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Friday, May 21, 2004

instapunk052104rev

WASHINGTON FOLLIES. What's gotten into the Speaker Guy all of a sudden? For years we get hardly a peep from him as Daschle and Kennedy and McDermott and Schirmer and Rangel scorch the President and Republicans in general for everything under the sun. Then, within the space of just a few days, he takes on both McCain and Pelosi.

First, he lit into the Senior Panderer from Arizona:

Asked Wednesday about McCain's remarks, Hastert, who was rejected for military service because of a bad shoulder, first joked: "Who? Where's he from? A Republican?"

Then, more seriously, he said: "If you want to see sacrifice, John McCain ought to visit our young men and women at Walter Reed and Bethesda (two Washington area military hospitals). There's the sacrifice in this country. We're trying to make sure that they have the ability to fight this war, that they have the wherewithal to be able to do it. And at the same time, we have to react to keep this country strong not only militarily but economically. We want to be able to have the flexibility to do it. That's my reply to John McCain."

And here's what he had to say about Pelosi's attack on the President:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Pelosi "has the right to disagree with President Bush.''

"But her comments questioning the president's competence cross the line, '' Hastert said. "Was it incompetence that put Saddam Hussein in jail? Was it incompetence that disbanded the Taliban? Was it incompetence that spurred the fastest economic growth rate in 20 years? Was it incompetence that created the highest home ownership rate in history?''

We doubt that he'll choose to go another round with McCain, but this is quite a lot of progress, considering what we said about him in Shuteye Nation back in 2000:

The Speaker Guy. The second most powerful man in the United States of Ameria, which means that we must be talking about, uh, uh... Is it Humbert? Hissifit? Uh, sorry, can't think of it just now. If you find out, please let us know.

So we finally know his name, but we still can't figure out what's behind this unprecedented bravery. Is it Wheaties? Steroids? Or is it just that all the screaming and shrieking from the anti-Bush crowd interrupted his four-year nap? We'll let you know if we find out anything, but we're pretty confident that any show of guts by Republicans in Congress must be an aberration, not a trend.

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