A "Youthful Indiscretion"

Now we know all about the lurid details of the legal problems of former House speaker Dennis Hastert, and it isn't pretty.

Many years ago, he toiled away as a high school history teacher and did some coaching on the side to augment his income. Also, as was not unheard of in those days, he was said to have had a sexual relationship with a high school student. What was mostly unheard of in those days is the student was male.

These days, thanks to awareness of sexual harassment, our society disapproves and is downright grossed out and outraged when such violations of boundaries occur. In almost half of the states, it is a crime for teachers to have sex with students. However, long ago when Hastert was a teacher and a wrestling coach, it is doubtful any such relationship was even a crime, let alone cause for license revocation;

Hastert was vulnerable to blackmail, and indeed he was alleged to have paid the former student off. It appears this former student was blackmailing him.

Details:

J. Dennis Hastert, who served for eight years as speaker of the House of Representatives, was paying a former student hundreds of thousands of dollars to not say publicly that Mr. Hastert had sexually abused him decades ago, according to two people briefed on the evidence uncovered in an F.B.I. investigation.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced the indictment of Mr. Hastert, 73, on allegations that he made cash withdrawals, totaling $1.7 million, to evade detection by banks. Federal authorities also charged him with lying to them about the purpose of the withdrawals.

It hasn't been very good for wingnuts these past couple of weeks if you include the Duggar family in the mix.

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