Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years in Coaching and Politics

By Dennis Hastert

Book Overview

Mr. Speaker Denny Hastert is one of the most powerful men in America-and yet chances are you know little or nothing about him. And Denny Hastert likes it that way. Not because he has anything to hide,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 089526126X
• ISBN13: 9780895261267
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.8" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

You really don't know all this man has accomplished

It seems to me that we overweight the past with a significance it never had when it was the present. Certain events seem more to have a more straight line connection and they are remembered and most else is forgotten or temporarily put aside in our memories until needed to create a new explanation of how we arrived in the present. I bring this up because it is easy to remember the Tip O'Neill or the Sam Rayburn as significant Speakers of the House and to dismiss Denny Hastert, but I think that would be a real mistake. Certainly, I was one of those who said, "Denny Who?" when Newt stepped down as Speaker (before he would have lost the vote) and Livingston at the last moment succumbed to scandal. In this terrific autobiography, Speaker Hastert shares his life with us in a compact narrative that always lets us know what he thought and felt without ever becoming maudlin or vicious. Without recounting his life, the first chapter tells of his boyhood through beginning work as a teacher and coach. He shows us through his life experiences how he learned about hard work, developed his religious faith, and developed a love for athletics (especially wrestling). He never claims any special virtues except for his abilities to listen, coach, and help people come together. I found his transition to politics very interesting and why it is really a fatal experience to underestimate Speaker Hastert. He is very sharp, is able to express his judgments clearly and concisely so you know exactly where he stands without ever sounding mean or vindictive. He knows how to play the games of politics well, but for him it is not the game, it is working towards the things he believes in that matter most. Frankly, as I learned about his personal political views and what he has been working on in the Illinois State House, as a US Representative, and now as Speaker, I have to say I wish I could vote for him. The last chapter of the book is a quick review of the current issues of the day. There is a brief addendum where Mr. Hastert shares his thoughts on the death of Ronald Reagan. This is neither a deeply philosophical tome nor a tell-all book to settle scores. It is a simple story of a life that is interesting and easy to read. There will be other histories written that will be more comprehensive. However, we should not dismiss what is happening in our present. It is always good to pay attention so that as the present fades into the past we have a better context for what really happened than the more artificial context dreamed up by historians who were never there or who carefully set up the lighting on the set of facts they present to better support their own agenda. Good book, good read, good insight into what is going on in Washington today.

Quite a book

The position of Speaker if the House of Representatives is an interesting one. It's a position very close to the top of the American Political System (Third in line to be the President). But it's not a position on which the country votes. Instead, some state selects a Congressman, and the Congress selects its leader. And generally speaking most of us who live outside his home state have never heard of the man. Such was the case when Denny Hastert was given the position. And unlike some of his predecessors, he has not become a nationally known, or perhaps reknown is a better word, figure. In this book, he talks about how he got to where he is: sixteen years as a government and history teacher at the high school in Yorkville, Illinois. In addition he coached football and wrestling, and sometimes drove the school bus. He writes that the best training to become speaker of the house is to drive a school bus. "You're got to (1) keep the bus on the road, (2) keep your eye on the kids in the rear-view mirror, and (3) watch your back." As he says, "Hearding cats." The toughest job: "teaching sixteen-year-old kids the basics of economics" was his original answer, now he says: "Teaching economics to some Members of Congress." This book reads like a novel. It's too easy to say to yourself, "I'll read one more page before turning out the light." It leaves you with a better understanding that Congress is just people. People who have different ideas perhaps, but who have to work together to get anything done. It's quite a book.

Dignity Speaks

I have an autographed copy of this book--Speaker Hastert signed it for me in a Kansas bookstore. As the Speaker is next in line after the Vice President to be President if--God forbid--something should happen to the President or Vice President, Speaker Hastert holds the third highest position in the federal government. I want to personally thank Jack DeWolfe and the others in the Speaker's security detail for letting us have time to talk. Speaker Hastert and I grew up a short ride from each other (two of my cousins grew up just minutes from his childhood home). We were both wrestlers at one time in school. But, those are not the reasons why I like him so much. Congressman Hastert is, unlike many of his peers, a man of integrity. He's also got a great deal of common sense and no delusions about himself. You can't help but respect him, and I would respect him if he were still working on a feed truck in a small Illinois town rather than holding the third highest position on Capitol Hill. He is that kind of man. Talking to "Denny" (as he prefers to be called), you understand a few important things about the man: *He's humble. *He knows what he believes and why. *He does not make excuses. So, what about this book? Well, it's a very hard book to put down. You find yourself glancing at the clock and saying, "OK, just one more page." Denny is candid and honest. Unlike Bill Clinton, he did not write a bloated, self-aggrandizing tome of excuses for failure and try to make it sound like success. Instead, he speaks from the heart and engages you. Oddly, though the book is about him, it isn't about him. And neither is the way he's conducted himself in public office. He did not write an advertisement for the Republican Party or try to lay a foundation for a future Presidential bid. Instead, he gives credit where credit is due (regardless of party). He also tells you some of the negative--but he does so in a civil, calm, dignified way. He does not resort to name-calling or histrionics. He lays out the facts and lets you be the judge. As a reader, I like that. He did not write an embarrassing book like Al Gore's "Earth in the Balance." This is not a book that the author will later wish he could get people not to read. It is a book that he can be proud of, and it's one that will probably be read and recommended decades after he's gone. Denny starts out by telling us where he came from. No silver spoons in his background. He knows the value of work, and he knows nothing is free--which explains his political philosophies. His entering politics was almost accidental, as was his rise to Speaker. He had no aspirations or grand plan to get there. Things just kind of turned out that way, and he took the opportunities as they came along. Which turned out to be very, very good for the rest of us. The book provides a fascinating view into the inner workings of government at the state and federal levels. In this book, you'll find information you won't find in the b

Comes across as a real person, not just a politician

Denny Hastert is not a name most people would recognize in the world of politics. And he says that's the way he likes it. We had a chance to meet Speaker Hastert at the Reagan Library, and though we didn't get a chance to speak, he was extremely cordial. His book is a quick read--despite its 300 pages, I read it in just two nights--and his story is worthwhile. I appreciate the fact that he has not forgotten his roots, and I was amazed that his wife continued her teaching career despite her husband's rise to power. The Speaker's remembrance of his teaching and coaching career--he even mentions his wrestling team's state championship in 1976 on the book's dedication page--make it clear that politics was not what he ever intended to make a career in. In fact, this was a man who not only coached and taught but drove a school bus, for Pete's sake! As a private school educator myself, I felt a special kinship to him; now that I know him better, I feel I will better understand the situation he faces in the dog-eat-dog political world of Washington, D.C. One final comment. If nothing else, this book confirmed to me that our national political system is filled with holes, especially in the colloboration between the two main parties. The tricks played by the parties--and I have to say, most of the blame appears to lie at the feet of the Democrats--just to make the other side look bad is, in reality, bad for America. What can we do? Vote those who are the rascals out and get some work done. Let's cooperate, people, and quit with the individual agendas that single out special interests.

Did you know he almost became President!?!?

This was a fantastically fast read. I really enjoy learning about Washington and politics and Denny Hastert seems to be your every day kind of guy who has inside access to real power in Washington. His September 11 story is worth the price of the book alone but the story about how an average school teacher turned Speaker of the U.S. House almost became President of the United States is unreal. HOW COME NO ONE KNEW THIS?!!?! Amazing. Gotta read this one.