Republicans Wanted A Scandal-Free Speaker And Picked Dennis Hastert

On a Saturday in December 1998, Representative Donald Manzullo of Illinois looked fellow Illinois Republican Dennis Hastert right in the face with what many lawmakers were wondering. In his own account, Manzullo said, “can you withstand the scrutiny?”

Manzullo, a conservative lawmaker who viewed Robert Livingston, the Louisiana congressman in line to be House Speaker, as badly tarnished, wanted assurance before the party backed a new leader.

It was a measure of how desperate Republicans were for someone clean. After losing ground in the midterm elections, they had lost one Speaker and then his replacement in a matter of weeks, and the little known vote counter from Illinois suddenly looked like the safest man in Washington.

The trouble had started in January 1998, when President Bill Clinton's affair became public. House members approved two articles of impeachment against Clinton, and the Senate prepared for a trial in 1999. Nearly all Republicans said Clinton should resign.

Livingston, who was supposed to succeed Newt Gingrich of Georgia as Speaker after Gingrich stepped down following the poor midterms, was among the loudest calling for Clinton to quit. Then in December, before Livingston could take the gavel, reports revealed that he had carried on several affairs of his own. Livingston resigned from Congress and called on Clinton to do the same. Clinton declined to quit.

Gingrich had his own history. An aide later said Republicans would have won Gingrich's 1974 race if they could have kept him away from an affair with a campaign volunteer. While pressing Clinton to resign, Gingrich was also carrying on an affair with a young staffer who would later become his wife.

Hastert, a former high school wrestling coach whom colleagues called Coach, had risen as deputy to Tom DeLay of Texas, the House whip. Together they had built what a contemporary account called a vote counting operation that was the envy of other Republicans, skilled at finding what motivated lawmakers and lining up votes.

DeLay was considered for Speaker but passed over, and attention settled on Hastert. The Washington Post described him as the safe consensus candidate. Brad Goodrich, who was deputy executive director of the Illinois GOP, said he knew of no hint of scandal around Hastert. When Manzullo asked his question, Hastert agreed, and the House elected him in January.