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Hastert Calls It Quits
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ShareNovember 15, 2007 12:37 PM
ABC News' Dean Norland and Lindsey Ellerson Report: Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert took the floor of the House of Representatives Thursday to say goodbye to the place that has become so familiar to him over his 21 year career in the U.S. Congress.
"The time has come for me to make my last speech from this podium," Hastert said. "I do hope that I have left a few footprints behind that may be of value to those who come after me, just as I have benefited from the footprints of those who I followed to this most wonderful of institutions."
The Republican Congressman from Illinois announced Thursday that he would resign from the House of Representatives before the end of the year, for the first time putting a time frame on retirement plans that he announced in August.
During his farewell speech, Hastert said the current political climate in Washington has become contentious.
"I continue to worry about the breakdown of civility in our political discourse," he said. "I tried my best, but wish I had been more successful."
The former House Speaker said he witnessed the parties briefly coming together in the days following the September 11th attacks.
"We were not Republicans or Democrats, we were just Americans. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the steps of this Capitol and vowed to do whatever was necessary."
Hastert said he was proud of his record on improving healthcare, prescription drug coverage, and the economy.
The Illinois Congressman commended his successor House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who replaced him when Democrats took control of the House after the 2006 midterm election.
"I think all of us in this House, regardless of party affiliation, were proud to be serving here when that glass ceiling was shattered," he said.
Pelosi thanked Hastert for his service and described him as honorable.
Hastert is the longest serving Republican to hold the position of speaker of the House, representing the office from 1999 until 2007.
"Becoming Speaker is a very humbling experience - an opportunity that only 51 men and one woman have had since 1978," said Hastert from the House floor.
The Congressman is the first former speaker to remain as a member of the House since 1955.
November 15, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (9)
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Good riddance to a guy with the I.Q. of a turnip.
Posted by: dan | Nov 15, 2007 1:29:01 PM
The man with the IQ of a turnip sure got the MAINSCREAMS like abc to waddle his way for years...
Posted by: daddy | Nov 15, 2007 1:48:26 PM
Thank you Mr. Hastert, for helping to ruin the GOP. You and Fred made a great team, and you two will end up in the same place, quickly forgotten.
Posted by: uuforyou | Nov 15, 2007 4:02:02 PM
Any republican that retires is a good thing!!
Posted by: Jeff | Nov 15, 2007 4:21:02 PM
I thought this was old news or is he just leaving -- I heard he was doing it this way to protect his seat and keep it Republican -- Good riddance --- he is one Fat Cat in more ways than one!!
Posted by: Paulet | Nov 15, 2007 4:25:28 PM
Hastert: A completely brain-dead tool of his corporate masters...just the way the GOP likes them. The only accomplishment he'll be remembered for is his cover-up of the Republican page gay sex scandal.
Posted by: wilder5121 | Nov 15, 2007 9:14:29 PM
Mr. Hastert should you happen to see the country we used to live in,tell it we still love it and wish it would return home.
Posted by: sweaty wrestler | Nov 16, 2007 2:30:11 AM
"We were not Republicans or Democrats, we were just Americans. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the steps of this Capitol and vowed to do whatever was necessary."
Ya, right, whatever was necessary including killing thousands of Americans with a preemptive illegal war, torture, killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqs, displacing millions of Iraq families from their homes, spend billions destroying other countries, and then re-building them, while we go bankrupt, spy on Americans, allow the neocons to taking away habeas corpus etc. What happen to the oath to defend the constitution? All those who supported this should be voted out of office.
Posted by: Greg | Nov 17, 2007 1:22:43 AM
Hastert was obstructionist-in-chief during his tenure as Republican hatchet man to do away with any needed reforms for the country, instead handing us all over to the tender mercies of the corpies. The mess we are in today is because of a rubber-stamp House of Representatives that allowed "President" Bush to hand the country over to the greed-head-corpies,gut the Constitution, rape the national treasury,ruin our alliances overseas,start a phony war, and totally neglect domestic needs here at home.
Posted by: JL | Nov 17, 2007 9:30:30 AM
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