I'll tell you up front I have some mixed feelings about wading into this, not because I ever had any use for Dennis Hastert as an elected official (I didn't) but because a) it's all very old news; and b) we only know about it because of some very questionable charges related to the nature of Hastert's bank withdrawals in the course of paying the hush money. Also, if Hastert really was a serious sexual abuser of young people it's almost immaterial what their names were.
And yet, damn, the man who was trusted with the role of Speaker of the House - one of the most powerful positions in the United States - allegedly spent years sexually abusing kids. Damn. I'd say it's worth examining how a guy who did such monstrous things was able to keep his secret such that he could rise to such a position of power and influence - especially when Jolene Reinboldt was trying with all her might to get someone to listen to her, and no one would:
In Steve Reinboldt’s 1970 high school yearbook, wrestling coach Dennis Hastert wrote that Steve was his “great, right hand man” as the student equipment manager of the Yorkville, Illinois wrestling team.
But Steve was also a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Hastert, Steve’s sister said today in an interview with ABC News. It is the first time an alleged Hastert victim has been identified by name since his indictment for lying to the FBI and violating federal banking laws to cover-up past misconduct. Hastert, due in court next week, has not responded to the allegations.
In an emotional interview, Steve Reinboldt’s sister Jolene said she first learned of her late brother’s purported years-long sexual abuse at the hands of the future Speaker of the House back in 1979 when her brother revealed to her that he was gay and had been out of high school for eight years.
“I asked him, when was your first same sex experience. He looked at me and said, ‘It was with Dennis Hastert,’” Jolene said. “I was stunned."
Jolene said she asked her brother why he never told anyone. “And he just turned around and kind of looked at me and said, ‘Who is ever going to believe me?’”
Steve Reinboldt died of AIDS in 1995. Jolene Reinboldt said she was stuned and enraged when Hastert had the nerve to show up at his viewing, and she followed him to the parking lot to let him know that she was aware of his secret and would do whatever she had to in order to expose him.
And she tried hard, but it wasn't easy. She actually took the story to ABC nearly a decade ago, when Hastert was still Speaker of the House, but ABC felt that Reinboldt offered too little in the way of backing up her claims for them to run with the story. It wasn't until the FBI indicted him for the nature of his bank transactions - and I agree it's hard to defend that indictment - that we ever knew about any of this.
So if all this is true, how does such a monster escape exposure so completely and for so long that he could not only achieve success in politics but actually rise to the speakership? (Remember that Hastert only got the gig because the original choice to succeed Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston, admitted to an extramarital affair in the 1960s? Remember that? Because I think you might want to remember that.) Indeed, what motivates a man with such a dark secret to seek political office in the first place?
I'm sure there's something to Steve Reinboldt's expectation that no one would believe him. But I think a lot of the conceit with a person like Hastert comes from the fact that the nature of the crime itself encourages silence on the part of the victims. If you come forward and admit you were sexually abused by your male wrestling coach, then however unfairly, you're the kid who had gay sex with the wrestling coach. Expose the perp, you expose yourself too.
Between that and the fear of taking on a man in a much more powerful position than you, the sexual abuser figures he has every psychological advantage over the victim. Then again, he wasn't so confident that he was unwilling to pay hush money to whichever victim was getting the $3.5 million. (If these alleged deeds took place, of course, ahem.)
So how do we keep this sort of thing from happening in the future? I'm not sure there's a foolproof method, but I do think it might help if we return to paying more attention to people's moral character. I understand how out of fashion that is, but has following this particular fashion gotten us anywhere good?
I'll tell you up front I have some mixed feelings about wading into this, not because I ever had any use for Dennis Hastert as an elected official (I didn't) but because a) it's all very old news; and b) we only know about it because of some very questionable charges related to the nature of Hastert's bank withdrawals in the course of paying the hush money. Also, if Hastert really was a serious sexual abuser of young people it's almost immaterial what their names were.
