Former house speaker Dennis Hastert is announcing his retirement on Friday, according to Reuters.
For many, the shock is that he hung around this long after he helped hand us victory last November, or at least after he had to hand over his chairmanship in ignominy to Nancy Pelosi.
It wasn't only his Bernard Law style of decisive management in the face of the Mark Foley scandal. Dennis Hastert was the great enabler of the Republican corruption machine, from his intransigence on the Duke Cunningham briberies and all-around malfeasance, Hastert was instrumental in making the U.S. Congress what it was in January of this year when the Demorcrats were able to undo his eight year record of ignorance and destruction in 100 days.
Now, on to the opportunities....
In the first place, it's unclear currently if Hastert will step down immediately or serve out his term until next year. If the former, I guess the governor appoints a replacement in Illinois, right?
[ UPDATED: This ain't Connecticut, buddy. Steve Singiser corrects below that Illinois is like most states in this circumstance, where Gov. Blagojevich simply announces the date of a special election. The rest is up to the voters of IL-14. ]
This certainly brings front and center some names I haven't heard in awhile since last campaign when Hastert's victory was one of those few races that didn't follow the trend and made me wonder what part of this was it that greater Aurora and Batavia don't get.
While the Republican side of this has already been shaping up, the potential Dems in the mix seem like a potent bunch. John Laesch provided enough in '06 to capture 40% in a race that pre-Foley, most wondered if the challenger would even ruffle the tote board. Bill Foster appears to be trying to corner the 'I don't know much about government, but I was a successful businessman, so there' angle of the challengers. Jonathan Stein, who also doesn't have any electoral experience, appears the closest thing to a progressive here. From the state senate, this announcement of retirement will either activate (or not) Linda Chapa LaVia (D), Chris Lauzen (D), and Tim Schmitz (R).
[ UPDATED: Downtowner (who is clearly the resident subject matter expert on IL-14) informs us that LaVia and Schmitz have announced they aren't in fact running. Downtowner will be live-blogging the actual announcement on Friday, for anybody who can already predict a case of Hastertian nostalgia. :) ]
As I haven't looked at the dynamics on this district in a while until tonight, I definitely bow to any locals if they have corrections or additions to this list.
In any event, the Republicans in this race must face up to Hastert's legacy and history of great actions, from his non-action in the Foley, Abrmaoff, and Cunningham scandals to things like his great ideas for bulldozing the city of New Orleans after Katrina. With an even slightly vigorous campaign on the part of the challengers, this should be in the Democrats side of the ledger to win, yes?