Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
A new book lays out his role in a failed S&L, and it wasn't just a youthful indiscretion.
Jun 7, 1999 | Henry Hyde is a smooth operator. The tall, pear-shaped, 13-term congressman from the wealthy and conservative western suburbs of Chicago often adopts a courtly, even self-effacing manner. With his unctuous voice, he strikes a morally earnest tone in florid speeches that strive for an air of well-reasoned statesmanship. The political press loves him. "One of the most respected and intellectually honest members of the House," gushed a representative profile in the Almanac of American Politics. Although he typically ranks among the most conservative members of Congress, even liberal Democrats have often avoided criticizing him and praise his occasional maverick votes, such as supporting the assault weapon ban or the family and medical leave act.
This carefully crafted fagade, however, is beginning to show cracks. As the House geared up to impeach President Clinton last fall under Hyde's leadership, the pious Roman Catholic defender of family values and stern opponent of abortion was embarrassed by Salon's exposure of his lengthy affair with a much younger woman while he was married and serving in the Illinois Legislature. When Hyde stridently pressed the impeachment case in the Senate, despite overwhelming public sentiment against removing the president, he appeared more right-wing sectarian scold than righteously sententious Solon.
Now two journalists are hoping to widen those cracks. In "Henry Hyde's Moral Universe: Where More Than Time and Space are Warped" (Common Courage), Dennis Bernstein and Leslie Kean offer a catalog of Hydean hypocrisy, painting a canvas of Hyde's record that is broader than most people know -- and not one bit flattering. They provide some fascinating new details to expand on Salon's account, based on the first lengthy interview with Hyde's lover. They show the man who pleaded that "lying must have consequences" defending lying by his friend and hero from the Iran-Contra scandal, Oliver North, even when it involved North's deceiving Congress and the American people about illegal executive branch actions. The fervent defender of "the rule of law" when it came to Clintonian evasions about sex was willing to take the stand to defend lawbreaking by another Hyde hero, extremist anti-abortion leader Joseph Scheidler.
This is not a full-fledged biography, but vigorous political pamphleteering from a leftist perspective. Rushed to print in three months (without enough care by the publisher to catch many annoying typos), it includes some new revelations, but it is valuable mainly for pulling together tawdry aspects of Hyde's record, many of which may be little known even if previously reported.
The most serious charge against Hyde, which Bernstein and Kean ably summarize and bring up to date, concerns his role in the costly failure of an Illinois savings and loan of which Hyde was a member of the board of directors. Hyde's S&L debacle led to federal investigations and lawsuits, and even the staunchly Republican Chicago Tribune last fall called for an investigation of how Hyde managed to avoid any legal or financial consequences for the S&L's spectacular failure.
The gist of the S&L story is this: In 1981, after stepping down from the House Banking Committee, Hyde went on the board of directors of Clyde Federal Savings and Loan, whose chairman was one of Hyde's many banking industry political contributors. Congress deregulated the savings and loan industry in 1982, and Clyde began dealing in risky financial options, participating in loans for luxury condos in Texas and buying certificates of deposit from a bank in the Cayman Islands, a financial center notorious for money laundering. Hyde was not only aware of such deals but often made or seconded motions on the board to pursue them. By 1984, when Hyde left the board, it was clear to the directors from reports they received that the institution was failing, but Hyde and others on the board continued to abuse their positions, giving improper financial rewards to insiders and even allowing the institution to overcharge the government on servicing student loans.
Get Salon in your mailbox!