Day: October 4, 2006

Speaker Denny Hastert is trying to keep his job while he weathers a storm of controversy swirling around Representative Mark Foley’s come-ons to house pages.

Backed by measured words of support from President Bush, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert opened an intense drive on Tuesday to hold on to his post, but behind the scenes senior Republicans weighed whether he could survive the scandal surrounding former Representative Mark Foley.

Among the options being considered by senior Republicans is for Mr. Hastert to announce that he will stay on as speaker through this year but not seek re-election to the post assuming Republicans retain control of the House, said people on and off Capitol Hill who were involved in the discussions. They said the advantage of such a step would be to postpone a disruptive leadership fight until after Election Day.

In a round of interviews with right-leaning radio shows after the conservative editorial page of The Washington Times called Tuesday for his resignation, Mr. Hastert vowed he would not quit. He accused political opponents of stoking the furor over Mr. Foley, Republican of Florida, in an effort to influence the coming elections and strip Republicans of Congressional control.

“If they get to me, it looks like they could affect our election as well,” Mr. Hastert said in an interview on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show.

And that’s the real problem. Too many people are worried about how this will effect the results in November. What about the people who were thrown under the bus by Foley? What about the minors he’s harmed mentally if not physically? If members of the Republican party intentionally kept the Foley matter from becoming public, I don’t want them reelected. I don’t want them serving our country. They need to be rooted out and their careers cut short.

And yeah, Hastert should step down. I haven’t been that impressed with the guy as it is, and now there is this whole can o’ worms. He should have done something about it before now.

I say, clear the halls of all the bums, Democrat and Republican alike. If their only goal is to keep getting elected, then I don’t want them running the country.

I’m in Frankfurt, 24 hours later than I thought I would be. Man, do I hate traveling. I don’t mind the business. Once I get where I’m going I feel great. What I do mind is the process of traveling. It’s the waiting. It’s the hardest part (h/t Tom Petty).

Monday, I showed up at SeaTac airport in Seattle on time, riding something called the ‘Airporter’, a charter bus. It’s relatively cheap, and you can space out all you like on the ride down since you don’t have to drive. It’s no time saver though. I left my town at 8:20 AM and got to the airport at 11:30 AM. So, I make through check-in, survive the security line (nightmare), and get to the gate. No problem so far. At about the 30 minute mark before I’m set to take off, the nice lady at the counter gets on her microphone and says…

Ladies and Gentlemen, regarding United Flt. 938 to Chicago, we’re going to be delayed. In fact, it will be a severe delay.

When is a delay not severe? Anyway, it turned out that Chicago had all sorts of thunder storms and they weren’t letting any plane land or take-off until further notice. Our gate agent was predicting a departure time no earlier than 5 pm. Well, I had my Frankfurt flight at 9:40 PM CST, and I wasn’t gonna make it. I walked up to the counter and worked with the attendant for almost an hour only to hear the same bad news. After multiple tries at getting me to another airport somewhere in the world which could then load me off to Frankfurt, we discovered that there wasn’t anyway United was going to get me there. The only other option? Cancel the tickets. I did.

So, there I am, in SeaTac airport no longer holding a ticket to get to Frankfurt, Germany. I call my assistant to rework my appointments. She cancels my hotel so I don’t get docked a nights stay. I start wondering how I’m going to get back home (remember I took the airporter). Lucky for me I was able to get on the next bus home, and at 6:30 PM, I was back in my house, still ticket-less.

After feeding the kids, I get on the internet and start looking at flight options, knowing full well that I’m going to be looking at five figure costs. I find Air Canada with a few flights (I live only a few miles from the U.S. / Canadian border, so I opt for Vancouver International. I book a Tuesday departure. I’ve also got to find a new hotel, since the first one was cancelled. If you’ve ever gone to the Frankfurt Book Fair before, you know what the hotel industry does during the 4 days of the event. They jack their prices up 500%, since they can, and since a couple of hundred thousand people come here looking for rooms. Much to my surprise, I find a room – a non-smoking room to boot! Pure luck, that’s what that is. Yet, my luck doesn’t extend to the price. I’m being gouged to death. Oh well, what am I supposed to do? Sleep in the street?

I set out again on Tuesday, and now almost 18 hours later, I’m sitting here, jet-lagged, in my hotel room along the river Main in downtown Frankfurt.

Did I say I hated traveling?

Yeah, I did.