CQ reports that former-Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is serving his last term in Congress:

After less than a year as a rank-and-file House member, former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is expected to call an end to a political career that made him the longest serving Republican Speaker in the history of the House of Representatives.

Several Illinois newspapers, including the Aurora Beacon News and the Chicago Tribune, reported Tuesday that the Illinois Republican has scheduled a Friday announcement on the steps of the Kendall County Courthouse in Yorkville, Ill. While Hastert aides are refusing to discuss what he plans to say, he is expected to announce that he will not run for a 12th term in 2008, according to Republican sources.

There will be some who'll remember Hastert mainly as ex-Majority Leader Tom DeLay's (R-TX) plaything.

But we here at TPMmuckraker prefer to remember him for his even lower moments, such as convening Republican leaders after the Mark Foley scandal broke to get their stories straight for the press. Unfortunately for Hastert, not even that ten-thumbed effort managed to keep the inconsistencies from piling up. Even the toothless ethics committee report on the scandal found that Hastert and others had "willfully" ignored Foley's interest in House pages.

Thanks for the memories!