Hastert's Resignation would be like giving Osama a blumpkin

Mark Foley has been criticized for several inappropriate contacts with pages. The story broke with a series of emails in which he asked an ex-page to send Foley a picture and engaged in loosely flirtatious prelude. The kid realized what it was a prelude to and was none too pleased. When Republicans in the house learned about the emails, they did very little about the subject other than tell Foley not to email this kid any more.

Dennis Hastert is speaker of the house, and he saw the questionable emails. Hastert didn't do anything to Foley but referred the matter to another representative (John Shimkus), who told Foley to lay off. Hastert's come under criticism for his lack of action/potential coverup, and a big part of the Foley debate is now whether Hastert will/should resign. Hastert's responded in an interview with Rush Limbaugh, and Hastert said some ridiculous stuff. Discussing the scandal, he dropped this fascinating analysis:

But, you know, this is a political issue in itself, too, and what we’ve tried to do as the Republican Party is make a better economy, protect this country against terrorism — and we’ve worked at it ever since 9/11, worked with the president on it — and there are some people that try to tear us down. We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well.

So if Hastert's forced to step down, the terrorists have won, is what Hastert's saying here. This is the Republican line - there's an identity between Republican interests and American interests, and all that troubles Republicans threatens America. And so dissent is treason and Democrats are just like Al Qaeda.

Boo, I say!