The NYT has published a cover story on Dennis Hastert saying he admits to molesting at least 4 boys. Additionally the millions of dollars he says was extortion has been proven to be a "hush money" arrangement.
Just to be clear, Hastert hasn't actually admitted to the molestations. It is clear that they occurred and Hastert has apologized for "past conduct," but has stopped short of admitting to the sexual encounters. There is a difference.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Really AC, you want to split hairs on the sexual abuse of who knows how many boys?
Well, I embezzled thousands of dollars from my employer for over 10 years. I apologize for my "past conduct" but I don't "admit" that I've done anything. Oh, and then there was the year I stabbed and killed my mother, I apologize for my "past conduct" but I won't admit I did it...
When a person is finally caught doing whatever, and charged with concrete and undeniable evidence, the first thing they say is "I'm soo-orry". All that is is that he's sorry he got caught.
The real shame here is that Hastert can't be prosecuted for the sexual abuse crimes due to the statute of limitations. All they can and have proven is the charges he made for the so called "blackmail and extortion" money, they too were lies and excuses. And the lies about blackmail and extortion, well he's sorry for his past conduct...but...
We've seen so much of this particular flavor of cliched hypocrisy -- history of voting against LGBTQ issues of any kind, "shocking" revelations of sexual proclivities and/or abuse in stark contrast. It's almost a separate condition worthy of the DSM, the knee-jerk need to persecute/prosecute those whom one most wants to be with. And it's very relevant: anyone obsessed with who pees next to him in a rest room, well, has issues with restrooms and what (might) go on in them. Every time I see one of these zealots -- Tony Perkins of that hateful Family org -- I imagine the eventual bulletin that proves he had a yen that he has acted upon in private. You'd think the Haggard syndrome would be almost a given now. Psychiatrists basically state: homophobia is invariably rooted in repression and suppression. Sometimes I feel we should be much more aggressive in going after the mindset that frets so about sexuality, to call out motive and even obsession. Ultimately, who cares about gay sexuality or trans genitals but people who want to peep through the keyhole? .
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
No, Steve C. I don't want to split hairs. I am interested in accuracy. Hastert has admitted to nothing specifically, just as Bill Cosby has admitted to nothing specifically. I am not going to give someone credit for an admission of guilt when he actually made none. I have no doubt Hastert molested these boys, if not more, but he has not admitted to it, so to say that he did is inaccurate and misleading. I'm a journalist, and if I printed what you wrote I would probably be a) fired and b) sued for libel.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
My understanding is that Hastert was sentenced for financial improprieties rather than molestation, since the statute of limitations had expired on the latter.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
That's right, Madbrian, but he was charged with making payments to conceal past wrongdoing, and the wrongdoing was the molestations, which he admitted (some he admitted, others he didn't deny, to be more precise) during his guilty plea allocution.