The Scandal
(Part II- June-July)
Sources: Wikipedia Commons
June 7th, 2007 is considered the date when President Hastert's huge scandal broke, often called Hushgate. This was the day former FBI Director Bob Mueller was arrested for trying to send out his report on the President's misconduct, which sparked a wildfire, a domino that with parts that grew increasingly colossal. A day later, a mysterious blog post, written by Mueller, was published in the web, and though the White House quickly made reading and spreading it forbidden by executive order, millions of Americans read it and tens of millions heard of it in a matter of hours, with the internet proving itself a poweful factor in the politics of the 2000s. Then happened something even more shocking- the leading Democratic Presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama and Russ Feingold, who already announced a united front against Hastert's transgressions, went on a joint press conference to read the contents of the blog together. From there, it spread like wildfire, among hundreds of millions of Americans and billions of people worldwide.
As protests of tens of thousands erupted in major metros, calling for the President to "free Mueller" and to resign, congressional Democrats, ably lead by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, started quickly drafting article of impeachment. They subpoenaed figures such as Vice President Giuliani, Chief of Staff Tyrone Fahner, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, FBI Director John Pistole and more.
When the White House refused to cooperate, it also had immediate fallout from within the administration. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was the first to resign, and immediately agreed to testify, calling the administration's actions "outrageous, authoritarian, suspicious" and saying that he wants "no part" of it. He was followed by HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, OMB Director Rob Portman, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson and VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, leaving the administration almost halved.
Republican leadership was awestruck. How do they respond? The RNC continued supporting the President, threatening to withdraw funding from candidates who broke their loyalty, but many moderate and even conservative Republicans came out against the President. Some Republicans in the House called the quick Democratic impeachment efforts "a witchhunt", others said that the White House "should cooperate and explain itself" and a minority said that the President should be impeached. One person's silence was increasingly noted- Vice President Giuliani, who refused to speak out. The rift threatened the tear the party apart. Little did they know that it was not even the worst of it.
As the time passed, Democrats were struggling to build a strong case- the Hastert administration was threatening to arrest any FBI agent who testified for disclosing highly classified information, and White House sources even claimed that the President and Chief of Staff had to be stopped by the Attorney General from sending agents to arrest the Democratic candidates. But they were still going to present a case for obstruction of justice and illegal arrest, and it was clear that it'd pass with a solid majority. Another result of the increasing pressure from both the civil and public figures was that the FBI moved former Director Mueller to a house arrest, but he was still unable to speak to the media or testify before congress.
As the President and his team stressfully debated what to do, another shockwave came.
Key Polling (July 2007)President Dennis Hastert job approval (July 1st)Disapprove- 77% ↑ (+8)Approve- 19% ↓ (-5)Unsure- 4% ↓ (-3)
su
Vice President Rudy Giuliani approval (July 1st)Disapprove- 57% ↑ (+9)Approve- 36% ↓ (-5)Unsure- 7% ↓ (-4)
Speaker Nancy Pelosi approval (July 1st)Approve- 50% ↑ (+4)Disapprove- 42% ↓ (-2)Unsure- 8% ↓ (-2)
Direction of the Country (July 1st)Wrong Track- 81% ↑ (+3)Right Track- 10% ↓ (-1)Unsure- 11% ↓ (-2)
Who will you support in the 2008 Presidential election? (Hastert)Generic Democrat- 61% ↑ (+8)President Dennis Hastert (R-IL)- 26% ↓ (-9)Others\Undecided- 13% ↓ (-1)
Who will you support in the 2008 Presidential election? (Other Republican)Generic Democrat- 51% ↑ (+2)Generic Republican- 37% ↓ (-3)Others\Undecided- 12% ↑ (+1)
Who do you support for the Republican nomination in 2008? (Speculated)President Dennis Hastert (R-IL)- 31% ↓ (-9)
Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL)- 20% ↑ (+2)
Fmr. Secretary Condoleezza Rice (R-CA)- 12% ↑ (+2)
Senator John McCain (R-AZ)- 7% = (+-0)
Fmr. First Lady Laura Bush (R-TX)- 6% ↑ (+2)
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)- 5% ↑ (+1)
Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA)- 2% = (+-0)
Others- 8% ↑ (+1)
Undecided- 9% ↑ (+1)
Who do you support for the Republican nomination in 2008? (Current Candidates)President Dennis Hastert (R-IL)- 52% ↓ (-11)
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)- 29% ↑ (+7)
Others\Undecided- 19% ↑ (+4)
Who do you support for the Democratic nomination in 2008?Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)- 23% ↓ (-2)
Fmr. Vice President Al Gore (D-TN)- 22% ↑ (+2)
Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)- 17% ↑ (+1)
Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI)- 12% ↑ (+4)
Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ)- 6% ↓ (-1)
Fmr. Senator John Edwards (D-NC)- 4% ↓ (-2)
Fmr. Governor Gary Locke (D-WA)- 3% = (+-0)
Governor Phil Bredesen (D-TN)- 2% ↓ (-1)
Senator Joe Biden (D-DE)- 2% = (+-0)
Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM)- 2% = (+-0)
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT)- 1% = (+-0)
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)- 1% = (+-0)
Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN)- 1% = (+-0)
Governor Tom Vilsack (D-IA)- 0% = (+-0)
Fmr. Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK)- 0% = (+-0)
Others\Undecided- 4% ↓ (-1)
