COACH HASTERT FUMBLES THE BALL, DEMANDS SPORTS METAPHORS

In your Chicago Sun-Times, Lynn Sweet takes a look at Denny Hastert's failure to get House Republicans to execute as a team in the wake of Tom DeLay's criminal indictment:

The coach had some trouble executing his plays. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) did have a game plan in place to provide for a leadership transition once Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was indicted Wednesday and forced to step down as majority leader.

It's just that he was blocked by a powerful group of conservative members -- and House Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who told Hastert in a personal appeal he did not want to be eclipsed, even temporarily, by a placeholder who would take DeLay's job.

Hastert apparently did not anticipate that talks from his team with Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) about filling the void created by DeLay's indictment would provoke a backlash. ***

"Yesterday was the toughest day in Denny Hastert's leadership," said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), "because of what happened to his friend Tom DeLay."

One can only presume that Coach Hastert will focus on fundamentals, take it one game at a time and give it 110%.