Former Speaker Denny Hastert to Stump for Gibbons
- Thursday, February 11, 2010, 7:00
- Iowa, News Center
- 2,355 views
- 35 comments
Former United States Speaker of the House Denny Hastert is headed to Des Moines to help 3rd Congressional District candidate Jim Gibbons. Hastert, a former High School wrestling star, will headline a fundraising event for Gibbons that is being hosted by former Congressman Greg Ganske.
Ganske is the last Republican to represent the Congressional District that includes Des Moines. Ganske, who is also a former wrestler, has a history of being a prolific fundraiser. Ganske’s early endorsement of Gibbons should open a lot of doors for Gibbons in the primary.
Below is the press release that the Gibbons campaign sent out about Hastert’s visit:
Jim Gibbons, Republican candidate for Congress in Iowa’s Third Congressional District, announced on Tuesday that former Congressman Greg Ganske will hold a fundraiser for Gibbons at his home on March 17, 2010. This event will feature former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert.
When asked about the fundraiser for Jim Gibbons, Congressman Ganske said, “In 1994 when I beat 36-year incumbent Congressman Neal Smith to help Republicans take back the House of Representatives, it was time for a change. It’s almost like déjà vu all over again. Speaker Hastert and I are hosting this event for Jim to help him win his primary and then beat Congressman Boswell.”
Jim Gibbons added, “I am truly honored to stand next to two great men like Congressman Greg Ganske and Speaker Dennis Hastert. I am grateful for their willingness to help me build a foundation that will help me win this election.
Congressman Greg Ganske was the last Republican to represent the Des Moines area in Congress, serving from 1995-2003. Speaker Dennis Hastert represented the Illinois 14th Congressional District from 1987-2007. He was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1999-2007. During the last fundraising quarter, Gibbons raised over $207,000, outpacing embattled incumbent Democrat Congressman Leonard Boswell, who raised $169,000.
Read more about the Jim Gibbons for Congress campaign at www.GibbonsforCongress.com.
About the Author
Craig Robinson has written 700 stories on this site.
Craig Robinson serves as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheIowaRepublican.com. Prior to founding Iowa's largest conservative news site, Robinson served as the Political Director of the Republican Party of Iowa during the 2008 Iowa Caucuses. In that capacity, Robinson planned and organized the largest political event in 2007, the Iowa Straw Poll, in Ames, Iowa. Robinson also organized the 2008 Republican caucuses in Iowa, and was later dispatched to Nevada to help with the caucuses there. Robinson cut his teeth in Iowa politics during the 2000 caucus campaign of businessman Steve Forbes and has been involved with most major campaigns in the state since then. His extensive political background and rolodex give him a unique perspective from which to monitor the political pulse of Iowa.
35 Comments on “Former Speaker Denny Hastert to Stump for Gibbons”
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Denny Hastert, good choice. The Speaker who allowed the Republicans to treat the Capital like it was their personal piggy-bank.
Last summer, Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana spoke eloquently of the real problem in Washington while traveling through Iowa. “Republicans lost their way” is how Rep. Pence described it in multiple speeches.
As a pilot, I know if you don’t chart a clear course and stay ever vigilant, you’re going to lose your direction and get lost. I hate to say it, but that happened under Dennis Hastert’s watch. The House Republican caucus lost its way with excessive spending and policies that didn’t represent the values and ideals of our party or the majority of American voters.
To be honest, Dennis Hastert was the “earmark king” of the Republican Party. And now Jim Gibbons has aligned himself with Dennis Hastert and the very philosophy and actions that resulted in our party losing control of Congress, the Senate and the White House.
How can we in Iowa’s Third District expect real leadership from Jim Gibbons, when he is joining forces with the leader who led the House Republicans on the spending spree with taxpayers money that cost conservatives their reputations as fiscally responsible small government leaders?
Check out a Fox News story Exposing the Hasert Handouts which helped cost the Republicans there majority.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,361061,00.html
It’s always good to see Republicans fight with each other. I will admit it’s humorous to see Ryan Rhodes attack someone when the Des Moines Register published a story about there being a warrant out for his arrest when he was a candidate for public office. Shortly thereafter, he was defeated by a progressive.
Will the Funk campaign also be attacking Steve King, Tom Latham and Chuck Grassley? I don’t have a dog in this fight but this seems beyond stupid. We have had 2 Republican Speakers in the past what 60-70 years?
Also, did Ryan Rhodes have a warrant out for his arrest? I don’t read the Des Moines Register. If that’s true, I think I’ll take a congressman that gets me earmarks than one that hires criminals.
Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks, Dave.
Dave,
I always applaud those who take principled stands on issues like these. So I would applaud you, except for the fact that you are not principled. While you attack Hastert, and thus Gibbons, you actually went out to DC looking for the help of the Republican delegation for your campaign. So if Hastert is bad, isn’t Latham, King, and Grassley?
Seems like you are bitter because of your campaign’s inability to launch.
http://www.funkforcongress.com/events/join-dave-funk-senator-grassley-and-congressmen-latham-and-king-in-washington-dc.html
The Register did print an article and I will no doubt take accountability for my past actions. I failed to fully pay a ticket and that caused some issue. When I was made aware the ticket was paid and issue resolved.
I do believe there is a big difference in going to Washington misusing funds to allocate money as was made reference to in the article and my admission to having admittedly made some college mistakes.
I agree, Ryan. There is a difference from getting earmarks for your district and having a warrant out of your arrest. Glad you clarified things for everyone.
I’ve never seen so many pathetic excuses for comments.
Not sure what I think of Funk yet but I sure as he** know what I think of Hastert. The guy is the embodiment of Pork. HE IS, IN FACT, THE OTHER WHITE MEAT. He helped ruin a surplus. He helped ruin the Republican party, with help of course from Tom Delay and more. And you guys actually think this is a good move on Gibbon’s part?
@Amber, you have yet to make a coherent argument on this site. All you say are unjustified things like Brad Zaun supports Gay Marriage which is not true. You’re more gerrymandered than anyone else I’ve seen here.
@Luke Donaldson – I visited the link. Funk was at the NRCC campaign training. He wasn’t there fundraising. He was invited to an event with HIS FRIEND STEVE KING! Who happened to ask him to run. Please read everything next time. I have little patience for naivety. Plus, that post was from November, how long have you been sitting on that one to try and sound smart.
@A Fundraising Funk – Nice play on words, I applaud you for that because I do appreciate wit, however your inane comment ruined my brief chuckle. Do you know what a glass house is? Because none of Funk’s or Rhodes comments could ricochet and shatter their houses.
@Tolliver Chism – ARE YOU SERIOUSLY COMPARING HASTERT TO STEVE KING! The only thing that is coming to my mind is the recently famous Internet meme, “Who’s responsible this?” Steve King is NO Dennis Hastert. Steve King is a conservative. Hastert treated taxpayer’s money like his freaking credit card.
Hired trolls like you that prostitute your RINO propaganda is appalling. I don’t know who will win IA CD-3 but I know Gibbons is not the guy that should win if he’s associating with people like Dennis Hastert – The EPIC FAILURE of the Republican Party during the Bush Administration.
Excuse me now, I have to go get a rag because the ignorance from these commenters is bleeding on to my keyboard. - The RINO Hunter
PS – I just noticed most of you commented within minutes of each other. Did Gibbons send you the email to comment at 12:30 or was it closer to 12:00? You should tell him next time to spread it out throughout the day so it’s less obvious.
Ryan-Hunter
I’m not a Gibbons supporter, nor dispatched by him to comment on this website. I think the argument that your candidate is trying to make is a stupid on and not very well thought out. What your people don’t understand is that campaigns need the support of all sorts of people. It seems as if you want to run campaigns that exclude people. I don’t get that.
Having run for local office once, I can tell you that I would take the support for anybody who offered to help me get elected. I didn’t ask the kid who helped me put up yard signs if he ever took a swig from his dad’s can of PBR when he wasn’t looking. I never asked the dude who wrote my campaign a check, what his motives are, I assumed it was because he liked me. I never told demanded that all of my supporters believe in the exact same thing, people supported me for all sorts of reasons.
You know what’s funny Ryan-Hunter. I didn’t win that election. And if you want to know why it becase I didn’t have enough people helping me out. Somehow you think you will win if you remain pure in every facet of your campaign. You have another thing coming.
That said, I would like to pop in the next time you can Captain Dave are interviewing potential yard sign property owners. Should be a lot of fun.
Reckless Rinohunter Ryan Rhodes is on the loose again. Be careful with your blog you have going. Or there might be another warrant out for your arrest.
Hi Dave-o. Give me a call bud.
I can assure you that I’m not Rinohunter I I simply posted under my own name as you are seeing here once again something you have not done Tolliver and at the very least Amber Baum uses her own name. If you would like to openly say something to me I would be more than happy to have an e-mail exchange.
E-mail- Rhodes4rep@gmail.com
Rinohunter is right on this one. This is a complete disaster for the Gibbons campaign.
Hastert was #1 on the list of top ten worst congressmen for MANY good reasons (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12054520/the_10_worst_congressmen), and Ganske who we all remember was a winner in the VERY first RINO awards in 2002 for supporting massive government health care and was called the “best friend Dick Gebhardt had in congress” are two real problems with real conservatives in the 3rd district.
Seems to be still a case of Gibbons not really getting a lot of grassroots support in the district, and having to call in those outside it for desperate help….
Gibbons polling below Funk in Polk County didn’t help last week.
How annoying! This is the first time I have defended Dave Funk. And actually, I’m attacking Hastert and the situation more than I’m defending Funk. I guess your logic on assuming I am Ryan Rhodes is about as good as your logic on this article and the Funk comment. Baseless. I guess since Mirage just defended Funk’s article he must be Funk’s wife too. Well, it makes about as much sense as you all are right now.
Luke. No one, especially myself, cares if you’ve run for office. This is TOTALLY different.. Dennis Hestert is NOT the kid putting out yard signs. And I’d rather have the support of a congressman who did take a swig as a kid than then the guy who funneled millions into his pocket via pork-barrel legislation. HE STOLE OUR MONEY. The mere fact that you would accept assistance from someone like him shows you’re nothing but a RINO at best. No true conservative would compromise their values to align themselves with people like Dennis. Only a RINO would do that. Seriously? I can’t believe you said that. There’s a reason you only ran once.
I feel like I’m in high school debate all over again. Listening to bad assumptions and illogical conclusions with no real foundation. I’m not Ryan Rhodes. I don’t participate in the Tea Party. I most certainly agree with the Tea Party. I’m a guy who likes to sit back and rail on the idiot RINOs in the world, of which there are too many.
Mirage, I was waiting to hear from you. I figured if someone in this freaking site would concur it would be you.
Give me a break people. Put a decent argument together. Yeesh.
…And I’ve never had a warrant for my arrest.
Luke brings up a very good point… The point of a campaign is to bring in as many people as possible to support you. You build coalitions. You build a base of support of people and try to grow that base as large as possible.
Heck, even in the Tea Party movement you have people of all differing philosophies and ideas. That’s why I find it funny that Ryan Rhodes is claiming that the Tea Party movement is endorsing Funk’s campaign. Last time I checked, there hasn’t been any sort of Iowa Tea Party convention or the like in Iowa to vote as to who to support or not
So that poses the question Mr. Rhodes…are you arbitrarily making this decision to endorse Mr. Funk on behalf of the Tea Party organization?
LOL Mirage… I wouldnt exactly call Rolling Stone magazine a conservative publication, let alone a publication with any credibility about politics.
What’s the dillio with this “big tent” mentality? The point of a campaign is to stand up for what you believe in. The only scenario, where this is a legit, good move for Gibbons, is, if he is a moderate.
But since he’s been claiming to be a conservative (though we don’t really know bc he never talks about real issues) this bad for him. So, I concede to everyone here, if, Gibbons comes out tomorrow saying conservatism is not what he’s running on and rather, is a RINO, or moderate. Until then………..it doesn’t add up.
Throw out Tom Latham! Damn him for all the earmarks for Iowa State University! Throw out Chuck Grassley! Damn him for getting Iowa doctors increased Medicare payments! Throw out Steve King! Damn him for voting for the evil Dennis Hastert for speaker! You people are nuts.
Tolliver, ur comparing earmarks for Iowa State University, to ear marks that went directly into Hastert’s pocket. Good job.
Damn him! Throw him out! He voted for Hastert for Speaker! Hastert is evil! Throw out all the Republicans unless they are your candidate! Be suspicious of every Republican that can raise one red cent! Throw them out! Hunt them all down! Throw them out of the party! Cleanse it! Again, you are nuts.
Rino..you can stand up for what you believe in…but if you limit a political campaign to only those who only agree with you 100% of the time…you will lose 100% of the time.
What part of building coalitions do you not understand here? You know how Reagan was so successful as a politician? He was able to put together broad coalitions of people supporting him from across the political spectrum. Reagan Democrats…social and fiscal conservatives…evangelicals….etc.
Reagan was able to build broad based support because he knew that if he was going to be able to achieve anything in his agenda..he had to reach out to differing groups of people and convince them what he was doing was the right thing do.
Move forward to today..and we now have too many in the purist crowd who refuse under any circumstance to build those same coalitions to achieve common objectives. ..
Dave man. Call me.
Hawk, you are right. Rino, Rinohunting Warrant Ryan Rhodes and even Dave Funk will do anything for attention. Next up will be an attack on Latham and King since they probably voted for just about everything Hastert supported. Such a useless exercise. This is what’s good about primaries. Some people win, some people lose. Usually the sane crowd wins.
You ARE the company you keep. End of discourse.
@HawkCR1 – Here’s the deal. And this is the last thing I’m going to say about it. Two things are wrong with this. No one said everyone has to agree with you 100% of the time, but we are talking about a very corrupt individual who used Tax payer money to line his personal pockets. He personally made millions off of earmarks. That’s not just an ideological difference. That’s a difference in integrity, or lack there of.
Here’s the second reason it’s bad: http://iowademocrats.org/2010/02/gibbons-must-wrestle-with-hasterts-friends-bush-delay-and-foley/ Now the Dems are going to play this like crazy if Gibbons walks away winner from the primary Dems will pull in moderate votes that otherwise could have gone to him….especially if he continues to do this stuff. He’s just giving them more ammo. Now, I admit, this is a marginal error relative to the first, but it’s true.
Would you not be concerned at all if he brought in David Duke? I bet they agree on a variety of fiscal issues. But I’m pretty sure they deviate from the ideological path in terms of morality and integrity. I know that’s an absurd example, but the prinicple is still maintained. As Waywardson said, “You ARE the company you keep.”
Tolliver, u just tagged urself a moderate bc based on that McCain supporters were the sane ones during the presidential primary. Good one.
Throw Jim Gibbons over the rail! Throw Tom Latham, Steve King and Chuck Grassley with him! And Greg Ganske! And Jim Nussle! And that evil Terry Branstad! We need Kim Lehman and Dave Funk in office! They are the only REAL Republicans. Again, nuts.
BREAKING NEWS! Klansman David Duke to campaign for Chuck Grassley! Give me a break.
Rino..
So…I guess then that must mean Dave Funk is a moderate RINO because he flew Greg Ganske around Iowa during his Senate campaign back in 02?
Once again..if you limit a campaign to only those people who agree with you 100% of the time…you will LOSE 100% of the time.
Oh..and you’re equating Denny Hastert with a racist like David Duke?? Please…now you’re just sounding like a complete fool.
HCR1, you rank 2nd only below DVFO for championship red-herring throwing. Re: your third paragraph.
@hawkcr1 – Read much?
And I quote myself ” I know that’s an absurd example, but the prinicple is still maintained.”
Rinohunting Ryano Rhodes, the rest of us hoped you meant what you said when you said you were going to go away and not comment anymore. Don’t you have a warrant to go make good on or something?