Who was Dennis Hastert, creator of this unbreakable political rule? Some biblical prophet who in ancient times carried his admonition, carved into stone tablets, down from Mount Sinai? Actually, no. State-of-the-art carbon dating establishes that Congress managed for 215 years to function without any Hastert Rule, until 2004. That’s when then-Speaker Hastert, a Republican, pulled from the House floor the bill creating the position of director of national intelligence because it lacked support from a majority of the Republicans he was supposedly leading. Far from being praised for this surrender of authority to the “majority of the majority,” Hastert was criticized for spinelessness. (The bill eventually passed with a few tweaks to appease two grumpy committee chairmen.) msnbc/msnbc/the-absurdity-the-hastert-rule
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 08:08:32 +0000
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