Cong OH-4: Siferd (D) Addresses Predatorgate, Calls on Jordan (R) to Speak Out

I spoke to 4th Congressional District candidate Rick Siferd (D-Lima) this morning as he drove to a lunch appearance in Mansfield. He said that it is not clear to him yet what House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) knew and when he knew it, so Siferd is not ready to call for Hastert to resign his leadership position. However, what's clear to him is that for the Republican House leadership, power and money are more important than family values.

"They talk family values, but they don't really care about them," he said. "They wanted to just sweep this all under the rug so they could hang on to power. It's all hypocrisy."

If it turns out that Hastert in fact knew about the explicit nature of the email messages sent by Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) to underage House pages, Siferd continued, then "of course he has to go." Siferd noted that Hastert hosted a fundraiser for his opponent, State Sen. Jim Jordan (R-Urbana), and Jordan is awash with campaign cash from the Republican establishment. "He's a big family values guy," Siferd said of Jordan. "I'd like to hear him speak up about this. He should break his silence on it." Siferd plans to speak on that topic at his fundraiser lunch today.