I don’t really recall despising good old Dennis Hastert. As I recall, after that asshole Newt Ginrich resigend as House Speaker, the Grand Old Hypocrites were going to elect some other dude speaker, but it turned out he’d been diddling a few females to whom he was not married, and what with them having recently elevated Bill Clinton’s extramarital indiscretions to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, they felt they needed to appoint somebody safe instead. Enter former high school teacher and wresting coach, Denny Hastert.

Now, of course, we learn that poor old Dennis was being blackmailed by a mystery person from his past, and is apparently willing to face multiple felony charges (and nine years in prison – thoug of course we know that people like Denny don’t actually go to prison) rather than come clean on what he was up to all those years ago in Yorkville, IL. It would of course be unfair to speculate what would be worth a few million dollars in hush money but, well, I’m sure I’m not the only person out there in the world to add up the words “high school,” “wrestling coach,” and “Republican,” and come to the conclusion that Coach Hastert may have been hittin’ the mat with an underage boy.

Not saying that’s what he did, of course – it’s pure conjecture at this point.

Of course, we’ll probably never get the full story on any of this because, at the urging on the former Speaker’s attorney, prosecutors agreed to amend the indictment against Denny so as not to explicitly mention the nature the “prior misconduct” that led to Hastert trying to hide the illegal withdrawal of some $1.7 million from his rainy day retirement fund. Which of course is exactly how you or I would be treated in similar circumstances.

But if he wasn’t engaged in a bit of man on boy love, then his attorneys didn’t do him any favors, ‘cuz let’s face it, that’s what everybody’s gonna be thinking.

Speaking of thinking, I think I’m awfully happy that today is Friday. As I’ve mentioned before, these short weeks seem to last longer than the full ones.

And goodness knows, this is gonna be one really short weekend coming up.