J Dennis Hastert

Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, the former Republican House speaker, will not seek reelection, ending his two-decade career in Congress, according to a congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Hastert, an Illinois Republican, has a news conference scheduled Friday.

Rep. J. Dennis Hastert on Thursday said he had felt like a "prisoner" of his office as House speaker, unable to enjoy the camaraderie of his fellow lawmakers. As Hastert prepares to formally announce today his decision not to seek reelection to the Illinois seat he first won in 1986, he reflected on a political career in which he became the longest-serving Republican speaker.

Former Republican House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, 65, of Illinois plans to resign his House seat later this year, according to the Roll Call newspaper in Washington. Hastert, who had already announced he would not seek re-election in 2008, was calling friends and associates to tell them of his decision, the paper reported. His early departure would create the need for a special election in his exurban Chicago district, possibly on Illinois' Feb. 5 presidential primary day.

Delivering his farewell address to Congress, former House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert on Thursday bemoaned the "pool of bitterness" he believes exists in the nation's capital and urged his colleagues to try to work together after he is gone. "I continue to worry about the breakdown of civility in our political discourse," Hastert (R-Ill.) told lawmakers. "When I addressed this chamber for the first time as your speaker, I noted that solutions to problems cannot be found in a pool of bitterness.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is trying to force out Ohio Rep. Bob Ney as chairman of the House Administration Committee, a week after Justice Department documents linked Ney to a bribery scheme involving convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

One of three Republicans vying to replace Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) as House majority leader offered rare public criticism Tuesday of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), saying he disagreed with key elements of Hastert's plan to overhaul the chamber's ethics rules. Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) questioned Hastert's call for a ban on travel by House members and their staffs paid for by private groups, indicating he considered such a proposal "childish."

Forgive House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) for seeming a bit paranoid. With grand juries convened around the country and hundreds of FBI agents on the case, Congress has become the focal point of the most aggressive investigations into federal corruption in decades. One investigation has led to an eight-year prison sentence for former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a Republican from Rancho Santa Fe. And a bribery probe targeting Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.

When House Republican leaders gathered for a news conference on the steps of the Capitol last week, it was supposed to be a Memorial Day salute to veterans. But the event quickly deteriorated as reporters crowded around a beleaguered House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). They shouted questions about whether he was under investigation as part of a lobbying scandal and whether he would sue the television network that had reported he was.

With Republicans angrily splintered and facing a perilous fall election, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert will make a little history today as he becomes the longest-serving Republican speaker. Hastert, with nearly 7 1/2 years in the leadership post, will oust another Illinoisan from the record books: former Rep. Joseph Cannon, whose seven-year, five-month tenure ended in 1911.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert was hospitalized for treatment of a bacterial skin infection. Hastert (R-Ill.), 64, was expected to be treated with intravenous antibiotics at Bethesda Naval Hospital through the weekend, according to his spokesman Ron Bonjean.