Congress's Own Mr Creosote Has An Appetite For Rich Pay Days

Turns out the $1.5 million Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) recently grossed from an undisclosed real estate trust was merely an appetizer.

Several more fat pay days are on the menu for the plus-sized lawmaker.

Background to a rip-off

The "Prairie Parkway" Hastert pushed through the House as an earmark took an isolated parcel of farmland Hastert and two cronies had placed in a private real estate trust and transformed it into prime investment property with easy access to major cities -- worth millions to developers.

In gobbling up a fast $1.5 million profit seven months after setting up the trust, Hastert unloaded only about 70 acres of his initial 195-acre purchase, made in 2002, leaving Denny with plenty more land to sell and millions more to feast on.

A Hastert spokesperson's spin that the land [boxed by yellow line in upper left area of aerial map] is 5.5 from the new highway and hence irrelevant to the earmark is absolute cow shit.

A commenter at the Sunlight Foundation, which first outed the Speaker's sweetheart land trust deal, used Google Earth to calculate that the true distance between the entrance to the highway and Hastert's property is 2.6 miles. Hat tip to Think Progress for the info.

IL-14 voters who may have fretted Hastert might someday have to leave the House with only a plump pension to feed his retirement years can now relax. The congressman will never have to worry about the source of his next high-calorie meal.

Would the Speaker care for a wafer thin mint?