Dennis Hastert

John Dennis Hastert ( ; born January 2, 1942) is an American former politician, teacher, and wrestling coach who represented from 1987 to 2007 and served as the 51st speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007. Hastert was the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in history. After Democrats gained a majority in the House in 2007, Hastert resigned and began work as a lobbyist. In 2016, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for financial offenses related to the sexual abuse of teenage boys.

From 1965 to 1981, Hastert was a high school teacher and coach at Yorkville High School in Yorkville, Illinois. He lost a 1980 bid for the Illinois House of Representatives but ran again and won a seat in 1981. He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1986 and was re-elected every two years until he retired in 2007. Hastert rose through the Republican ranks in the House, becoming chief deputy whip in 1995 and speaker in 1999. As Speaker of the House, Hastert supported the George W. Bush administration's foreign and domestic policies. After Democrats took control of the House in 2007 following the 2006 elections, Hastert declined to seek the position of minority leader, resigned his House seat, and became a lobbyist at the firm of Dickstein Shapiro.

In May 2015, Hastert was indicted on federal charges of structuring bank withdrawals to evade bank reporting requirements and making false statements to federal investigators. Federal prosecutors said that the funds withdrawn by Hastert were used as hush money to conceal his past sexual misconduct. In October 2015, Hastert entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors. Under the agreement, Hastert pleaded guilty to the structuring charge (a felony); the charge of making false statements was dropped.

In court submissions filed in April 2016, federal prosecutors alleged that Hastert had molested at least four boys as young as 14 years of age during his time as a high school wrestling coach. At a sentencing hearing, Hastert admitted that he had sexually abused boys whom he had coached. Referring to Hastert as a "serial child molester", a federal judge imposed a sentence of 15 months in prison, two years' supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Hastert was imprisoned in 2016 and was released 13 months later. He became the highest-ranking elected official in U.S. history to serve a prison sentence.

Early life and early career

Hastert was born on January 2, 1942, in Aurora, Illinois, the eldest of two sons of Naomi (née Nussle) and Jack Hastert. Hastert is of Luxembourgish and Norwegian descent on his father's side, and of German descent on his mother's.

Hastert grew up in a rural Illinois farming community. His middle-class family owned a farm supply business and a family farm; Hastert bagged and hauled feed and performed farm chores. As a young man, Hastert also worked shifts in the family's Plainfield restaurant, The Clock Tower, where he was a fry cook. Hastert became a born-again Christian as a teenager, during his sophomore year of high school. Hastert attended Oswego High School, where he was a star wrestler and football player.

Hastert briefly attended North Central College, but later transferred to Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts college. Jim Parnalee, Hastert's roommate at North Central who transferred with him to Wheaton, was a Marine Corps Reserve member who in 1965 became the school's first student to be killed in Vietnam. Hastert continued to visit Parnalee's family each year in Michigan. Because of a wrestling injury, Hastert never served in the military. In 1964, Hastert graduated from Wheaton with a B.A. in economics.Official biography
from Dickstein Shapiro (this profile was removed from the firm's website after Hastert resigned following the announcement of the indictment, but the Internet Archive preserved a copy of the profile as it appeared on March 25, 2015). In 1967, he received his M.S. in philosophy of education from Northern Illinois University (NIU). In his first year of graduate school, Hastert spent three months in Japan as part of the People to People Student Ambassador Program.Hastert, p. 214. One of Hastert's fellow group members was Tony Podesta (then the president of the Young Democrats at University of Illinois at Chicago Circle).

Hastert was employed by Yorkville Community Unit School District 115 for 16 years, from 1965 to 1981. Hastert began working there, at age 23, while still attending NIU. Throughout that time, Hastert worked as a teacher at Yorkville High School (teaching government, history, economics, and sociology), where he also served as a football and wrestling coach. Hastert led the school's wrestling team to the 1976 state title and was later named Illinois Coach of the Year. According to federal prosecutors, during the time that he coached wrestling, Hastert sexually abused at least four of his students.

Hastert was a Boy Scout volunteer with Explorer Post 540 of Yorkville for 17 years, during his time as a schoolteacher and coach. Hastert reportedly traveled with the Explorers on trips to the Grand Canyon, the Bahamas, Minnesota, and the Green River in Utah.

In 1973, Hastert married a fellow teacher at the high school, Jean Kahl, with whom he had two sons.

Illinois House of Representatives

Hastert considered applying to become an assistant principal at the school, but then decided to enter politics, although at the time "he knew nothing about politics." Hastert approached Phyllis Oldenburg, a Republican operative in Kendall County, seeking advice on running for a seat in the Illinois Legislature.

Hastert lost a 1980 Republican primary for the Illinois House of Representatives, but showed a talent for campaigning, and after the election, volunteered for an influential state senator, John E. Grotberg. In the summer of 1980, however, State Representative Al Schoeberiein had become terminally ill, and local Republican party officials selected Hastert as the successor over two major rivals, lawyer Tom Johnson of West Chicago and Mayor Richard Verbic of Elgin. The first round of balloting resulted in a tie, but Hastert was chosen after Grotberg interceded on Hastert's behalf. Hastert, fellow Republican Suzanne Deuchler and Democratic incumbent Lawrence Murphy were elected that year.

Hastert served three terms in the state House from the 82nd district, where he served on the Appropriations Committee. According to a 1999 ''Chicago Tribune'' profile, in the state House "Hastert quickly staked out a place on the far right of the political spectrum, once earning a place on the ' Moral Majority Honor Roll.' Yet, he also displayed yeoman-like work habits and an ability to put aside partisanship." He gained a reputation as a dealmaker and party leader known for "asking his colleagues to write their spending requests on a notepad so he could carry them into negotiating sessions" and holding early-morning pre-meetings to organize talking points. One of his first moves in the House was to help block passage of the Equal Rights Amendment; the state House Speaker George Ryan appointed Hastert to a committee that worked to prevent the ERA from coming to the House floor. In the state House, Hastert opposed bills barring discrimination against gays; supported (unsuccessfully) proposals to raise the driving age to 18; and voted for a mandatory seat belt law, although he later voted to repeal it.

In 1986, at the urging of Governor James R. Thompson, Hastert developed a plan to deregulate Illinois utility companies. Under the plan developed by Hastert and Republican staffers, property and gross-receipts taxes that utilities paid would be eliminated and replaced with a "state service tax" that service-industry businesses (ranging from insurers to funeral homes) would pay. Critics of the plan said that it was too favorable to utility companies, and the proposal was not adopted.

U.S. House of Representatives

Meanwhile, Hastert's political mentor Grotberg had been elected to Congress as the representative from Illinois's 14th district, which covered a swath of exurban territory west of Chicago. Grotberg was diagnosed with cancer in 1986, and was unable to run for a second term. Hastert was nominated to replace him; in the general election in November 1986, he defeated Democratic candidate Mary Lou Kearns, the Kane County coroner, in a relatively close race.

Hastert was then reelected in his Fox Valley-centered district several times, by wider margins, aided by his role in redistricting following the 1990 Census.

Following the House banking scandal, which broke in 1992, it was revealed that Hastert had bounced 44 checks during the period under investigation. A Justice Department special counsel said there was no reason to believe Hastert had committed any crime in overdrawing his accounts.

As a protégé of House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel, Hastert rose through the Republican ranks in the House, and in 1995 (after the Republicans gained control of the House and Newt Gingrich became Speaker), Hastert became chief deputy whip. Michel appointed Hastert to the Republicans' health care task force, where Hastert became a "prominent voice" in helping defeat the Clinton health care plan of 1993.

Hastert developed a close relationship with Tom DeLay, the House majority whip, and was widely seen as DeLay's deputy. Hastert and DeLay first worked together in 1989, on Edward Madigan's unsuccessful race against Gingrich for minority whip. Hastert later managed DeLay's successful campaign to become whip. In September 1998, the two added an extra $250,000 to the Defense Department appropriations bill for "pharmacokinetics research" which paid for an Army experiment with nicotine chewing gum manufactured by the Amurol Confections Company in Yorkville, in Hastert's district. On the House floor, Democratic Representative Peter DeFazio criticized the insertion of the provision; Hastert defended it. Hastert played " good cop" to DeLay's "bad cop."

On the eve of his elevation to Speaker, Hastert was described as "deeply conservative at heart" by the Associated Press. The AP reported: "He is an evangelical Christian who opposes abortion and advocates lower taxes, a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and the death penalty. He spearheaded the GOP's fight against using sampling techniques to take the next census. Such groups as the National Right to Life Committee, the Christian Coalition, the Chamber of Commerce and the NRA Political Victory Fund all gave his voting record perfect scores of 100. The American Conservative Union gave him an 88. Meanwhile, the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, the American Civil Liberties Union and labor organizations such as the AFL–CIO and the Teamsters each gave Hastert zero points. The League of Conservation Voters rated him a 13."

Hastert criticized the Clinton administration's plans to conduct the 2000 Census using sampling techniques. Hastert was a supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and in 1993 voted to approve the trade pact. He was a gun rights supporter who voted against the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and Federal Assault Weapons Ban.

Hastert was the "House Republicans' leader on anti-narcotics efforts" and was a strong supporter of the War on Drugs. In this role, he campaigned to bar needle-exchange programs from receiving federal funds, and criticized the Clinton administration for what he believed was insufficient funding for drug interdiction efforts.

In redistricting following the 2000 census, Hastert brokered a deal with Democratic Representative William Lipinski, also from Illinois, that "protected the reelection prospects of almost every Illinois incumbent." The deal easily passed the divided Illinois Legislature.

Committee assignments and House positions

Hastert served on the following House committees and in the following House positions. (This list does not include subcommittee assignments or positions within the Republican Conference).

* 100th Congress (1987–1989) – Government Operations; Public Works and Transportation
* 101st Congress (1989–1991) – Government Operations; Public Works and Transportation; Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families
* 102nd Congress (1991–1993) – Energy and Commerce; Government Operations; Hunger
* 103rd Congress (1993–1995) – Energy and Commerce; Government Operations
* 104th Congress (1995–1997) – Chief Deputy Majority Whip; Commerce; Government Reform and Oversight
* 105th Congress (1997–1999) – Chief Deputy Majority Whip; Commerce; Government Reform and Oversight
* 106th Congress (1999–2001) – The Speaker; Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies
*107th Congress (2001–2003) – The Speaker
* 108th Congress (2003–2005) – The Speaker; Intelligence (''ex officio'')
* 109th Congress (2005–2007) – The Speaker; Intelligence (''ex officio'')

Speaker of the House

In the aftermath of the 1998 midterm elections, where the GOP lost five House seats and failed to make a net gain of seats in the Senate, House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia stepped down from the speakership and declined to take his seat for an 11th term. In mid-December, Representative Robert L. Livingston of Louisiana—the former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and the Speaker-designate—stated in a dramatic surprise announcement on the House floor that he would not become Speaker, following widely publicized revelations of his extramarital affairs.

Although he reportedly had no warning of Livingston's decision to step aside, Hastert "began lobbying on the House floor within moments" of Livingston's announcement, and by the afternoon of that day had secured the public backing of the House Republican leadership, including Gingrich, DeLay (who was "viewed as too partisan to step into the role of Speaker") and Dick Armey (who was "viewed as too weak" and was damaged by party infighting). On that day, Hastert was endorsed by about 100 Republican representatives, ranging from conservatives such as Steve Largent to moderates such as Mike Castle, for the speakership. Representative Christopher Cox of California, viewed as a potential rival, decided by evening not to challenge Hastert for the speakership. Hastert became known as "the Accidental Speaker."

In accepting the position, Hastert broke the tradition that the new speaker deliver his first address from the speaker's chair, instead delivering his 17-minute acceptance speech from the floor. Hastert adopted a conciliatory tone and pledged to work for bipartisanship, saying that: "Solutions to problems cannot be found in a pool of bitterness."

Nevertheless, in November 2004, Hastert instituted what became known as the Hastert Rule (or " majority of the majority" rule), which was an informal, self-imposed political practice of allowing the House to vote on only those bills that were supported by the majority of its Republican members. The practice received criticism as an unduly partisan measure both at the time it was adopted and in the subsequent years. The same year, the Hastert aide who coined the phrase also stated that the structure was not workable. In any case, a number of bills subsequently passed the House without the support of a majority of the majority party in the House, as shown by a list compiled by ''The New York Times''. In 2013, after leaving office, Hastert disowned the policy, saying that "there is no Hastert Rule" and that the "rule" was more of a principle that the majority party should follow its own policies.

Congressional expert Norm Ornstein writes that Hastert "blew up" the House's "regular order," which is "a mix of rules and norms that allows debate, deliberation, and amendments in committees and on the House floor, that incorporates and does not shut out the minority (even if it still loses most of the time), that takes bills that pass both houses to a conference committee to reconcile differences, ndthat allows time for members and staff to read, digest, and analyze bills." Ornstein commented that "no speaker did more to relegate the regular order to the sidelines than Hastert. ... The House is a very partisan institution, with rules structured to give even tiny majorities enormous leverage. But Hastert took those realities to a new and more tribalized, partisan plane." Despite this shift, Hastert was widely seen as "affable" and low-key; he did not seek the limelight, "become a regular on Sunday talk shows or anything close to a household word or figure," or "openly exhibit the kind of snarling or mean partisan demeanor that made Tom DeLay such a mark of hatred for Democrats."

Hastert adopted a much lower profile in the media than conventional wisdom would suggest for a Speaker. This led to accusations that he was only a figurehead for DeLay. In 2005, DeLay was indicted by a Texas grand jury on charges of campaign finance violations. DeLay stepped down as majority leader and was replaced in that post by Roy Blunt; DeLay resigned from Congress the following year.

Throughout his term, Hastert was a strong supporter of President George W. Bush's foreign and domestic policies. Hastert was described as a Bush loyalist who worked closely with the White House to shepherd Bush's agenda through Congress, The two frequently praised each other, expressed mutual respect, and had a close working relationship, even during the controversy over Representative Mark Foley sending sexually explicit text messages to teenage male pages. Hastert even provided Vice President Dick Cheney office space inside the House in the United States Capitol. In 2003, Hastert and Bush met privately at the White House about twice a month to discuss congressional developments.

Earmarks—line-item projects inserted into appropriations bills at the request of individual members, and often referred to as " pork-barrel" spending—"exploded under astert'sleadership," growing from $12 billion in 1999 (at the beginning of Hastert's term) to an all-time high of $29 billion in 2006 (Hastert's last year as speaker). Hastert himself made earmarks a personal trademark; from 1999 to May 2005, Hastert obtained $24 million in federal earmarked grant funds to groups and institutions in Aurora, Illinois, Hastert's birthplace and his district's largest city.

106th Congress

In March 1999, soon after Hastert's elevation to the speakership, the ''Washington Post'', in a front-page story, reported that Hastert "has begun offering industry lobbyists the kind of deal they like: private audiences where, for a price, they can voice their views on what kind of agenda the 106th Congress should pursue." Hastert's style and extensive fundraising led Common Cause to critique the " pay-to-play system" in Congress.

Hastert was known as a frequent critic of Bill Clinton, and immediately upon assuming the speakership, he "played a lead role" in the impeachment of the president. Nevertheless, Hastert and the Clinton administration did work together on several initiatives, including the New Markets Tax Credit Program and Plan Colombia.

In 2000, Hastert announced he would support an Armenian genocide resolution. Analysts noted that at the time there was a tight congressional race in California, in which might be important to have the large Armenian community in favor of the Republican incumbent. The resolution, vehemently opposed by Turkey, had passed the Human Rights Subcommittee of the House and the International Relations Committee, but Hastert, although first supporting it, withdrew the resolution on the eve of the full House vote. He explained this by saying that he had received a letter from Clinton asking him to withdraw it because it would harm U.S. interests. Even though there is no evidence that a payment was made, an official at the Turkish Consulate is said to have claimed in a recording that was translated by Sibel Edmonds that the price for Hastert to withdraw the Armenian genocide resolution would have been at least $500,000.

107th Congress

"Hastert and the senior Republican leadership in the House were able to maintain party discipline to a great degree", which allowed them to regularly enact legislation, despite a narrow majority (less than 12 seats) in the 106th and 107th Congresses. Hastert was a strong supporter of the Iraq War Resolution and the ensuing 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Iraq War. Hastert stated in the House in October 2002 that he believed there was "a direct connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda" and that the U.S. should "do all that we can to disarm Saddam Hussein's regime before they provide al-Qaeda with weapons of mass destruction." In a February 2003 interview with the ''Chicago Tribune'', Hastert "launched into a lengthy and passionate denunciation" of France's resistance to the Iraq war and stated that he wanted to go "nose-to-nose" with the country. In 2006, Hastert visited Iraq at Bush's request and supported a supplemental Iraq War spending bill.

As Speaker, Hastert shepherded the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 to passage in the House on a 357–66 vote. In a 2011 interview, Hastert claimed credit for its passage over the misgivings of many members. Fourteen years later, federal prosecutors used the Patriot Act's expansion of currency transaction reporting requirements to indict Hastert on federal charges.

As speaker, Hastert also oversaw the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a major education bill; the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 legislation; and the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which reorganized the government and created the Department of Homeland Security. Although Hastert was successful in implementing Bush policy priorities, during his tenure the House also "regularly passed conservative bills only to have them blocked in the more moderate Senate." One such bill was an energy bill, backed by the Bush administration, which would have authorized drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; this provision was killed in the Senate.

Hastert opposed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold), the landmark campaign finance reform law. In 2001, during the debate on the bill, Hastert criticized Republican Senator John McCain, the bill's cosponsor, saying that McCain had "bullied" House Republicans by sending them letters in support of his campaign-finance reform proposals. Hastert called the legislation "the worst thing that ever happened to Congress" and expressed the view that there were "constitutional flaws" in the legislation. Supporters of campaign-finance reform circumvented Hastert by means of a discharge petition, a seldom-used procedural mechanism in which a measure may be brought to a floor vote (over the objections of the speaker) if an absolute majority of Representatives sign a petition in support of doing so. The discharge petition was not successfully used again until 2015.

108th Congress

In 2004, Hastert again feuded with McCain amid conflict between the House and the Senate over the 2005 budget. After "McCain gave a speech excoriating both political parties for refusing to sacrifice their tax cutting and spending agendas in wartime," Hastert publicly questioned McCain's "credentials as a Republican and suggested that the decorated Vietnam War veteran did not understand the meaning of sacrifice."

Hastert was key to the passage in November 2003 of key Medicare legislation which created Medicare Part D, a prescription drug benefit. Hastert's push to pass the legislation—culminating in a three-hour House vote in which the Speaker, "an imposing former wrestling coach, was literally leaning on recalcitrant lawmakers to win their support"—raised the Speaker's profile and contributed to a shift of his image from amiable and low-key to more forceful. The extension of the vote for hours and the arm-twisting of members brought condemnation of Hastert from Democrats, with House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer saying: "They are corrupting the practices of the House." The bill passed on a narrow vote of 220 to 215.

In 2004, Hoyer called upon Hastert to initiate a House Ethics Committee investigation into statements by Representative Nick Smith, a Republican of Michigan, who stated that groups and lawmakers had offered support for his son's campaign for Congress in exchange for Smith's support of the Medicare bill. In October 2004, the House Ethics Committee admonished DeLay for pressuring Smith on the Medicare prescription-drug bill, but stated that DeLay did not break the law or House ethics rules. Hastert issued a statement supporting DeLay, but the admonishment was viewed as harming DeLay's chances of succeeding Hastert as Speaker.

109th Congress

On October 27, 2005, Hastert became the first Speaker to author a blog. On "Speaker's Journal" on his official U.S. House website, Hastert wrote in his first post: "This is Denny Hastert and welcome to my blog. This is new to me. I can't say I'm much of a techie. I guess you could say my office is teaching the old guy new tricks. But I'm excited. This is the future. And it is a new way for us to get our message out."

On June 1, 2006, Hastert became the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in history, surpassing the record previously held by fellow Illinoisan Joseph Gurney Cannon, who held the post from November 1903 to March 1911.

In 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, Hastert told an Illinois newspaper that "It looks like a lot of that place eferring to New Orleans">New_Orleans.html" ;"title="eferring to New Orleans">eferring to New Orleanscould be bulldozed" and stated that spending billions of dollars to rebuild the devastated city "doesn't make sense to me." The remarks enraged Governor of Louisiana">Governor