By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
August 14, 2007
WASHINGTON - Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who served as
speaker of the House longer than any other Republican in history,
intends to retire next year at the end of his current term,
party officials said Tuesday.
A formal announcement was planned for Friday.
Hastert's planned retirement is likely to set off a lively
scramble between the two political parties for a House seat
that he has held easily since 1986.
Hastert's decision has been expected since the GOP lost control
of the House last November, costing him his powerful post.
He had been speaker, second in the line of presidential succession
behind the vice president, for eight years.
The officials who discussed his plans did so on condition
of anonymity because there had been no public announcement.
Hastert's decision to remain in the House after his speakership
was unusual.
His immediate predecessor, Republican Newt Gingrich of Georgia,
was dogged by scandal when he stepped down as speaker after
two terms, then resigned from Congress a short while later.
Before Gingrich, Democratic Rep. Tom Foley of Washington was
defeated for re-election in 1994. Foley's predecessor, Democratic
Rep. Jim Wright of Texas, resigned under an ethics cloud in
1989.
Hastert, 65, declined to run for minority leader after his
party's defeat in the 2006 elections, taking on a role as elder
statesman among Republicans.
He has been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq.
As speaker during President Bush's first six years in office,
he labored successfully to pass the administration's tax cuts
as well as landmark Medicare legislation that provides a prescription
drug benefit.
Democrats said Hastert's decision will make it more difficult
for Republicans to hold his congressional seat.
"Any Republican running will have to answer for their
party's failure to be nothing more than a rubber stamp for
George Bush's endless war in Iraq and his irresponsible fiscal
policies," said Doug Thornell, spokesman for the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee.
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