National Review's York uncritically noted Hastert's claim that House Republicans "asked [Foley] to resign," without mentioning Hastert's contrary statement the day before

Summary: In a weblog entry at National Review Online's The Corner, Byron York uncritically noted House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's claim that "[w]e took care of [former Rep. Mark] Foley" and that "[w]e ... asked him to resign." But York did not mention an apparently inconsistent statement Hastert made during a press conference the previous day, in which Hastert stated: "I think Foley resigned almost immediately upon the outbreak of this information, and so we really didn't have a chance to ask him to resign."

In an October 3 entry on the National Review Online's weblog The Corner, National Review White House correspondent Byron York uncritically noted that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), while discussing the scandal surrounding former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) during the October 3 broadcast of the nationally syndicated The Rush Limbaugh Show, claimed that "[w]e took care of Mr. Foley" and that "[w]e ... asked him to resign." But York did not mention that, when asked in a press conference the previous day "whether the leadership asked Foley to resign," Hastert responded: "I think Foley resigned almost immediately upon the outbreak of this information, and so we really didn't have a chance to ask him to resign."

ABC's Lisa Chinn noted the contradiction on the network's Political Radar blog in an October 3 post titled "Flip-Flopping Denny?"

From the October 3 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Now, the -- I guess the big news is The Washington Times' admittedly conservative editorial page has asked for you to step down and resign, and you have said you're not going to do that. Correct?

HASTERT: Well, yeah. I'm not going to do that. What we've tried to do is -- focused on this Foley thing is -- do the right thing. We had two mess --- there were two pieces of paper out there, one that we knew about and we acted on; one that happened in 2003 we didn't know about, but somebody had it, and, you know, they're trying -- and they drop it the last day of the session, you know, before we adjourn on an election year. Now, we took care of Mr. Foley. We found out about it, asked him to resign. He did resign. He's gone. We asked for an investigation. We've done that. We're trying to build better protections for these page programs. But, you know, this is a political issue in itself, too. And what we've tried to do as the Republican Party is make a better economy, protect this country against terrorism. And we've worked at it ever since 9-11, worked with the president on it. And there are some people that try to tear us down. We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me, it looks like they could affect our election as well.

From the October 2 press conference:

Q: Could you clarify, sir, whether the leadership asked Foley to resign and also I believe you did go -- you left on Friday. Did you have an event in your district?

HASTERT: I think Foley resigned almost immediately upon the outbreak of this information, and so we really didn't have a chance to ask him to resign, and I left at the very end of the session, almost, before the very last vote.

—R.C.