WHEN WINGNUTS ATTACK...

I love this! The Washington Times calls for Speaker Hastert to resign:

Resign, Mr. Speaker
TODAY'S EDITORIAL
October 3, 2006

(EXCERPTS)

On Friday, Mr. Hastert dissembled, to put it charitably, before conceding that he, too, learned about the e-mail messages sometime earlier this year. Late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Hastert insisted that he learned of the most flagrant instant-message exchange from 2003 only last Friday, when it was reported by ABC News. This is irrelevant. The original e-mail messages were warning enough that a predator -- and, incredibly, the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children -- could be prowling the halls of Congress. The matter wasn't pursued aggressively. It was barely pursued at all.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.

Wait, there's more :

Congressional aide says he told Hastert's office about Foley's conduct 2 years ago
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer

Conservative activist Richard A. Viguerie was among those who called for Hastert to step down. "The fact that they just walked away from this, it sounds like they were trying to protect one of their own members rather than these young boys," Viguerie said on Fox News.

Icing on the cake:

October Surprise in This Campaign Puts Republicans On the Spot
By Catherine Dodge and Jay Newton-Small
Oct. 3 (Bloomberg)

David Bossie, president of the Washington-based advocacy group Citizens United, said Hastert had ``failed in his duty to investigate and prosecute this matter before it became a public relations problem,'' a failure that Bossie said was ``morally repugnant'' and may also cost Republicans control of the House.