Mr Hastert, meet Mr Foley

* wapo:

"Foley served nearly 12 years in Congress and was regarded as an energetic and capable lawmaker. But he barely registered on the senior GOP leadership's radar screen. "I've never had a conversation with him," said Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. "Other than his vote on a tariff matter at one time or another, I think.""

* via josh:

"A senior House Republican has asked the House clerk to look into allegations that then-Rep. Mark Foley was turned away from the congressional page dorm on Capitol Hill after arriving there intoxicated one night."

* amy:

"In other news from capital hill, the Conservative news site HumanEvents.com is reporting the Bush administration is preparing to make a second recess appointment of UN Ambassador John Bolton. Bolton was appointed during a recess last year after his nomination failed to win enough support in the Senate. An administration source said Bolton will be re-appointed if the Senate fails to confirm him before his recess appointment ends at the end of the year."

* clemons disagrees.

* awc:

"Historian Tony Judt, a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and director of the Remarque Institute at NYU, writes,

I was due to speak this evening, in Manhattan, to a group called Network 20/20 comprising young business leaders, NGO, academics, etc, from the US and many countries. Topic: the Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. The meetings are always held at the Polish Consulate in Manhattan.

I just received a call from the President of Network 20/20. The talk was cancelled because the Polish Consulate had been threatened by the Anti-Defamation League. Serial phone calls from ADL President Abe Foxman warned them off hosting anything involving Tony Judt. If they persisted, he warned, he would smear the charge of Polish collaboration with anti-Israeli anti-Semites (= me) all over the front page of every daily paper in the city (an indirect quote). They caved and Network 20/20 were forced to cancel.

Whatever your views on the Middle East I hope you find this as serious and frightening as I do. This is, or used to be, the United States of America.

* talkleft:

"My law firm has represented at least a dozen men charged with the same offense, and they are arrested on the spot. Police give no quarter to them, preferring to arrest, do a perp walk (compare NBC Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" on again Friday night), and name them in the local press, and charge them in circuit court before the ink is dry on the booking form.
[]
At least the feds take their time before they get in, but having the federal government charge for these offenses is devastating. The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines on a guilty plea have a 57 month minimum."

* glenn:

"how many days can Denny Hastert possibly have left? And what bigger favor could Republicans do for Democrats than continue to insist that he not resign?"