28, April 2016 Dennis Hastert
The delayed punishment of Dennis Hastert whose unusual rise to
political fame, becoming the longest speaker of the House of Representatives -
two heartbeats from the presidency – raises some troubling aspects of our
current justice system. He was not charged with sexual abusing young members of
his wrestling team, successfully stonewalling until the statute of limitations
of 3 years had long passed which seems odd given the publicity and travails of
Bill Cosby who is fighting charges of sexual abuse filed by his victims’
decades after the alleged abuses occurred. Then again, Anita Hill’s, charges of
sexual harassment against Supreme Court Clarence Thomas seems to be a never
ending saga.
In a flimsy attempt to punish Hastert, the justice department
sentenced him to 15 months for illegally restructuring his bank transactions to
pay off his victims. But how can he be punished for restructuring his own bank
funds? Surely the money belonged to him and he should be at liberty to manage
his own money without federal interference.
This case is full of anomalies the most egregious of which is
the short statute of limitations period on sexual abuse whose revelations often
only comes to light decades later. Remember the movie classic ‘The Boys of St.
Vincent’ based a real story of horrific child abuse? Apparently, efforts to eliminate
the statute of limitations have encountered strong opposition from an extremely
powerful special interest group, the Catholic Church!
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