On the eve of a batch of Republican indictments, a look at Doc Hastings
Ladies and Gentlemen… the Man in Charge of the US House Ethics Committee… DOC HASTINGS!!!
“Anyone suggesting that I have publicly defended Rep. Tom
DeLay, expressed any personal opinion on the substance of charges pending against him in Texas, or indicated the slightest reluctance to investigate fully — at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way — any matter properly before the Ethics Committee is utterly mistaken. I have absolutely no predisposition concerning this case. I can’t say it any more plainly than that.”
Said as he rubbed the dark Insomniac-like rings under his eyes.
“If you look at Ronnie Earle’s background, he’s done these things. The majority leader has said this is a political vendetta.”
You know, call me crazy but I can envision a scenario where Doc Hastings becomes House Republican Leader. For the curious political power-ebbing games of political positioning, Witness:
Yesterday’s political fallout also could damage Hastings’ chances for the one congressional job he has coveted for a decade: chairmanship of the House Rules Committee, one of the four A-list committees in Congress.
Two of Hastings’ patrons — Hastert and the current Rules chairman, Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif. — attempted to move Dreier into DeLay’s job as majority leader after the Texas Republican stepped aside yesterday. If Dreier got the job permanently, it would open up the Rules chairmanship, probably for Hastings.
But by late afternoon, after a session behind closed doors, Republicans voted to make Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who outranks Dreier, majority leader at least until the end of the year.
Imagine a Republican wash-out in 2006. Say goodbye to DeLay. Say goodbye to his clone — Roy Blunt. Dreier is a semi-closeted gay man and is in a relatively vulnerable district. Why not reward Doc Hastings for his loyal service to the cause of Republican Hackdom?
The only practical result would be a fully funded Hanford — and perhaps the insanity of a move toward nuclear power, added money to research practical uses of radioactive tumble-weeds, Nuclear Sludge donated to the National Endowment of the Arts for sculpting purposes(*)…
Craig Mason for Congress. I’ve always been curious about the trajectory of Doc Hastings’s opponets for the House. Jay Inslee beat him narrowly in 1992; Hastings narrowly beat Inslee in 1994. Hastings narrowly beat some smuck in 1996, and then… the bottom fell out, and while this man is the biggest joke he faced and the candidates the followed Gordon Allen Pros are legitimately sane, they didn’t fare much better than Doc Hastings.
I read that the 1996 candidate looked at the polls before opting not to run in 1998, and asked “I don’t know what the Democratic Party did to these people, but it must have been pretty bad.”
So, in the spirit of the question “What’s the Matter with Kansas”, I ask: What’s the matter with Central Washington?: The Seven Eleven is now just a Seven?
(*) Circa early 1990s, there was this local tv news story in the “Human Interest” final slot about a Seattle Artist attempting to procur some Hanford Nuclear Sludge waste for the purpose of his sculpture. Why the heck not???