You've probably already heard but I want to make it very clear for the record -- former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker in U.S. history, was sentenced to prison today for molesting children.
Federal Judge Thomas Durkin repeatedly referred to Hastert as a "serial child molester" while handing down the sentence of 15 months in prison.
Moreover, Hastert admitted to the charges. He is a confessed molester.
"Nothing is more disturbing than having 'serial child molester' and 'speaker of the House' in the same sentence," Durkin said. [...]
“I want to apologize to the boys I mistreated,” Hastert said. “They looked (up) at me and I took advantage of them.”
As a lawmaker, Dennis Hastert posed as your typical family values politician who was an outspoken proponent of impeaching former President Bill Clinton.
Hastert also called for imprisoning child molesters for life, a standard he clearly wouldn't apply to himself.
The likelihood of someone being criminal deviant may be equally proportional to how much they profess their love of "family values." I'm forced to wonder how many conservatives lawmakers calling for the criminalization of transgender bathroom use today are actually dutiful consumers of transgender pornography. There's nothing wrong with the latter, but we are a nation led by elected hypocrites.
As the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert was a heartbeat away from the presidency for a decade.