Dennis Hastert, whose eight years as House speaker made him the longest-serving Republican in the job — and whose name was later ruined by one of the ugliest scandals in congressional history — has died. He was 84.
Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell announced Monday that Hastert died Saturday of natural causes at his home while receiving hospice care.
Hastert's rise was the stuff of congressional legend. A little-known Illinois lawmaker known more for congeniality than ideology, he was elevated to the speakership in 1999 after Newt Gingrich lost support over ethics violations and a poor midterm showing. In his first weeks on the job, he presided over the House while the Senate conducted President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial. After Republicans reclaimed the White House, Hastert helped push through President George W. Bush's legislative agenda, including massive tax cuts and the biggest expansion of Medicare prescription drug benefits in decades.
The legacy collapsed in 2015, when federal prosecutors accused Hastert of evading banking regulations as part of a scheme to pay hush money concealing unspecified "prior misconduct." A year later, court filings revealed what reporters had suspected for months: the "misconduct" was the sexual abuse of teenage boys on the wrestling team he coached in Yorkville, Illinois, west of Chicago. Prosecutors said Hastert abused at least four team members between 1965 and 1981.
At his 2016 sentencing, where he received 15 months behind bars, the judge called Hastert a "serial child molester." He became one of the highest-ranking American politicians ever ordered to prison.
Hastert's death closes the book on a career that embodied both the heights of political power and one of its most disgraceful falls. No funeral arrangements had been announced as of Monday evening.