Hastert clings to power as scandal swirls

Republican disinvites Hastert

In a telling sign of Republicans’ discomfort with their own speaker, Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Ky., abruptly canceled an invitation for Hastert to join him at a fund-raiser next week.

“I’m taking the speaker’s words at face value,” Lewis told The Associated Press. “I have no reason to doubt him. But until this is cleared up, I want to know the facts. If anyone in our leadership has done anything wrong, then I will be the first in line to condemn it.”

But former Rep. Joe Scarborough, a Republican colleague of Foley’s from Florida during part of the 1990s, said Wednesday that the scandal probably would not be enough to end Hastert’s career.

The disclosures come too late in the campaign for Republicans, beginning with Karl Rove, the top party strategist, to embrace any alternative but to stand behind Hastert, Scarborough said in an interview with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

That should be enough for Hastert to survive, Scarborough said, and it explains why Hastert’s defenders include President Bush, who praised Hastert this week as a father, a teacher and a coach “who cares about children.”

“I know he wants the facts to come out,” Bush said.

NBC VIDEO Scarborough discusses Foley scandal Oct. 4: “Today” anchor Matt Lauer speaks with former Rep. Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC's “Scarborough Country,” about the state of the Republican Party amid the Foley scandal. Today show

What is not clear, however, is whether the Republicans will have the speakership for Hastert to occupy next January, Scarborough said Tuesday on his own MSNBC program, “Scarborough Country.”

Scarborough said he considered Foley a friend but stressed that he had not known about Foley’s behavior with pages. He called the e-mail and instant messages “abhorrent” and said they had “launched a sex scandal that may bring down the Republican Congress.”

Scarborough criticized Hastert for not responding to Foley’s behavior when he first learned about it, saying he had a responsibility to inform other members — including Democratic members — “that their own pages could be in danger.”

“He doesn’t remember it?” Scarborough said of Hastert’s insistence that he could not recall his discussion with Reynolds. “Exactly how often does one have that kind of conversation in today’s Congress?”

By MSNBC.com’s Alex Johnson with MSNBC-TV’s Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough and The Associated Press.

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