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Johnson, Hastert defend Republican ideals
Stefanie Ackerman, Staff Writer
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) attended U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson’s (R-TX) fundraising event Monday afternoon at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson.
Hastert was invited by Johnson months ago to help rally support and funds for his campaign.
“I’m not nervous we’re going to be on track and on course to keep the House. I’ve got a great friend in Speaker Hastert. He does a great job for the United States of America and I want the people in this district to get to know him. That’s why he’s here.”
Johnson opened with a brief statement, but turned the remaining talk time over to Hastert, who never deviated from the party line.
“Together we’ve helped a lot of members of Congress and that’s how we keep our majority,” Hastert said.
With failing support for the War on Terror and in Iraq, Hastert reminded people that he’s not the colonel or the general. He said that by being tough on terror and doing the proper job, an attack on American soil has been avoided for five years.
“What we are doing is trying to fight terrorists where terrorists are and not fight terrorists on our main streets, whether that is Dallas or Cincinnati or Chicago or Washington D.C. and I think we’re getting the job done,” Hastert said. “War is never a very good thing, but war is also about giving people freedom that didn’t have freedom before.”
On border security, Hastert toted that a bill was recently signed by the President to provide a wall at the border. By beefing up border security with National Guard soldiers and border patrol, penetration of the border was reduced by 40 percent, he said.
“We want to make that zero penetration and Sam and I have worked hard to do that,” Hastert.
Hastert’s reputation, along with Republican members of Congress, has come under fire recently in what some are calling a cover up of former Congressman Mark Foley’s actions with a congressional page. Hastert wants to get to the bottom of the issue and figure out who was responsible for the alleged cover up.
“I’ve urged them to continue that investigation because I think it’s important to find out who held onto that information for almost three years, about the text messages,” Hastert said. “They ought to take some of the top leadership of another party and start asking them questions as well.”
Protestors outside the fundraising event put blame for the scandal upon the Republicans’ shoulders.
“How was lunch with Denny?” shouted Ken Biasco, of Richardson, to people leaving the luncheon. “Was it as good for you as is it was the pages?”
Biasco displayed a white sign with red capital letters spelling out ‘shame.’
“We’re opposed to the whole corruption in Congress,” Biasco said.
Caroline Wilkinson, a mother of three from Richardson, said Johnson has been “resting on his laurels” for too long. She wants change for her children and was appalled her representative would bring Hastert to an event.
“Sam Johnson’s documented as noting he doesn’t think his constituents would know or care what Denny Hastert was up to,” Wilkinson said. “We’re for the fact that with Sam Johnson you get a gamut, you get nothing.”
Hastert said he is making a swing across the country to attend other Republican events.
Contact staff writer Stefanie Ackerman at 972-398-4265 or sackerman@acnpapers.com.
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