2015 American Politics Thread: The 114th Congress Is in the House!

Kinda sad that 60 votes is the new threshold in the senate. Do they teach this shit in school now or what

new? it's been the norm for the past 7 years

Hence they should be teaching it in school amirite

as GG says, may the Senate stay paralyzed

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nsa-tracking-program-20150523-story.html#page=1

this belongs here:

looks like Hastert's jail-bound
http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Ex-US-Speaker-Hastert-indicted-on-bank-related-6292720.php

sounds like he was being blackmailed? over what one can only guess

Mr. Hastert, 73, a longtime Republican leader who served as speaker from 1999 until 2007 and now works as a lobbyist in Washington, was providing money to an unnamed person in order to “compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct” against that person, according to a federal indictment issued by the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

sounds like hush money IMO, but it's a fine line

Washington Post re it:

The indictment did not spell out the exact nature of the “prior misconduct” by Hastert, but it noted that before entering state and federal politics in 1981, Has­tert served for more than a decade as a teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois.

In 2010, confronted about the “prior misconduct,” the former speaker agreed to pay $3.5 million to the person “to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against Individual A,” prosecutors alleged.

That person, whose identity was shielded by prosecutors, has known Hastert most of his or her life, growing up in Yorkville, the city next to Hastert’s home town of Plano, in the exurbs west of Chicago. Prosecutors said the actions “occurred years earlier” than the 2010 meeting that sparked the payments.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-house-speaker-dennis-hastert-indicted-over-alleged-secret-payments/2015/05/29/dad237be-05f7-11e5-a428-c984eb077d4e_story.html?hpid=z1

Sounds creepy

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-28/obama-trade-bill-seen-gaining-enough-support-for-final-passage

Hopefully this won't be true

From some Fox site:

Hastert isn't the only recent House speaker to face ethics troubles. Former House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, resigned under a cloud of conflict in 1989 after a very short speakership. Wright, who died May 6, was investigated by the House Ethics Committee over speaking fees and purchases of his book, becoming the first speaker to resign due to a scandal.

Yeah, close to 30 years ago is not really recent, but good point, he was a democrat. Bipartisan!

the man leading the insurgence against Wright? Newt Gingrich.

Aha!

Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying an individual from his past to conceal sexual misconduct, two federal law enforcement officials said Friday.

One of the officials, who would not speak publicly about the federal charges in Chicago, said “Individual A,” as the person is described in Thursday’s federal indictment, was a man and that the alleged misconduct was unrelated to Hastert’s tenure in Congress. The actions date to Hastert’s time as a Yorkville, Ill., high school wrestling coach and teacher, the official said.

“It goes back a long way, back to then,” the source said. “It has nothing to do with public corruption or a corruption scandal. Or to his time in office.” Thursday’s indictment described the misconduct “against Individual A” as having “occurred years earlier.”

Asked why Hastert was making the payments, the official said it was to conceal Hastert’s past relationship with the male. “It was sex,’’ the source said. The other official confirmed that the misconduct involved sexual abuse.

i remember the wrestling factoid, and as with all gray Repugs, this possibility crossed my mind.

I assumed it was this or a lovechild tbh

I saw the love child speculation but then I got another look at his photo.

haha

man was there *anybody* on the GOP "impeach Clinton" team that wasn't hiding some sex scandal of their own?

everyone gets into politics (or wrestling) for the tail.

even Barbara Mikulski?

http://maxrust.net/HASTERT_TIMELINE/WRESTLING.JPG

state champs!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/images/daily/hastert2_1976.jpg

man was there *anybody* on the GOP "impeach Clinton" team that wasn't hiding some sex scandal of their own?

― Οὖτις, Friday, May 29, 2015 3:24 PM

even Hillary was a secret lesbian

so how is this not blackmail anyway

i know i shdnt be shocked but this is honestly kind of shocking wow

I'm kinda shocked that this is some decades-spanning shit

huge amounts of money too

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/here-is-a-creepy-phone-call-dennis-hastert-once-got-on-c-spa

is he running for president yet

wow that CSPAN call I wonder if Denny started shitting bricks right there

all Coach "Handsy" Hastert talk goes here!

would be surprised if there's just one victim tbh. these types of dudes are never one-and-done.

yeah already talk of another one

I'm constantly amazed at the kind of memory people have for this kind of weird shit:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/243418-dennis-hastert's-weird-2014-CSPAN-call

I wouldn't have thought twice about that call; and it might wind up being unrelated; but that it even stuck in someone's head long enough for cspan to have created a page for it and for people to bring it up now is ... i don't know how much time people have to obsess on this kind of ephemera.

― akm, Friday, May 29, 2015 8:51 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also that caller sounds kind of young to have been abused by Hastert in the 60's but maybe he's turned into some kind of man-child, like a Chuck and Buck thing.

― akm, Friday, May 29, 2015 8:52 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Denny and Benny

― akm, Friday, May 29, 2015 8:53 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'll stop now.

well, look at those strapping Midwestern grapplers. i don't think Plato wd've done any different. xp

sorry for posting abt this on the presidential candidate thread.

there was a drivers ed teacher from my school who ended up going to prison after teaching for 25 years and every single girl at school was like that guy is creepy and up to no good

I'm sure we all have stories like this

soccer coach "started" dating a girl from the team right after she graduated

mine got caught, fled the state, was lured back by the victim, arrested and sent to trial, convicted and sent to prison, got out and ... got a teaching post in the midwest

where I think he still is to this day, haven't checked in awhile

what how is that possible

yup here he is (hmm no mention of it in his CV, how odd):
http://www.nwc.edu/sites/music/faculty-staff/person.html?id=6d76bd1a-5da9-4020-affe-84913e9d2c41

stay away, young ladies!

I can only assume that a) WY has extremely lax laws in this regard and b) since he's working with people who are over 18 somehow it's all... okay?

WY is not the midwest FWIW

oh fine

that guy looks like a fucking creep also SAX

no one (including my dad, who was on the teaching staff with him) was surprised when he got arrested - rumors and malicious jokes had swirled around him for years, female classmates would joke about not wanting to be left alone w him etc.

which is how it usually is with these things, kids tell other kids and stuff becomes kind of an open secret

the morality teacher at my catholic high school got busted banging a student. he told her to get an abortion.

he was also married to a v attractive lady and had a baby. what a moran.

My neighbor got arrested and served some time for having a sexual encounter with one of his 16 year old students. I've seen his ex-wife at the post office and the deli.

kind of weird to see woody allen apologist shakey mo going in on this teacher

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/05/30/rand-paul-vows-to-force-expiration-of-patriot-act/?hpid=z4

Senate in session on a Sunday