Stephen Tryon: Explaining the behavior of some members of Congress

Nine years ago the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, was being blackmailed.A federal judge labelled Hastert a “serial child molester” during his sentencing hearing in 2015. In April 2016, Hastert admitted in court to sexually abusing several boys while he worked as a high school wrestling coach in the 1960s and 1970s. Hastert, who served as speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007, paid $1.7 million to one of his victims, and violated federal law while do