This article in Slate points out an incredibly stupid remark by our current Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert. It happened on Fox News Sunday, and the story has apparently begun to pick up steam.

Anyway, he basically accused George Soros, billionaire and Democratic benefactor, of being in cahoots with drug lords:

HASTERT: Here in this campaign, quote, unquote, "reform," you take party power away from the party, you take the philosophical ideas away from the party, and give them to these independent groups.

You know, I don't know where George Soros gets his money. I don't know where—if it comes overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from. And I—

WALLACE (interrupting): Excuse me?

HASTERT: Well, that's what he's been for a number years—George Soros has been for legalizing drugs in this country. So, I mean, he's got a lot of ancillary interests out there.

WALLACE: You think he may be getting money from the drug cartel?

HASTERT: I'm saying I don't know where groups—could be people who support this type of thing. I'm saying we don't know. The fact is we don't know where this money comes from.

Before, transparency—and what we're talking about in transparency in election reform is you know where the money comes from. You get a $25 check or a $2,500 check or $25,000 check, put it up on the Internet. You know where it comes from, and there it is.

The Slate writer then says:

I didn't see the program, but reading the transcript, it's easy to visualize Chris Wallace vaulting forward from whiplash as he says, "Excuse me?" and then asks, "You think [Soros] may be getting money from the drug cartel?"

Well, I did see the program, and Wallace did nearly jump out of his skin. Call me crazy, but I think Fox News Sunday is currently the best of the Sunday morning political shows. And anybody who saw Wallace last Sunday, or the Sunday before when he mauled the Swift Boat Vet he had on, doesn't really know what the hell they're talking about if they charge that particular show with being a Republican shill.

Anyway, yeah...Hastert came off as a nutjob, as Slate rightly points out. I don't think anybody whose mind isn't fevered thinks that Soros is on the payroll of Columbian coke lords. If Hastert is against 527 ads, just say so.

For one, I'm actually for them. I think it's up to Federal election oversight to make sure there's not a money trail; it's up to journalists to investigate the truth value of such ads; and it's up to citizens to use their heads to decide if there's any merit to them or if they're full of crap.