Hastert on the Hot Seat

Those of you who have been following the escapades of the feds lately know that they raided the House offices of Democrat William Jefferson as part of their investigation into his extraHouse activities.

If you were following that, then you are aware that Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert vehemently opposed these actions by the feds. It made you wonder why he was so up in arms over a raid on the office of a corrupt Democrat. You would think he'd be delighted to have the focus off of corrupt Republicans.

Yesterday, in a comment on a diary at ePluribusMedia by wmtriallawyer, I wrote that the reaction had nothing to do with feelings for Jefferson, but was more a fear for their own sorry fannies.

ABC is now confirming that the FBI is investigating Speaker Hastert based on information received from lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon. There was mention of a letter:

Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes.

I've kept a working timeline of the Abramoff scandal. I haven't worked on it in a while, but it is fairly comprehensive. Quite a few Republicans and a handful of Democrats also wrote letters. Sue Myrick and Charles Taylor were among them. It will be interesting as time goes on to see just how quickly the investigation spreads to others who penned missives for the Indian tribe clients of Jack Abramoff.

Earlier I was wondering why Sue Myrick made an announcment completely out of the blue that she would not run for Governor in 2008. It's just one of those things that makes you go hmmmmmm.

Hastert's office is denying this is true. Still...makes you go hmmmmmm.