Talk:Dennis Hastert

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Whew[edit]

This Chicago Tribune article contains a truckolad of newly released facts regarding the instances of sexual abuse. HappyValleyEditor (talk) 06:46, 9 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Archival[edit]

Just as a reminder, please leave a few comments on talk pages when archiving to prevent them from being completely harvested. Thank you. MB298 (talk) 18:57, 9 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Merge, Split?[edit]

Is it just me, or do Dennis_Hastert#Criminal_prosecution & Dennis_Hastert#Allegations of sexual abuse cover the same thing? Should these sections be merged? There looks like a lot of content now. Should this stuff be split? NickCT (talk) 17:44, 13 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It is very tricky to do so, because Hastert isn't being prosecuted for the sexual abuse—rather, he's being prosecuted to evading currency reporting requirements by withdrawing certain amounts of cash used to pay off a victim in a way designed not to attract the authorities' attention. The connection between the two wasn't official acknowledged by prosecutors until the sentencing phase—it looks like one of the accusers is set to speak at the sentencing hearing, and prosecutors will ask the judge to treat this as an aggravated factor. So we can merge the sections, but it's somewhat complicated because of the timeline. Neutralitytalk 20:33, 13 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@Neutrality: - Hmmmm... See what you mean. I think though the two events (i.e. the sex abuse and currency reporting charge) are all wrapped up in the same scandal. And furthermore, it seems like the currency issue was a consequence of the sex abuse, so it strikes me that topic is actual about sex abuse, not about currency reporting. NickCT (talk) 21:34, 14 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I suppose we could change the "criminal prosecution" header to "prosecution for financial crime" and move the sex material in that section to "allegations of sexual abuse"?Anythingyouwant (talk) 23:20, 14 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is this a PR propaganda page? Where is all the molestation?[edit]

Where is all the molestation — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.16.203.237 (talk) 14:19, 24 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It's in there if you really look hard. The following is from the NY Times today, the WSJ had something similar:
“The defendant is a serial child molester,” said Judge Thomas M. Durkin of Federal District Court in a tough rebuke of the former speaker before issuing his sentence. The judge added, “Nothing is more stunning than having ‘serial child molester’ and ‘speaker of the House’ in the same sentence.”
Judge Durkin pointed out the vulnerability of Mr. Hastert’s young victims, and said they had been damaged for years. “If there’s a public shaming of the defendant because of the conduct he’s engaged in, so be it,” he said.
I don't believe that WP:BLP requires us to be more "discreet" than the NY Times, the WSJ, and the Federal judge. We should indeed be very direct. Smallbones(smalltalk) 20:13, 27 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like the page has been vandalized by removing the correct and sourced information that he's a serial child molester/rapist, then "protected" from vandalism to prevent the page from being corrected.Yakri (talk) 04:35, 18 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Dennis Hastert is one of the highest-ranking American politicians ever sentenced to prison.[edit]

Dennis Hastert, the Republican who for eight years presided over the House and was second in the line of succession to the presidency, was sentenced Wednesday, April 27, 2016, to 15 months in prison in the hush-money case that revealed accusations he sexually abused teenagers while coaching high school wrestling. Hastert was in his 20s and 30s. By MICHAEL TARM Associated Press — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:4304:5B00:1DB5:ED95:90AB:846D (talk) 02:42, 28 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

bisexual time?[edit]

Even raw story has declared Hastert gay.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/dennis-hasterts-secret-gay-misconduct-is-even-worse-given-his-terrible-voting-record-on-gay-rights/

Given that he's confessed to having had many same sex relationships isn't it time to ad that info to the article?

--MXfurry (talk) 01:51, 29 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

At this point very little is confirmed and he hasn't been convicted of anything. In light of our BLP policy, I would caution against adding any potentially inflammatory statements to the page. Ajraddatz (talk)
"In 2016, Hastert admitted that he had molested boys" that's on his page. --MXfurry (talk) 02:22, 29 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
EC - he has been convicted on a related charge. But, the Raw Story story is a year old, and I don't know that it's from a reliable source. Certainly "serial child molester" is confirmed, admitted to by Hastert and repeated by the Federal judge at the sentencing hearing. You can't get more confirmed than that. BLP does not say that we can't say unpleasant things about people, only that any seriously unpleasant things have to be confirmed. It would be a disservice to our readers if we tried to hush up what has been reported in all the most reliable newspapers. Sure, no inflammatory unconfirmed statements in the article, but we cover the truth as reported by reliable sources. Smallbones(smalltalk) 02:27, 29 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Absolutely. There is certainly enough out there to clearly indicate that he was molesting boys, but I think that any presumptive comment on his sexual orientation would be a bit of a far stretch from that. Better to put in what we can reliably confirm. Ajraddatz (talk) 02:30, 29 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Rev del of User:Wwdamron - brief note[edit]

FYI to all: User:Wwdamron (who is now indefinitely blocked) recently introduced copyright-infringing text in the article (under the "Honors" section), and so his edits were subsequently revision-deleted. I had previously taken out Wwdamron's edits for a different reason and introduced a small amount of additional text at the same time. My own edits had to be revision-deleted because Wwdamron's infringing content remained in the history. See Wikipedia:Text Copyright Violations 101 ("This is unfortunately a situation where we have to balance clearing infringements vs. causing unnecessary collateral damage to other editors. In other words, we're between a rock and a hard place").

So for posterity's sake, I wanted to make clear: the infringing content was introduced by Wwdamron. Two of my revisions were deleted as unfortunate collateral damage to cleanup Wwdamron's mess. For article-history attribution purposes, the content that I introduced in the rev-del'd edit is the third paragraph of the "Honors" section of the current article.

Thanks, all. Neutralitytalk 14:42, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is Hastert serving his prison term ??[edit]

Is Hastert serving his prison term already? And if no, when he will be send to the prison? M.Karelin (talk) 23:16, 7 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This question is more of a reference desk question, but I'll answer here because this will likely be added to the article later. Hastert is not in prison yet. Judge Durkin is allowing him to "self-surrender" to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (this is a fairly common practice, as opposed to immediately remanding the defendant into custody following sentencing). Judge Durkin has not yet set a surrender date - that will happen once the prison is determined. Neutralitytalk 22:05, 8 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]
June 22 seems to be the date he will start serving his term.[1]

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Split Article?[edit]

Right now the scandal section takes up much of the article. I propose it could be branched off, à la Mark Foley, so that a separate, dedicated page can go into full detail. PerhapsXarb (talk) 08:30, 17 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I don't believe that would be wise. This is really a well developed and all encompassing article that paints a very complete portrait of his public life and career. There's a very good balance and center of gravity at this point. My hats off to all the editors that had a hand in this impressive A class work. -Critical Chris

Semi-protected edit request on 18 January 2019[edit]

The fact he is an admitted child molester (under oath at federal sentencing) should be moved to the first sentence of his biography. Raistlin0719 (talk) 15:40, 18 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:33, 18 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Quote from David Axelrod[edit]

I am removing a quote by David Axelrod in the section on Hastert's Congressional career. It seems out of place, since Axelrod worked for the candidate who was defeated by Hastert. Argentine84 (talk) 15:25, 27 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Tone of the article[edit]

Without making a lot of edits, I would like to suggest the tone of this article should be addressed. It seems bitter, and a violation of NPOV, as if editors are influenced by the subject's recent legal troubles. This is especially true of the sections on his career as Speaker of the House. Perhaps editors will look at the sections and see if they agree that the tone should be made more objective. Argentine84 (talk) 15:36, 27 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Read WP:NPOV, including its WP:Due weight section. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 05:49, 28 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I do not understand what you are asking {{User:Flyer22 Reborn]]. The article on Mr. Hastert's congressional career mentions bounced checks almost immediately, then selectively refers to a few pieces of legislation among the thousands Hastert voted on, then mentions Mr. Livingston's reasons for not seeking the Speakership, (which seem irrelevant to Hastert). The long section on the Hastert Rule seem to violate the same WP:Due weight policy you have cited. which might confirm my original concern about the article. Argentine84 (talk) 18:09, 30 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I mean that your understanding of how Wikipedia applies neutrality needs work. Neutrality on Wikipedia is not the same thing as neutrality in common discourse. Also, there is no need to WP:Ping me to this talk page since it's on my watchlist. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 06:18, 2 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Pederast?[edit]

Is it fair to label Hasert as a pederast? I mean, what he did with those post-pubescent boys meets that definition, no? Serious question, BTW. Futurist110 (talk) 02:43, 2 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

No WP:Reliable source? Don't add it. Even if you had one, it would be WP:Undue. And "pederast" is a term that is mainly about the old ways of ancient societies anyway. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 02:10, 4 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Passage indicating his homosexuality/bisexuality[edit]

Recently, a sentence was added that declared Hastert a member of the LGBTQ community. Of course, this is inaccurate because he never identified with that community, but that being said, I think there is some merit in including a line that indicates that he's the first known homosexual or bisexual House speaker. His sex crimes against boys and the fact that he has admitted to having relationships with men seems to clearly show he has same sex attraction, and being the first gay speaker is notable enough to include.

- Derpytoucan (talk) 22:05, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If he's not out, we don't out people periodt. If he's out, that's different, but we'd need a good source proving that. Also does the LGBT+ community have membership cards now.

His downfall[edit]

…even before the FBI and IRS began investigating the suspicious cash withdrawals that were Hastert's downfall."


His downfall was molesting boys. The sentence above is a cop out. 2605:59C8:24DB:C700:358A:2FC1:ECA9:7C7C (talk) 00:35, 7 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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