Four years after leaving office, former Speaker Hastert still heavily involved
By Matt Hanley mhanley@stmedianetwork.com July 9, 2011 3:32PM
Former Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert rides on his tractor with his grandson Jack, 3, at his home in Plano on Tuesday, June 29, 2011. | Brian Powers~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: October 29, 2011 12:42AM
On April 13, two old friends met at Judson University. The fact that the two used to be among the most powerful men in the world made this reunion more than ordinary.
That night, former President George W. Bush was planning to speak at a world leadership forum at the Elgin college. And since he was in the neighborhood, Bush decided to invite an old friend to stop by: longtime Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert of Plano.
Bush and Hastert ended up reminiscing during some of Bush’s unscheduled time before his presentation. For a moment, George and Denny were just two retired pros, tossing the political football again.
“He and I sat there and talked for an hour and half about things we did and what’s happening now and what could be happening in the future,” Hastert said. “You really kind of value those relationships: that you worked with this guy who was president of the United States for eight years. We really did some amazing things together that really changed how this country worked.”
Despite tremendous life experience, both men have scrupulously avoided public statements and political appearances. But to cast the Judson meeting as an old-timer’s club would be wrong, especially for the Fox Valley’s favorite political son.
Hastert has long played up his background as a former wrestling coach — his 1976 Yorkville High School team was state champ — but the image is never truer than today. No longer in the ring, he’s active on the sidelines, mentoring the top minds of the Republican Party.
“He’s not doing the Sunday morning shows. He’s not opining publicly very often,” said U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, a Wheaton Republican who said he talks to Hastert regularly. “He’s giving advice, he’s giving counsel. He’s willing to quietly serve.”
While he has endorsed few candidates and he’s stayed out of local politics, Hastert remains a significant background figure in Washington, D.C. The 69-year-old Fox Valley native is a lobbyist for the energy industry, but he’s also sounding board for legislative strategy.
“I’ve never been anybody to slow down,” Hastert said in May. “I guess when you slow down enough, they put you in a box. I enjoy doing things. I can pick and choose projects and issues I get involved with.
“I’m kind of a people person,” he said. “I enjoy doing things. I’d probably drive my wife crazy if I wasn’t doing things.”
Teacher to Speaker
It’s a well-worn story in this area, but Hastert’s schoolteacher-to-Speaker rise to power is worth a brief recap, if only for its remarkable arc.
While still teaching history and coaching the wrestling team at Yorkville High School, he won a seat in the Illinois legislature in 1980. Six years later, when incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. John Grotberg of St. Charles fell into a coma during the campaign, Hastert became the GOP nominee.
When he got to Washington, he was considered honest and tough, if bland. He said far less than he knew or thought, as evidenced by the few, if any, memorable gaffes from his career. By 1994, he was named chief deputy whip for the House Republicans, the go-to person for quietly delivering votes his party needed. He was the guy who could move a bill from idea to passage.
At home, “good ol’ Denny” remained wildly popular. After the narrow win in 1986, he averaged a 39 point margin of victory in his next 10 elections.
He brought home $400 million to build bridges, fund schools, widen roads, purify water, improve health services and partly fund a planned $1 billion connector highway from Kane through Kendall and into Grundy counties during his career. Driving through the Fox Valley, it’s hard not to cross a bridge or a road he helped secure funding for.
Then, in 1999, a strange series of events led two Republican Speakers of the House to step down within weeks. Hastert became the candidate that both sides of the aisle felt comfortable with. He would remain Speaker for eight years — the longest tenure ever by a Republican — until the Democrats took control of the House in 2006.
Out of power, he returned to being an ordinary member of Congress. At the time, he said little about his decision. But Hastert recently told The Beacon-News that he was initially excited about his new role.
“I really hadn’t planned on running again (in 2006),” Hastert said. “I was just going to retire. They (President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney) had two years left in their presidency. They both asked me that I would stay on, and run again, and stay on as Speaker. So I agreed to do that and then, of course, we lost the majority... I thought, well, maybe I can do some things on the energy committee. But it was a situation where people would start coming back to me and saying: well, what do you think the Speaker’s doing?”
Hastert said he was uncomfortable with being in a position to second-guess the leadership. In 2007, he announced he was leaving office early, triggering a special election to fill out his term.
“It was time for me to move on. I was ready to move on before that election, but I felt this was time to go,” he said. “And I felt that I could do more on the outside than inside, especially on energy policy.”
And in the nearly four years since he has left elected office, Hastert has done anything but retire.
Still grappling
It took months for The Beacon-News to schedule an extended interview time with Hastert. He wasn’t dodging us. He’s just busy.
He’s traveled to Japan and Vietnam. He’s taught leadership courses at Waubonsee Community College, Northern Illinois University, Wheaton College and the University of Illinois. He serves on the board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Three of every five weeks, he’s in Washington, D.C., where he works for Dickstein-Shapiro, a high-profile law firm that specializes in energy policy work.
Hastert sat down with The Beacon-News in May, just before he spoke at the opening of an exhibit about Luxembourg’s connections with America. (J. Dennis Hastert was listed in the exhibit as a prominent American of Luxembourgian ancestry, alongside 1970s tennis star Chris Evert.)
That night, Hastert made a few comments about his ancestry and his 2001 trip to Luxembourg. Then he slipped into the crowd to shake hands with dozens of people who couldn’t wait to see “good ol’ Denny,” as more than one person put it.
Hastert remains much the same person he was as Speaker. (With the notable exception of his appearance. He has kept off all or most of the 70 pounds he lost. His clothes usually look loose, even frumpy. He frequently pushes his large-lens glasses back onto his nose.) He talks reverently about his time in office and the people he worked with. His criticisms of the current administration are more philosophical than personal. A request for an evaluation of President Obama’s time in office, only draws a tepid “it’s a tough job” and a critique of big government policies.
He thinks there’s too much spending in Washington D.C., but he’s optimistic about the country’s future.
“I think we will rise to this challenge,” he said. “I think we will get our economy straightened out. I have great faith in America. We can still be a manufacturing power. We can do it.”
Professionally, his biggest interest is the nation’s energy policy.
“There are ways we can become more energy independent, which we have to do. And in a sense, your whole military focus doesn’t say, well we have to protect our ability to get petroleum in that area or this area.”
He sprinkles in frequent references to his coaching career and rarely fails to mention Sept. 11, 2001, at any public event. It was the moment of greatest crisis in his political career and he was part of the team that helped re-shape a realigned country.
But an aw-shucks, old-ball-coach rumpled demeanor can’t hide a brilliant knowledge of political machinery that has made him a valuable mentor to people like Roskam.
When Roskam was named chief deputy whip, one of the first calls he made was to Hastert. Roskam was looking for advice on how the position fits in with other leadership roles.
According to Roskam, Hastert’s advice was typical: Look at each member as an individual. Meet with them one-on-one, quietly, with as little fanfare as possible.
“People in Congress, both sides of the aisle, have tremendous respect for him,” Roskam said. “I imagine there are a lot of people who are seeking his help now.”
Indeed, Hastert says he speaks to rising GOP stars Paul Ryan, Joe Walsh, Peter Roskam, Eric Cantor and Adam Kinzinger regularly, offering advice on how to pass legislation, how to stop bills or how to build a coalition.
But Hastert hasn’t been on “Good Morning America” or “Meet the Press.” His public appearances are mostly ceremonial: a gathering of former Speakers in Kentucky, the dedication of the Hastert Center at Wheaton College.
“I’ve always kept a low profile,” he said. “I always had a saying when I was coaching: if the coach is in the headlines every week, the team is in trouble. If the team’s in the headlines every week, the team’s doing all right. Even as Speaker you didn’t hear me out there every week. I try to get our members out there doing things and having success because that brings everybody along.”
The novice river
fisherman
While it’s not unusual to find Hastert in Kendall County, he says he’s also been spending more time at a family cabin in Wisconsin where he’s still working on the transition from the patience of lake fishing to the subtlety of river fishing. He tinkers with a few old cars now and then, but mostly he tries to spend free time with his three grandchildren.
But work still drives the former Speaker. Hastert’s son, Ethan, now an Elburn village trustee, says being out office hasn’t changed his dad much.
“He’s always been very high energy and always kept a brutal schedule,” Ethan Hastert said. “Frankly, I would have been surprised if he didn’t keep up that schedule, didn’t keep working hard.”
When he met with The Beacon-News, it was shortly after Osama bin Laden was killed, and that brought a fresh batch of reminiscence from Hastert. He was preparing to speak in Arizona that night, when a wave of people were suddenly checking their Blackberrys and iPhones. Hastert said his thoughts immediately went back to Sept. 11, 2001, and the work his administration did to find the world’s most wanted terrorist.
On days like that, Hastert admits he occasionally thinks about his career in the past tense.
And there are times, like when talking to an old friend who used to be President of the United States, Hastert can’t help reflect on the arc that brought him from coach to politician to political coach.
“There’s really so many good people that you run into, elected members of Congress and people back home,” he said. “Really, when you come back here and you look around, you realize that you touched so many people’s lives in one way or another.”
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