Washington Times: Hastert Should Resign

Any Republican being chided in print and publicly told that they should resign by the conservative Washington Times is a bit like Al Gore being rebuked by the Sierra Club -- it just doesn't happen that often and, when it does, it gets noticed.

Such was the case today when the Washington Times used its lead editorial, called "Resign, Mr. Speaker" to take Republican Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, to task over the Mark Foley affair and demand that Hastert step down.

An excerpt:

"House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week’s revelations — or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away.

"He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance."

The Times stopped short of calling for the resignations of Republican John Shimkus, chairman of the House Page Board, and Republican Majority Leader John Boehner, who both knew about what Foley was doing as early as the beginning of 2006 -- but they should have called for their heads as well.

You can read the full editorial here.