House Speaker Dennis Hastert Squirming

I don't know what to make of Dennis Hastert. A lot of right wing Congressional Republicans sneaked a lot of nonsense into bills that he handled. That is, after all, what the Cunningham and Abramoff scandals are about. Such scandals can only happen if the House Speaker is very weak and doesn't know what he's doing, or if he's very aware of the funny business going on under his nose and is himself part of the problem. Given the size of the profits he made, Dennis Hastert's real estate deals don't make him out to be a fool; here's the story from the Chicago Tribune:

The complex structure of a real estate transaction in Kendall County last December left House Speaker Dennis Hastert with a seven-figure profit and in prime position to reap further benefits as the exurban region west of Chicago continues its prairie-fire growth boosted by a Hastert-backed federally funded proposed highway.

Instead of cash, Hastert (R-Ill.) took most of his share of the proceeds in land, some of it less than 2 miles from the parcels he and two partners in a land trust sold for nearly $5 million to a developer who plans to build more than 1,500 homes and commercial space on the property near Little Rock and Galena roads in Plano.

In California, for the last fifty years, there has been an explosion of real estate development every time a new highway is built and that has often meant development at least five to ten miles out on either side. The same is true in many places around the nation, particularly near big cities like Chicago. It's important to keep politics and profiteers out of the decision-making process since it's too easy to make big bucks if you have insider knowledge. If that was the case with Dennis Hastert, he may have a problem. And "complex" real estate deals sound like something you might use if you were trying to hide your involvement.