Hastert says violation of namesake rule threatens GOP's ability to lead

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said Thursday that current Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) decision to pass the "fiscal cliff" compromise bill without a majority Republican support threatened the party's "ability to lead" on future votes.

Under the so-called "Hastert Rule," Republican Speakers of the House customarily do not allow a vote on the House floor unless a majority of the GOP majority supports a bill. Tuesday's vote on the fiscal cliff compromise deal passed the House 257-167, but Republicans voted 151-85 against.

"Here is the problem," Hastert said during an interview on the "Kilmeade and Friends" radio program. "Maybe you can do it once, maybe you can do it twice, but when start making deals when you have to get Democrats to pass the legislation, you are not in power anymore."

The former Illinois lawmaker said Boehner risked allowing Democrats in the minority — and the White House — to drive House votes by not insisting on majority Republican support.

"When you start passing stuff that your members are not in line with, all of a sudden, your ability to lead is in jeopardy because somebody else is making decisions," Hastert said. "The president is making decisions, [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi [(D-Calif.)] is making decisions, or they are making the decisions in the Senate."

Hastert also warned that Boehner risked abdicating the House's traditional and constitutional authority to dictate spending bills with the deal, which was negotiated primarily in the Senate.

"All tax bills and all spending bills under the Constitution start in the house, when you give up that responsibility you really give up your responsibility to govern, and that is the problem," Hastert said.

Hastert had previously said that on some issues, he could see allowing a Speaker violating his namesake rule, although again cautioned against doing so.

"On occasion, a particular issue might excite a majority made up mostly of the minority," Hastert told the Washington Post in 2004. "Campaign finance is a particularly good example of this phenomenon. The job of speaker is not to expedite legislation that runs counter to the wishes of the majority of his majority."

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