Former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is expected to announce Thursday that he is resigning his seat in Congress effective later this year, eventually setting up a special election to succeed him, knowledgeable GOP sources said late Wednesday.
Rumblings have persisted for months that Hastert, who announced this summer that he would not seek re-election in 2008, was unlikely to complete his current term.
This week Hastert met with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and was making calls to tell people of his decision on Wednesday morning.
One key issue for Republicans is the timing of a special election, which will be called by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), and whether it might be held in conjunction with the state’s Feb. 5 presidential and Congressional primaries.
Several candidates already are vying to succeed Hastert. The leading Republicans are state Sen. Chris Lauzen, dairy magnate Jim Oberweis and Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns. The leading Democrat is wealthy scientist Bill Foster.
The GOP would be slightly favored to hold the exurban Chicago seat in a regular election, but a special election could be problematic for the GOP because the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has far more money than the National Republican Congressional Committee.
As you can see TPC has a new look. And as many of you may know, we were in the process of transferring from the old site, but never completed the transition. The short story is we encountered several problems with the design and newer versions of WordPress, which ultimately led to starting the project over.
I believe we have passed the point where there may be outages, but we’ve still have work to do. We’ll be restoring elements along the sidebar and other functions over the next several hours, however the content should not be affected.
If you experience any problems, please let us know.
We will be doing some necessary maintenance on the site from 6:30 PM ET until ???, which means until we’re done. For most of the time, the site should remain available, but you know how that goes. There is one exception when the site will go down, but it should be very brief, less than five minutes. If you are unable to access the site, please try back later.
As we progress through the maintenance, you may notice substantial changes. Some changes will be intentional, and then there’s always the anomalies. If we’ve done our homework, the anomalies will be minimal and temporary.
Thanks for understand and more importantly, thanks for visiting TPC!
Judge Michael Mukasey repudiated the opinion (pdf), “Standards of Conduct for Interrogation,” issued in 2002 by Jay Bybee, then head of the Office of Legal Counsel, which broadly gave the Bush administration the right to use torture. The opinion, more commonly referred to as the “Bybee memo” or the “torture memo” was in theory retracted a few years later, but is still “active” for all practical purposes due to subsequent legal maneuvering by the administration.
Mukasey compared U.S. torture to the Holocaust, saying it is “worse than a sin, it’s a mistake,” and deemed it “antithetical” to what American stands for.
Furthermore, Mukasey said he did not believe the Commander in Chief had any inherent constitutional authority that would allow him to “override” any restrictions on torture. That within itself probably caused the heads of Dick Cheney and David Addington to begin spinning like Regan’s in “The Exorcist.”
From a news perspective it’s a busy morning in Washington. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding its confirmation hearing for President Bush’s nomination of Judge Michael B. Mukasey to be Attorney General, replacing disgraced former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Thus far, it appears his confirmation is a fait accompli. Senators are acting out their pre-written scripts and moving along rapidly.
George Bush called a press conference this morning, but might as well have remained in the Oval Office. He refuses to answer any controversial questions except for those that give him an opportunity to promote his agenda on SCHIP, etc., and condemn Congress. His demeanor is more belligerent today than its normal belligerence — an obviously relative statement
If you want to follow the hearing closely, Glenn Greenwald is live-blogging.
More on these items later.
You are currently browsing the The Political Chase weblog archives for the day Wednesday, October 17th, 2007.
