House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) kicked up his own storm when he said last week that “it doesn’t make sense to me” to rebuild the below-sea-level, hurricane-ravaged New Orleans without making sure the flooding does not happen again.

The uproar over Hastert’s words was not a naturally occurring event.

Democrats on Capitol Hill pushed the story. Ron Bonjean, Hastert’s spokesman, told me this week that he believes the Speaker has weathered the flare-up and the issue went away after a clarification was issued.

Hastert’s blunt comments did trigger a debate over the rebuilding of New Orleans.

The comments, made to the editorial board of the Daily Herald and published last Thursday in the suburban Chicago paper, at first sat with no pickup that morning.

The story gained legs only after Democrats called and e-mailed it around to reporters. Shortly after, reaction from angry Louisiana pols, all Democrats and including Gov. Kathleen Blanco, started and Bonjean’s assistants were fielding a torrent of calls. When Hastert’s office issued a clarification a few hours later, the backtracking provided material for a fresh lead for the next news cycle.

Democrats circulated Hastert’s remarks under the belief that it was exactly the wrong message Americans were looking for, and as a result Hastert — whose words rarely make news — received coverage all over the country. The Democrats thought Hastert’s words had shock value.

Hastert’s team believes the Speaker suffered no deep harm because the House swiftly passed the $10.5 billion disaster-relief package. And turning a possible negative into a positive, Hastert decided to donate the $50,000 proceeds from an auction in Indiana of a vintage car he owned to a disaster-relief fund. Hastert was in Indiana on Friday for a fundraiser to benefit Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.).

While the damage to the Speaker may be controlled, Hastert’s even raising the obvious — that much of New Orleans will have to be bulldozed — created its own bibliography. Here’s a sampling:

• Time magazine: Hastert “thought the unthinkable — out loud. … That is not, to put it mildly, what the people of New Orleans — or of most other parts of the U.S. — were expecting to hear.”

• The Advocate, Baton Rouge: Hastert “seems to be retreating from some insensitive and poorly timed comments he made about future rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. That retreat cannot come fast enough, given Hastert’s bad choice of words and equally bad judgment concerning the Crescent City’s future. Regardless of his backpedaling, we believe Hastert still owes New Orleans and Louisiana an apology. And we must ask whether he is the right person to lead the U.S. House of Representatives.”

• Paul Greenberg in the New York Sun: Hastert’s “comment has all the romance of a balance sheet, of a profit-and-loss statement, of a loan application. He keeps talkin’ like that and he’s gonna give damn yankees a bad name. What ever happened to compassionate conservatism? This isn’t even conservatism. Far from conserving one of the most distinctive cities in the Western hemisphere, the Speaker sounds ready to sprinkle salt on the ruins.”

• The Myrtle Beach, S.C., Sun News: Hastert “has taken a drubbing for saying it might not make sense to spend taxpayer money rebuilding New Orleans. … Still, Hastert’s sentiments — shared by many other observers — merit consideration.”

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it