"Hastert" redirects here. For the Wyoming politician, see
John Hastert.
John Dennis "Denny" Hastert (//; born January 2, 1942) is an American politician, lobbyist, and member of theRepublican Party who was the 59th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1999 to 2007. He represented Illinois's 14th congressional district for twenty years, 1987 to 2007. He is the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in history.
In May 2015, Hastert was indicted for allegedlystructuring bank withdrawals to evade bank reporting requirements and then misleading investigators.[2][3] Prosecutors charged the money was to compensate for and conceal misconduct by Hastert against an individual more than three decades earlier.[4][5][6][7]
Early life and education[edit]
Hastert was born on January 2, 1942, inAurora, Illinois, the eldest of three sons of Naomi (née Nussle) and Jack Hastert.[8][9]Hastert is of Luxembourgeois and Norwegian descent on his father's side, and of German descent on his mother's.[10]
Hastert grew up in a rural farming community. His middle-class family owned a farm supply business and a family farm; Hastert bagged and hauled feed and performed farm chores.[9][11] As a young man, Hastert also worked shifts in the family's Plainfield, Illinois, restaurant, The Clock Tower, where he was a fry cook.[9][12] Hastert became a born-again Christian as a teenager.[9] Hastert attended Oswego High School, where he was a starwrestler and football player.[9][11]
Hastert briefly attended North Central College, but later transferred to Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts college.[11] Jim Parnalee, Hastert's roommate at North Central who transferred with him to Wheaton, was the school's first student to be killed in Vietnam; it was reported that in 1999 that Hastert continues to visit Parnalee's family each year in Michigan.[11] Because of a wrestling injury, Hastert never served in the military. In 1964, Hastert graduated from Wheaton with a B.A. in economics.[9][11][13] In 1967, he received hisM.S. in philosophy of education from Northern Illinois University.[9][13] In his first year of graduate school, Hastert spent three months in Japan as part of the People to People Student Ambassador Program.[14] One of Hastert's fellow group members was Tony Podesta (then the president of the Young Democrats at University of Illinois at Chicago Circle).[15]
Early career, rise to power, and political positions[edit]
Hastert was employed by Yorkville Community Unit School District #115 from 1965 to 1981.[16] Hastert began working there while still attending NIU.[9] Throughout that time, Hastert worked as a government and history teacher at Yorkville High School, where he also served as a coach.[9] Hastert led the school's wrestling team to the 1976 state title and was later named "Illinois Coach of the Year."[9] Hastert married a fellow teacher at the high school, Jean, with whom he had two sons, Joshua and Ethan.[11] He considered applying to become an assistant principal at the school, but then decided to enter politics, although at the time "he knew nothing about politics."[9] Hastert approached Phyllis Oldenburg, a Republican operative in Kendall County, seeking advice on running for a seat in the Illinois Legislature.[9]
Hastert lost a 1980 Republican primary for the Illinois House of Representatives, but showed a talent for campaigning, and after the election, volunteered for an influential state senator, John E. Grotberg.[9] In the summer of 1981, however, a state House member had become terminally ill, and Republican party bosses selected Hastert as the successor.[11]The first round of balloting resulted in a tie, but Hastert was chosen after Grotberg interceded on Hastert's behalf.[11] In the state House, Hastert served on the Appropriations Committee.[11] He gained a reputation as a dealmaker and party leader known for "asking his colleagues to write their spending requests on a notepad so he could carry them into negotiating sessions" and holding early-morning pre-meetings to organize talking points.[11]
Meanwhile, Hastert's political mentor Grotberg had been elected to Congress as the representative from Illinois's 14th district, but fell ill with cancer in 1986, and was unable to run for a second term.[9][11] Hastert was nominated to replace him; in the general election in November 1986, he defeated Democratic candidate Mary Lou Kearns, the Kane Countycoroner, in a relatively close race.[9][11]
Hastert was then reelected in his Fox Valley-centered district several times, by wider margins, aided by his role in redistricting following the 1990 Census.[11]
As a protégé of House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel, Hastert rose through the Republican ranks in the House, and in 1995 (after the Republicans gained control of the House and Newt Gingrich became Speaker), Hastert became chief deputy whip.[11] As a member of the Republicans' health care task force, Hastert also was a "prominent voice" in helping defeat the Clinton health care plan of 1993.[17][18]
Hastert developed a close relationship with Tom DeLay, the House majority whip, and was widely seen as DeLay's deputy.[11] Hastert and DeLay first worked together in 1989, onEdward Madigan's unsuccessful race against Gingrich for minority whip. Hastert later managed DeLay's successful campaign to become whip.[11] In September 1998, the two added an extra $250,000 to the defense budget for "pharmacokinetics research."[11] TheWashington Post reported that "the money, it turned out, paid for an Army experiment withnicotine chewing gum manufactured by a company in Hastert's district."[11]
On the eve of his elevation to Speaker, Hastert was described as "deeply conservative at heart" and a "hide-bound, rock-ribbed Illinois conservative."[19] The Associated Pressreported: "He is an evangelical Christian who opposes abortion and advocates lower taxes, a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and the death penalty. And he spearheaded the GOP's highly partisan fight against using sampling techniques to take the next census. Such groups as the National Right to Life Committee, the Christian Coalition, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Rifle Association all gave his voting record perfect scores of 100. The American Conservative Union gave him an 88. Meanwhile, the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, the American Civil Liberties Union and labor organizations such as the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters each gave Hastert zero points. TheLeague of Conservation Voters rated him a 13."[19]
Hastert criticized the Clinton administration's plans to conduct the 2000 Census using sampling techniques.[11] Hastert was a supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and in 1993 voted to approve the trade pact.[20]
Hastert was a strong supporter of the War on Drugs and was the "House Republicans' leader on anti-narcotics efforts."[11][21] In this role, he criticized the Clinton administration for what he believed was insufficient funding for drug interdiction efforts[11][21] and led a "crusade against federal money for needle-exchange programs."[19]
Hastert opposed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold), the landmarkcampaign finance reform law.[19] In 2001, during the debate on the bill, Hastert criticized Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, saying that McCain had "bullied" House Republicans by sending them letters in support of his campaign-finance reform proposals.[22] Hastert also expressed the view that the act has "constitutional flaws."[23] He called the legislation "the worst thing that ever happened to Congress."[24]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hastert
