SPOTLIGHT ON DENNY. The Washington Times editorial is bad enough, but the real sign that things are beginning to fall apart for the House leadership is this new John Boehner interview in which the majority leader makes it very, very explicit that this is all on Hastert. "I believe I talked to the Speaker and he told me it had been taken care of. And, and, and my position is it's in his corner, it's his responsibility." There's one superficial factor that makes this all even more treacherous for the GOP than the mere, damning facts would have in any case: As many have known for a while but we've all been seeing in painful real time over the past few days, Hastert the avuncular behind-the-scenes leader is truly dreadful on television or speaking extemporaneously. He's the absolute last person you'd want trying to delicately extricate his party from a scandal or effectively push back against attacks. And loyalties to him seem to be running thin.
UPDATE: Boehner's been on a real candid-on-the-radio tear.
--Sam Rosenfeld
