More on Hastert (the Foley Fallout)

You remember the Mark Foley scandal, right?

Well Mary Ann Ackers over at the Washington Post has unearthed some more of the fallout from the House Republican hypocrisy during and following it:

As if the Mark Foley page scandal hadn't done enough damage to Republicans. Now we discover that legal bills arising from the tawdry affair landed former Speaker Dennis Hastert in hot water with the Federal Election Commission before he left town.

According to FEC documents, Hastert last January initially failed to disclose that legal fees had wiped out the final bit of cash he had in his campaign account. The Illinois Republican and former high school wrestling coach filed an amended finance report in February showing that his '06 campaign had racked up $147,000 in legal expenses in connection with the Foley investigation. In order to avoid substantial fines (and further debt), Hastert quietly agreed last summer to shut down his campaign and pay a $1,000 penalty, the FEC documents show.

Ackers adds:

When he publicly announced on August 17 that he wouldn't be seeking re-election, Hastert didn't mention his campaign's legal debt from the Foley scandal, or the settlement his lawyers were brokering with the FEC.

Of course not.

She also raised the question as to why Hastert didn't just pay the legal fees out of his own pocket rather than dumping them onto his contributors.

No wait - I think I just answered that question.