Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert
UPDATE: Jerry Moran's camp fires back (see below).
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi miscalculated by not forcing a House vote on health care reform prior to the summer recess, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert said today.
"The speaker probably made a strategic mistake by not jamming a (health care) bill through before they went home for break," said Hastert, in town to campaign for his former colleague, Congressman Todd Tiahrt who is running for the U.S. Senate in Kansas.
"When you have (lawmakers) go back (home) and listen and see what the reactions are and also have an election coming up...I think they get a little cold feet."
Democrats who make up the conservative Blue Dog coalition, including Kansas' Dennis Moore, urged Pelosi to slow down consideration of the bill because the magnitude of the issue, and its cost, were so huge.
Hastert, a Republican from Illinois who served as speaker for eight years, said Pelosi also erred in opting for an unpopular vote on cap-and-trade prior to the health care vote.
That vote gave Republicans more ammunition about big-spending Democrats, he said.
During an interview with Prime Buzz, Hastert said the Democrats rarely helped Republicans with legislation when the GOP held the House. It's not surprising now that Republicans are reluctant to aid the Democrats on health care reform.
“You’re going to have a difficult time shoving something down the throat of American people that they don’t want," Hastert said. "At some time, they’re gong to gag, and the gag will probably come in an election.”
Hastert once again was critical of Tiahrt's primary opponent, Congressman Jerry Moran who also served under Hastert.
The former speaker described Tiahrt as a legislator who was willing to "get down in the trenches and fight."
Not so with Moran of Hays.
"He was never there," Hastert said. "I mean, he’d always be out there grabbing a headline, but he was never there in my experience of doing the hard work to make things happen.”
Hastert credited Moran with some good work on the Agriculture Committee.
"People say good things (about Moran), too," Hastert said.
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On Wednesday, a spokesman for Moran responded with this:
"The massive expansion of government and failed leadership by Speaker Hastert, Congressman Tiahrt and other House Republicans is what caused the American people to lose confidence in the Republican Party, therefore paving the way for Nancy Pelosi to become Speaker and Barack Obama to become President.
"Unlike some Republicans, Jerry Moran has a proven conservative record of fighting against wasteful spending and earmarks. When Republican leadership promoted big ticket items such as No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D, Jerry wasn't afraid to say 'no.'
"No matter what Republican or Democrat party leaders promote, Jerry will always put the taxpayers of Kansas ahead of the pressures of Washington D.C."
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This thing is heating up.
More from Tiahrt's spokesman:
Congressman Jerry Moran obviously was rattled when former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert described Moran as more of a “headline grabber” than a fighter. In an unusually harsh attack, Moran defended his own lack of leadership by calling Hastert a failed leader.
Moran apparently forgot Hastert and Congressman Todd Tiahrt were part of a conservative team of House Republicans who fought against liberal spenders like Nancy Pelosi to balance the federal budget five times and pay down $500 billion of public debt.
Perhaps Congressman Moran fails to remember those budgets because he was not actively in the trenches fighting for their passage.
Congressman Moran failed to disclose he voted for Dennis Hastert as Speaker every time he was elected, and Congressman Moran certainly did not mind joining the Speaker on a Congressional delegation trip to France. Moran mentioned this trip in a September 2004 Associated Press article that claimed Moran lied to Hastert on a major vote and then ran and hid.
Moran denied running and hiding, despite the allegation by Hastert, two other Members of Congress and four Congressional staffers.
It should come as no surprise Congressman Moran withholds some of these important details. In recent weeks while touting his record on “fighting earmarks” he allegedly forgot that he also requests earmarks. In fact, his memory is apparently so fuzzy that in a weekly newsletter to constituents, he touted his fight against earmarks in one paragraph and in a later paragraph reported on a visit to the McPherson Opera House, which was the beneficiary of a Jerry Moran earmark last year.
Jerry Moran cannot decide if Dennis Hastert is a good Speaker he likes to travel with or a failed leader – just like he cannot decide if he is for earmarks or against them.
Burdett Loomis, a University of Kansas political scientist who has watched Moran since his days in the State Senate said, “This is a guy who, I think, legitimately has a hard time making up his mind, both in terms of what good policy is and maybe simultaneously in terms of what good politics is.”
A little premature to be declaring victory, Coach
There's still a very good chance a health care reform bill will pass in the House even after all the wingnut histrionics.
But thanks for reminding us all what a complete douchebag you were as Speaker.