolyak when he was finally caught and wound up doing about one year at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.

Is that going to be Hastert’s fate as well?

If so, we need to realize that it won’t change anything – people who back Hastert will continue to do so, while those who want his “head on a pike” so to speak will forevermore be displeased by the outcome of any legitimate trial.

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A sex scandal? How will it stick! How unfortunate that it will do so

The Los Angeles Times is a lot bolder than I am – reporting Friday that the activity former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert was willing to pay so much to cover up was sexual in nature.

HASTERT: How quickly his life changed

The rumor-mongers had been trying to get me to believe this earlier. Although not with the level of detail that the Times offered up, nor from as high-level of sources as the newspaper seems to have.

ACCORDING TO THE Times, they have two federal law enforcement officials who say the person who was receiving money from Hastert was a man who was once a student back when Hastert was a high school teacher and wrestling coach.

“It was sex,” was the explanation given by that source as to why Hastert would have given the man some $1.7 million in recent years to not talk about what supposedly happened several decades ago. Although it is interesting to see the Chicago Tribune report that officials at Yorkville High School say they had no clue there was anything inappropriate about the way Hastert conducted himself while working there. But the Chicago Sun-Times hinted Friday there may be a second person involved in the case.

Most likely, the conduct was so long ago that any statute of limitations on such charges would have passed. So this is going to be a criminal case that focuses on financial details related to the payoff. Just like Al Capone getting busted on income tax evasion – rather than any of the illicit activity that made Chicago so vicious in the 1920s.

We’re probably never going to get total titillation about Hastert and one of his students – which may be for the best! I have trouble thinking of the possible student as a victim if his reaction was to resort to extortion.

WHAT ALL THIS actually reminds me of is the 2004 election cycle when Jack Ryan had his dreams of becoming a political persona squashed when details of his divorce from actress Jeri Ryan came out.

We wound up getting tales of Ryan trying to take his voluptuous semi-celebrity bride to sex clubs and try to get her to engage in acts some might call kinky.

RYAN: His political reputation died just as quick

We never got the concept of “U.S. Sen. Jack Ryan, R-Ill.” because he dropped out of the campaign. His career ended before it could begin.

Hastert is just the opposite. None of this came out until after he left office and became a high-priced D.C. lobbyist. Although I suspect the effect on his public reputation will be just as dramatic.

SO WHAT SHOULD we think about all of this?

I found it interesting that people were digging up and sending Internet links to me of pieces published on the Daily Kos website back in 2006 under the headlines Is Dennis Hastert gay? and Is Hastert gay?

These pieces were motivated by the activity back then when Florida congressman Mark Foley was sending e-mails and instant messages to teenage boys he had known when they worked as pages in Congress. A lot of Republican officials got smeared by similar innuendo; including "Mr. Speaker" himself.

Although I’m not saying to have any knowledge of Hastert’s personal life or activity. IN fact, I’m inclined to think that the pieces are a bit of a stretch for the facts that purport to support them.

BUT I’M SURE others are going to feel compelled to spread the smut level – even if they don’t have any true titillation to back it up. We’re going to get a sex scandal that some will think just won’t amount to much.

But I’m sure others just won’t care. That may wind up being the biggest tragedy of this whole situation.

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DURKIN: Hastert's judge

EDITOR’S NOTE: Perhaps “All In the Family” is an appropriate title for government. Hastert’s criminal case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin – a Barack Obama appointee but also the brother of Illinois House Minority Leader James Durkin, R-Western Springs. Durkin (the judge) used to be a partner in the law firm of Mayer Brown – where Hastert’s son, Ethan, is now an attorney.