Boehner tries to grab power from Hastert

It is a fundamental rule that politicians in positions of power will help destroy one of their own allies if it means obtaining more power.  That is precisely what is unfolding right now between House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH).

Although they are both from the GOP, the Foley scandal has opened up an intra-party cat fight between the two.  The fight is over when Hastert knew about the Foley emails?  Speaker Hastert claims he did not learn about Congressman Mark Foley's emails until the spring of this year.  Boehner, however, strongly disagrees, and says he told Hastert years before.

On a Chicago radio station earlier this month, Boehner put most of the blame on Speaker Hastert:

"My position," he continued, "is, it's in his corner. It's hisresponsibility. The clerk of the House that runs the page program [and]the page board, all report to the Speaker, and I believed it had beendealt with."

While what John Boehner said might be true, he has some explaining to do as well.  Throughout the Foley aftermath, has been anything but consistent.  On September 29th, the week the Foley scandal broke, Boehner told the Washington Post that he spoke with Hastert -- only to call the post again one day later and tell them that he actually couldn't remember, forcing the newspaper to amend a story it published that Saturday.  Then, just one week later, he went on the Chicago radio station to say that he did indeed tell Hastert.  So obviously Boehner's story changes depending on which way the political winds blow.

Both Boehner and Hastert are doing damage control -- but it is within plain sight, making it even more obvious.  Boehner knows that if Hastert is forced out, then he will be next in line for the Speaker position.  But because Boehner keeps altering his story, he might be lumped in with Hastert and kicked out of the GOP leadership.  A couple of weeks back, I was told by a party source via email that Congressman Roy Blunt (R-CA), currently the House Majority Whip, could be bumped up to the Speaker position because he has done a careful but spectacular job of distancing himself from the Foley scandal.

Of course, Democrats would remind us that this GOP leadership fight won't mean a thing if Congress changes hands this November, ensuring once and for all that neither Hastert nor Boehner will have any say in policy for at least the next two years.