Thursday, June 4, 2015

Here's how the "breaking" story of Dennis Hastert's taste for young wrestlers actually broke nine years ago


Dennis Hastert
The No. 1 news story in the country right now is about former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and his efforts to cover up the sexual molestation of at least one youth wrestler during his days as a high school teacher and coach. Hastert was scheduled to make a court appearance today, but that has been postponed until next week.

It took a federal indictment last week for the story to become national news. But it actually broke almost nine years ago, thanks to the investigative work of D.C.-based journalist Wayne Madsen. In fact, Madsen provided details that the mainstream press still seems afraid to touch.

How does a story of national importance stay under wraps so long? For one thing, the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) is a subscription Web site, and quite a few of its stories likely don't get out from behind the pay wall. Also, Madsen seems to draw ire from partisans on the left and the right--not to mention a number of mainstream journalists--probably because of his willingness to tackle stories that insiders would rather stay out of sight.

Madsen saw the Hastert story brewing way back on September 30, 2006. From his WMR post on that date:

Congressional sources told WMR that Hastert, while working from 1964 to 1980 as a popular history/government teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School, in Yorkville, Illinois -- a suburb of Chicago -- was the subject of persistent rumors about inappropriate contact with male members of his high school wrestling team. The culture of the times usually resulted in such alleged behavior being covered up by public and parochial school authorities. However, the rumors were enough for his Yorkville constituency to reject him when he ran for an open seat in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1980. However, Hastert lucked out when another sitting Republican House member who represented the three-seat district had a stroke and declined to run for re-election. The GOP machine bosses selected Hastert as the replacement candidate.

Madsen followed up on October 2, 2006, with a report about Hastert's role in the Tom Foley (R-FL) scandal, involving sexually charged electronic messages to under-age males serving as Congressional pages:

In August 2004, the GOP House leadership, which included Speaker Dennis Hastert, then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt, took no action against Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida for his repeated salacious contact by email with underage male teens even though a heterosexually-married Republican congressman resigned over trolling gay web sites for 'younger men.' In August 2004, one-term Republican Rep. Ed Schrock of Virginia resigned after it became public that he was surfing gay and dating web sites in search of younger men for sex. Schrock, a political ally of his Virginia Beach constituent TV evangelist Pat Robertson and a retired U.S. Navy Captain, resigned after he was outed by a Washington, DC web site.
Wayne Madsen
However, rather than dealing with Foley's sexual habits on the Web, the GOP leadership sank deeper into cover-up mode, burying the Foley matter lest it shine a light on other GOP gay hypocrites in Congress whose anti-gay agenda would embarrass the party a few months before a critical presidential and congressional election.

It is now being reported that the House Page Board chairman John Shimkus (R-IL) actually enabled Foley to meet an underage pages for dinner dates after the House GOP leadership were aware of Foley's inappropriate communications with the teens."

How deep did the GOP cover up go? Madsen addressed that question, and it includes some very big names in Republican circles:

The House GOP leadership that now stands accused of covering up the scandal includes the GOP members of the House Page Board, Representatives John Shimkus of Illinois and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia; House Speaker Dennis Hastert; Majority Leader John Boehner; Majority Whip Roy Blunt; and National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Reynolds, who reportedly received $100,000 from Foley campaign coffers after he was first informed of the allegations against the Florida Republican.

Hmmm . . . John Boehner, of Ohio . . . Roy Blunt, of Missouri. Those names certainly are familiar to most anyone who pays the slightest attention to political news. Hastert has rubbed shoulders with heavy hitters for quite a while. In a post dated October 7, 2006, Madsen provided disturbing insights into Hastert's personal life:

The rumors about another top GOP member of the House being involved in sexual encounters with young "men for hire" are confirmed to WMR by well-placed sources in Washington's gay community. The member in question is House Speaker Dennis Hastert, whose "alternate" life style is the primary reason for him and his staff covering up the scandal involving ex-Florida GOP Rep. Mark Foley and his lewd messages sent to underage male congressional pages. Hastert's penchant to receive anal sex is well-known to our sources in DC's gay community. Additionally, Hastert's reported extremely small penis is the subject of many jokes among Washington's gay circles.

In July [2006], Hastert was hospitalized at Bethesda Naval Hospital for cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection. In the Feb. 7, 2003 issue of AIDS Treatment News, doctors reported that they saw 'a large increase in aggressive, antibiotic-resistant 'staph' (Staphylococcus aureus) skin infections in gay men in some areas -- and a separate epidemic in certain prisons. Symptoms include boils or blisters; treatment can be difficult, and sometimes requires hospitalization. One HIV doctor in Los Angeles who used to see about one case a year is now seeing two a week. In the past this infection occurred mainly in hospitals.' The reports of serious skin infections among gay men was also reported in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 27, 2003.

On October 9, 2006, Madsen wrote about Hastert's unusual relationship with chief of staff Scott Palmer, a story that had drawn the attention of Lawrence O'Donnell at Huffington Post:

There is also much focus on the relationship between House Speaker Dennis Hastert and his chief of staff, 56-year old Scott Palmer. Hastert and Palmer, Hastert's longtime unmarried adviser, live together in a DC townhouse along with Hastert's Deputy Chief of Staff, Mike Stokke, while Hastert's wife Jean lives in Yorkville, Illinois and stays at a hotel when she visits Washington. [Mrs. Hastert even stayed at a hotel, instead of her husband's townhouse, when she traveled to Washington on Valentine's Day in 2007].

WMR has also learned of additional Senate links to the Pagegate scandal. There is much focus on GOP Sen. George Allen's predominantly white male staff. There is also interest in the activities of a senior GOP Senator from a Rocky Mountain state. [That senator turned out to be Larry Craig (R-ID) who resigned in 2009 after he was arrested for trying to engage in homosexual activity with an undercover vice cop in a men's room at Minneapolis International Airport].

Madsen hinted that Hastert and other Republicans were involved in dark activity on an international scale:

WMR's State Department sources have also reported that the visits of Hastert and other congressional leaders and staff members to certain Southeast Asian nations and the Northern Marianas should come under the scrutiny of the House Ethics Committee, now officially investigating 'Pagegate.' The Northern Marianas became infamous in the scandals involving Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff because of the presence in the US slave labor territory of Asian children being used as prostitutes. Conveniently, Foley co-chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, which would have had authority to investigate charges of child prostitution in the Northern Marianas.Hastert visited Vietnam, along with Palmer, in April of this year and spent three days in the country. Hastert, along with Illinois GOP Rep. Ray LaHood, canceled a visit to Thailand and Vietnam in January 2006. Hastert was also in Thailand in January 2002."

Moving to present day, Madsen notes in a post dated May 29-31, 2015, that other journalists long have scoffed at his reports on Hastert:

Our in-depth reporting on Hastert and "Page-gate" and the pederasts within the GOP received a harsh reaction in the DC media. Wonkette, a blog then written by the current reporter for The Guardian newspaper Ana Marie Cox, wrote this about our reporting: "The problem is, Wayne Madsen just makes shit up. We hear from well-placed sources that no one is having sex with Dennis Hastert. Scott Palmer may be remarkably close to his boss, but he’s not blind." Cox, whose Wonkette reports contained a number of unusual references to anal sex, earned the nickname, "Anal Marie Cox." By attacking the messenger, Cox, like so many of her fellow whitewashers in journalism, was rewarded with her present gigs at The Guardian and GQ magazine.

WMR stands vindicated by the federal indictment of Mr. Hastert.

Wayne Madsen, indeed, stands vindicated. To put it bluntly, he kicked the rear end of most everyone in journalism on the Hastert story. I'm sure a letter of apology from Ana Marie Cox is in the mail at this moment.

Meanwhile, much remains unknown about the Hastert scandal, so Wayne Madsen is likely to have more opportunities to break big news.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

My big question . . . how many people in Congress were covering up for Hastert? Were "family values" Republicans involved in covering for a child molester?

Anonymous said...

It's funny that many Americans seem to think openly gay people are a threat to children. In fact, it seems that those who claim to be heterosexual, such as coaches and scout leaders, are the ones most likely to molest kids. Maybe it's time we woke up to that.

legalschnauzer said...

Sports Illustrated did probably the definitive piece on this subject several years ago, @9:11. Here is the URL:

http://www.si.com/vault/1999/09/13/266260/every-parents-nightmare-the-child-molester-has-found-a-home-in-the-world-of-youth-sports-where-as-a-coach-he-can-gain-the-trust-and-loyalty-of-kids--and-then-prey-on-them

Anonymous said...

Glad to see this pandemic uncovered. If all these pervs running this country were taken out, we could take back our country. Children of all ages around the US and world deserve and need protection from these powerful predators! Maybe then, decent citizens would step up and engage in politics again. Its not as far fetched a thought as some might think. 1% is probably a high end number.

Mayo said...

I wonder if John Boehner and Roy Blunt are sweating in their sandals. I hope so.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Denny Hastert came real close to getting HIV. At least he got a condition that is associated with HIV.

Insighter said...

Interesting that you raise the name of Roy Blunt in connection with Hastert. Blunt, of course, now is U.S. Senator from Missouri, and he has documented connections to Jack Abramoff. Ole Roy has managed to tiptoe around the "Abramoff thing,' but maybe the Hastert scandal will bring such questions back to the surface. Here is one of several stories out there about Blunt and Abramoff . . .

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/blunt-s-ties-to-abramoff-resurface/article_1608b802-98bb-5f44-b68f-8be61b041bed.html

Unknown said...

The content creator was going to create a noble, Jedi Knight to counter Darth Cheney & the Dark Side of the Force, but let's be honest with ourselves. This blog is about the Legal Community in Alabama & there are no good guys here. What really needs to be said is best said by a half-breed, horny pimp who gets all the bitches because that is the true, inner mindset of most lawyers & businessmen in your state. Move over Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, Illegal Doxle has something to say about Dick & Bush!

Anonymous said...

That stuff in your article about possible ties of Republicans to child prostitution in Southeast Asia and Northern Marianas . . . well, it makes me want to puke. The public needs to know more about American politicians who were on those trips. And the Northern Marianas are famous Jack Abramoff territory.

Insighter said...

Roy Blunt had connections to the Jack Abramoff scam in the Northern Marianas. And Ole Roy has been super tight with both Denny Hastert and Tom DeLay. From a Public Citizen report . . .


"On at least four occasions in 2000 and 2001, Blunt or his aides met with Abramoff or other representatives of his law firm in connection with Abramoff’s representation of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The CNMI, which has “political union” status with the United States, employed Abramoff to beat back a movement to impose U.S. labor standards on it, including the minimum wage. At least one of these meetings was between Blunt and a member of Abramoff’s Mariana lobbying team."

RaceB said...

Hastert . . . DeLay . . . Blunt . . . Abramoff

Between 2001 and 2004, Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert received $100,000 from Jack Abramoff and his tribal clients. A week after Hastert held a fundraiser at an Abramoff-owned restaurant, he wrote a letter with then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Majority Whip Roy Blunt and Chief Deputy Majority Whip Representative Eric Cantor to Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton urging her to reject a proposal for a new casino by the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, which would have competed with casinos operated by the Louisiana Coushatta and Mississippi Choctaw, both Abramoff clients. V. Heather Sibbison, once a lobbyist for the Jena Band, told the Washington Post, �I do this for a living, and I have never seen a letter like that before. It was incredibly unusual for that group of people, who do not normally weigh in on Indian issues, to express such a strong opinion about a particular project not in any of their home states.


http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2006/052006/citizens-abramoff.html

Anonymous said...

Dennis Hastert as the "Tip of the Iceberg" on pedophilia:


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/01/1389654/-Dennis-Hastert-as-the-Tip-of-the-Iceberg#

SW MoDem said...

Those of us in Roy Blunt's home state of Missouri have long known about his shady ties to Jack Abramoff. In fact, Roy and Dennis Hastert have a lot in common. They both are former teachers, they both rose to power with Tom DeLay, and they both were connected to the Abramoff scandal. Roy likes to act like he's all shiny and clean, but a lot of us know better. He's filthy dirty with tobacco money--even his wife is a whore/lobbyist for the tobacco industry--and they've pulled all sorts of strings to help get their son, Matt, elected to public office. Now we have politicians dying of "suicides" left and right (Tom Schweich and Spence Jackson) in the Missouri Republican Party that spawned Roy. In fact, Spence Jackson used to work for Matt Blunt. The longer the Blunts hang around, the dirtier Missouri politics seems to get.

legalschnauzer said...

Good Lord, SW, that sounds a lot like Alabama. I thought we had the market cornered on political "suicides," but it sounds like your state might be just as bad. We have our own tobacco whores--perhaps the biggest being former attorney general and current U.S. circuit judge Bill Pryor, who just happens to have an interesting history with 1990s gay porn when nude photos of him showed up on a Web site called badpuppy.com.

Supa Dupa said...

Roy Blunt is such a tobacco whore that he actually tried to slip a pro-Phillip Morris measure into a Homeland Security bill, not long after 9/11. Even Dennis Hastert was sickened by that and jerked the tobacco measure out of the bill. One of Blunt's sons has been a lobbyist for Phillip Morris, and Roy had a long-standing "personal relationship" with a Phillip Morris lobbyist named Abigail Perlman. She is now his wife--hiw much younger second wife.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-whip-tried-to-aid-tobacco-pals/

RobRoy said...

According to a 2006 Rolling Stone article, Roy Blunt had an extramarital affair with a tobacco lobbyist and then dumped his wife of 30-plus years to marry the lobbyist. Great guy:


Of the two leading candidates for the recently vacated House majority leader seat, one (acting leader Roy Blunt) had attempted to slip tobacco-friendly language into a Homeland Security authorization bill while having an extramarital affair with a Phillip Morris lobbyist, while the other (John Boehner) had once been caught handing out checks from tobacco interests to members of Congress on the floor of the House.

Unknown said...

Looks like somebody's been followin' Black Dynamite's advice on Pimpin:
"Now look here. The game's to be sold, not told. Can you dig it?
[Handing out checks from good lookin' female lobbyists on the House Floor]
See, you got to get in a bitch's head. And don't chase 'em, just replace 'em.
[Joining the "Second Wives Club" by marrying above-said good lookin' female lobbyists]
You got to keep these hoes on their toes And let them know which way the wind blows.
[Never waste your valuable time for shaking down the ugly lobbyists by asking her for sex at the office. Set the expectation that she WILL do you at the office whenever possible.]
See, you ain't got to hit a hoe to make them crow. You can just look them in their eyes And make them feel it between their thighs.
[Daddy will be sharing his cable with someone else if they don't play by the rules.]
A flock of whores come a dime a dozen, And a dozen dimes still won't make me f#ck a whole flock. It's about control.
[Daddy prefers to share his cable with his special lobbyist if she plays by the rules.]
Now I suggest you (hoes) shut the f#ck up before you got to go change your panties.
[A powerful politician knows how to make all the women wet or shit their pants with fear.]

Unknown said...

While presiding over the Senate in my role as Vice-President of the Confederized States of America, I passed a bill to extend Presidential Secret Service protection to myself, even though nobody elected me President. I convinced Dubya to sign it mostly because I reminded him that nobody elected his ass President either & that I paid his broke ass' debt to James Baker for arguing his case before the Supreme Court. Since my comedy hits sort of close to home for the former VP, the boys at Secret Service have to read your blog whenever I post to it & the boys really get a kick out of it. They can't believe they actually GET PAID to read Legal Schnauzer. They told Dick about it & he bought a Darth Vader cover for the ball hitch on his pickup. As we say in Bunghole, Wyoming, The Doxle is gettin' a little too big for his britches. He needs to watch out before somebody slaps the Black off his ass.

Unknown said...

Look Tricky Dickie, Jr. The only asses gettin' slapped up in your neck of the woods is when yo' two daughters Mary & Liz decide to go at it over same-sex marriage. Every pimp in America would pay to see those two in a mud wrestlin' match. Hell, I'd get Don King to promote it on Pay Per View except for the fact that a Cheney would come out of it with enough money to run for President.

Anonymous said...

This is some entertaining shit, but I've gotta go get drunk now. Smoke my weed Darth Cheney & go chill. You are so full of yourself sometimes. Never forget that I'm The Decider, even if I have to get all my ideas from you.

Anonymous said...

Your readers might be interested to know that Roy Blunt's married son, former MO governor Matt Blunt, reportedly is gay. Matt stepped down after serving one term, saying he needed to spend more time with his family, etc. In reality, his office got caught trying to erase e-mails that are supposed to be kept as state property. Many think the e-mails would shine light on Matt's secret life and perhaps other Blunt family scandals. Matt's paramour supposedly is a prominent MO realtor named Patrick Murney.

legalschnauzer said...

Good Lord, that sounds like Alabama, too. Roy Blunt is starting to make Richard Shelby look good--and that's hard to do.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 06/02 @ 10:50 AM
Raised the question about Pryor obstructing cases since appointed 11th circuit.
The questions needing be asked his ties to continuing obstructions during Attorney General. Wouldn't it be defined as "complicity/ies"?

REMARKS OF ATTORNEY GENERAL BILL PRYOR TO THE U.S.CHAMBER OF COMMERCE COMMITTEE, JANUARY 26, 2002. "IF YOU THINK THAT THE OFFICE OF STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL IN YOUR STATE IS AN UNLIKELY SOURCE OF MISCHIEF, THINK AGAIN. MY WARNING THIS MORNING ARE NOT BASED ON SPECULATION OR CONJECTURE. I KNOW MY COLLEAGUES."

"...raise serious concerns about how, if confirmed, he would rule with respect to the rights and interests of ordinary Americans." Andrew Wheat "Attorneys General for Sale". Because of Pryor's litigating position for Alabama regarding tobacco cases resolutions giving more than abundant appearances of being reasonably thought of being legal counsel for tobacco companies, rather than joining in with all other states, as plaintiffs, according to another state's participating attorney general.
"We the people"

Anonymous said...

Filling in the final details, Madden stated, “I think they’ll find out that Jerry Sandusky was told that he had to retire in exchange for a cover-up. If you look at the timeline, that makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? My opinion is that when Sandusky quit, everybody knew—not just at Penn State. I think it was a very poorly kept secret around college football in general, and that is why he never coached in college football again and retired at the relatively young age of 55.”

Adding credibility to Madden’s words was Dom Cosentino, editor of Deadspin. On November 10, 2011, after the scandal became public knowledge, Cosentino referred to a conversation he had with a Pittsburgh, Pa., journalist, who told him, “He [Madden] ain’t bluffing here. I know he’s confident in what he has. Separate his on-air persona with journalistic chops [and] Mark is a hell of a reporter. Don’t dismiss him.”

In the sports world, Mark Madden is known as a bombastic blowhard that loves the limelight. He’s brash, a loudmouth, an egomaniac, and a publicity hound. Cosentino even described him as a “professional troll.”

So, considering how Madden is attracted to controversy like moths to a flame, why did he suddenly go mute after making these original statements on the radio? This writer left at least a dozen messages on Madden’s answering machine, in addition to at least a dozen emails, all with no response.

It is this writer’s contention that, after blabbing about a far-reaching pedophile network at PSU and TSM, someone quickly paid Madden a visit, tapped him firmly on the shoulder, and threatened, “Listen, boy, if you utter one more word about a pedophile network, it’ll be the last words you ever utter.”

Mark Madden isn’t stupid, and he innately understood what was being told to him.

Graham Spanier

As previously mentioned, during Graham Spanier’s tenure as PSU president, the university hosted two events that drew incredible amounts of blowback. One, in November 2000, was called CUNTFEST: a Declaration of Independence. To promote this brouhaha, huge banners with the words CUNTFEST were hoisted from campus buildings.

The second, held only months later in February 2001, went by the name Sex Faire. Games at this gala included “Pin the Clitoris on the Vulva,” “Smut and other Great Literature,” plus “Orgasm Bingo.” In addition, a “Tent of Consent” allowed participants to engage in whatever type of consensual sexual activity they so desired.

One must remember that PSU is a state-funded university using taxpayer money. When enraged legislators—prompted by incensed citizens—asked Spanier if he thought these two events
- See more at: http://americanfreepress.net/?p=5131#sthash.OhUDxAwT.dpuf

Smiley said...

I think the real question is where has he been finding his victims since his coaching days, These guys do not stop. He has been getting access to young boys and I expect that some of it was accomplished at taxpayer expense. Someone needs to look into his travels to southeast Asia and South America where it is commonly known child prostitution is widely perpetrated.