Denny Hastert’s dysfunctional leadership and Tony Blankley’s terrific column, ’Its Never Too Late to Do the Right Thing’, are the two significant themes in the Foley scandal story today.

A hundred kudos belong to Blankley for his ethical approach to Foley and Hastert in his latest column. (And also for the Washington Times editorial yesterday calling for the Speaker’s immediate resignation.)

’[W]e Republicans can only be responsible for our own conduct and conscience’ he wrote, along with, ’[D]efending Denny Hastert’s decisions is ethically wrong.’ Bravo to my old friend Tony Blankley.

As for Hastert’s dysfunction, a few gems:

In his Hugh Hewitt radio interview, Hastert said he was too busy with Katrina, deficit reduction, and Tom DeLay a year ago to pay any attention to the Foley emails. Huh?

Hastert also refused to deal with Tom Reynolds’ assertion that this spring Reynolds took the email to Hastert. But of course the Speaker took no action.

And then the John Boehner line: ’I believe I talked to the Speaker and he told me it had been taken care of’