What Hastert Really Said

Excerpt from the Aug. 31 conversation between Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and the editorial board of the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill., a suburban Chicago paper. Reprinted by permission.

Speaker Hastert: "This is the largest disaster, natural disaster, we have ever had. I can just tell from what happened on 9-11 we spent nine weeks in my office working out all the problems so that we could solve these problems. I am sure the next 10 weeks or whatever in Washington (will be) consumed trying to get New Orleans back and Biloxi, Miss., that's been wiped of the map literally, and Pass Christian and on and on and down the line. This is a huge disaster. … When you talk about the oil issues you begin to see the tip of that iceberg. We don't know what else, the repercussions there are yet. "

Chris Bailey: Does it make sense to spend billions and billions and billions of dollars rebuilding a city-

Hastert: "That's seven feet under the sea level. I don't know. That doesn't make sense to me."

Bailey: Is that a question that anyone will ask or can we not even ask that?

Hastert: "I think it's a question that certainly we should ask. And, you know, it looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."

Bailey: Awful.

Hastert: Yeah, it's just terrible. First of all, your heart goes out to the people, the loss of their homes. Anybody. But there is some real tough questions to ask. How do you go about rebuilding this city. What precautions do you take. When the electricity goes out and everything else goes out ... you don't have the pumps to pump it out either. Because it doesn't work either."

Patrick Waldron: Of course that's an unprecedented question by itself. What will it take to rebuild this city. Should we rebuild this city? Would you agree that will be part of the Congressional debate?

Hastert: I think it should be. Of course, the folks from New Orleans will have their own opinion on it—we are going to rebuild this city. We help replace, we help relieve disaster. That is certainly the decision the people of New Orleans are going to make. But I think federal insurance and everything goes along with it. We ought to take a second look at it. But you know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures and they rebuild, too. Stubbornness.