Hastert should resign

The Republicans are experiencing a mighty stroke of bad luck lately.

According to intelligence reports, the Iraqi conflict is not making the world safer. Sen. George Allen, once a presidential prospect, is fighting for his incumbency. Now, to make things worse, a Florida representative is under investigation after being accused of engaging in explicit communications with an underage page. On top of that, Speaker of the House Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, allegedly ignored his fellow Republicans’ deeds until now.

The Congressman under investigation, Rep. Mark Foley, R-Florida, has resigned from his seat. Now, Hastert should follow. The resignation is needed to restore integrity to the Republican Party. These two men seemed to have exercised bad judgment. Foley allegedly sent explicit instant messages to an underage page, and Hastert allegedly knew and did nothing.

Foley’s lawyer, David Roth, said in a news conference that Foley was molested as a child and is gay. Somehow that is used for justification, yet when did homosexuality equate to pedophilia? There’s no doubt Foley needs help.

It’s obvious this scandal can very well jeopardize the outcome of the November elections, yet the American people need to depend on their politicians to be

held accountable.

Hastert should suck it up. Resigning is nothing new when such a blunder is made. The same thing happened in 2002 when Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, made a statement honoring former segregationist Strom Thurmond while somehow implying if Thurmond was president “we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years.”

Lott stepped down as Senate majority leader amid the controversy and Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist took his place.

Taking note from history, Hastert, the honorable speaker, needs to promptly step down. This is another event marked as a bad time for Republicans. Each day that passes, more and more Americans will lose faith in Republicans as being the honest party of this nation that exemplifies family values.

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