Friends:

Our community here in Lancaster has been in grief and mourning since Monday's tragedy, and for that reason I have been reluctant to speak about politics in general, and the Foley scandal in particular.

But yesterday my opponent, Rep. Joseph Pitts, issued a joint statement with Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) which called Speaker Dennis Hastert "a man of integrity," and said Hastert should not resign.

With that, I must speak out.

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I put the transcript from today's situation room in the extended entry. I agree that the longer that Denny stays on, the worse it gets for him, and yet, the more likely now it seems he stays. I was listening to NPR today while driving (up to MA -MIT- then Burlington for the weekend), and Paul Weyrich was on, having just retracted his call for Dennis Hastert to resign. Weyrich claimed that Hastert called him this morning, and told him that neither Boehner or Reynolds said anything to him about Mark Foley (and then you have the underlings (Fordham vs Bonjean) at odds as well.

Boehner, part of the Gingrich faction, and Hastert, part of the Delay faction, are having a public war of the words in public over who knew what and when. Bush came out yesterday supporting Hastert, and USNews is saying that Hastert has turned the corner.

This situation is beginning to settle, with a hardened position by the Republican leadership of Hastert staying on, alongside support by Bush, in the face of damning facts-- so it's as if the election next month is settling into a national referendum on their Republican leadership.

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