I’m not sure where to even start on the Dennis Hastert scandal. For those who came in late, Hastert was the longest serving Republican Speaker of the House (1999-2007) in history who has just been indicted by a federal grand jury for violating banking laws by structuring a million dollars in cash withdrawals to avoid reporting and then lying about it to the FBI. But it doesn’t end there. It was then revealed these payments were hush money to conceal sexual abuse of a male student from his teaching career before 1981. Though specific details about this sex scandal have yet to be revealed, it would be ironic if the statute of limitations had expired on that crime while each count in his indictment carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. This would mean all his money spent to spare his reputation was not only wasted, but will now likely cost him more including his freedom. There’s just something characteristically Republican about not only being caught in a scandal, but actually making it worse in the process.
Hastert rose to prominence during the nation’s most infamous sex scandal so far, Bill Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky affair. It turned out at the same time that previous Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was cheating on his second wife with a congressional aide 20 years younger. He had also cheated on his first wife while she was battling cancer. Gingrich’s unanimous would-be successor, Bob Livingston, resigned over his own extramarital affairs. The previously unknown Dennis Hastert was selected to lead the moral crusade against Clinton because he was supposedly “clean as a whistle.” Basically, it turns out the two or three most powerful Republicans during the Clinton impeachment were just as bad or worse than the president. It’s too late now for Republicans to try to make a wash of this with their typical “both sides do it.” Republicans only seem to resort to this tactic after their own scandals are made public, even if before that the strength of their brand depended on them being better than their Democratic rivals. The only real difference seems to be the lengths that Republicans will go to maintain their illusion of moral superiority, even if that means breaking the law. But a party that claims to stand for “family values” should not have such a difficult time finding a spokesperson who actually lives up to those standards.
To conservatives, it would be scandalous enough just for a politician to be outed as gay. But Republicans never seem to be exposed for simply living with a same-sex partner in a monogamous relationship; instead, they’re continually uncovered in scandals that are shocking and indefensible to even the most liberal advocates of deviant kink and sexual freedom. While supporting an amendment to ban gay marriage in Colorado, then leader of the National Association of Evangelicals Ted Haggard was outed by his gay hustler/drug dealer, and it was later revealed his church payed $179,000 to cover up another scandal. Ex-Senator Larry Craig was arrested trying to solicit sex in a public restroom, and it’s now been alleged that he frequently hired male prostitutes. Mark Foley resigned in disgrace after his sexually explicit texts sent to teenage male congressional pages were made public. Perhaps the most normal was Roy Ashburn’s arrested for driving under the influence after leaving a gay nightclub. All of these transgressors had reprehensible records of gay rights opposition, from the freedom to marry, adopt, or serve in the military. They tried in every way to make life harder for law-abiding gay people while their own sexual exploits were adulterous, unethical, or illicit. A balanced hypocrisy would simply be closeted gays preventing others from doing the same things they do, but this duplicity is on another level entirely.
One has to wonder what possesses so many self-loathing, anti-gay, gay Republicans to seek public office, where even their closeted existence compromises the GOP’s platform and where their sexual indiscretions would be a liability in any party. It’s reminiscent of Josh Duggar seeking a public role as a lobbyist while not disclosing his own teenage sex crimes to his conservative employer. These are individuals who should know they would be disqualified from representing their movement if their own lives were more transparent. Of course, if they weren’t so desperate for acceptance in a party that doesn’t approve of them, then odds are they would probably have been able to live open, well-adjusted lives without having to resort to seedy prostitutes, bathroom sex, or underage boys. To be fair, I similarly wonder what motivates Democratic serial cheater Anthony Weiner’s persistent pursuit of public office. However, his sexting scandals may have been a personal embarrassment but they were not in any way criminal or contradictory. Hastert’s crime occurred long before his political career took off, and he obviously knew about it at the same time that he impeached the president. Again, this hubris is beyond hypocrisy. Judging others for lesser sins can be a possible coping mechanism for hidden guilt and a convenient distraction. Or perhaps successfully living a lie and getting away with it for so long emboldens them with a sense of invincibility. Just like the excitement of cheating without getting caught can encourage and escalate a person to cheat more blatantly, these politicians seem to get off on fooling their constituents, colleagues, and countrymen. This is a distinctly Republican fetish.
As the Republican party becomes increasingly more ideologically pure, it’s incongruous that their history of sexual impurity is coming to light now. It seems assured that the conservatives who speak the loudest against homosexuals or adulterers will be revealed to be not just as bad, but actually far worse than the people they judge. Perhaps we can always expect politicians of all stripes to lie and cheat, but when people claim a higher standard they should be held to it. If the Josh Duggars and Dennis Hasterts of the world want to be the public face of conservative values then they should be prepared to confess their own indiscretions. Instead, they’ve cared more about self-preservation and advancing their own careers than about the potential damage this might cause to their organizations. Conservatives should be more alarmed about all this than I am. After all, I know there must be true believers in family values who haven’t sexually abused their own sisters, had an affair, or paid a victim to keep quiet about gay sex. I just can’t figure out why they’re not the ones leading the party.
Matthew Jensen
Matthew Jensen is a freelance writer and activist who lives in Los Angeles, California. Growing up in conservative Christian fundamentalism, he became a student of world religions and eventually broadened his views. He is a fan of silent movies and any books that have been written or copied by hand, from ancient texts to modern comic books.
Follow Me:
The post Why Dennis Hastert Is the Face of Republican Hypocrisy appeared first on Political Moll.
