Hastert Under Investigation! Oops, Never Mind.

In what had to be one of the shortest scandals in recent history, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert went from complaining about a search warrent, to being under investigation in the Abramoff bribery scandal, and back again in the space of a few short hours.

At about 7pm, Reuter's reported the following:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the
FBI, which is probing corruption in Congress, ABC News reported on Wednesday.

ABC, citing high level Justice Department sources, said information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

But, in what has been a continuing rash of misfortune for Brian Williams and ABC, about an hour later Reuters had a New Report:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Justice Department official denied a report on Wednesday that the speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI in connection with a corruption probe
...
But a Justice Department official told Reuters: "The story is wrong. Hastert is not under investigation."

Somewhere in the blogosphere, someone is already writing about the latest Rove Dirty Trick that somehow made an investigation disappear before it even got started.

Oddly, some conservatives were happy to hear of Hastert's misfortune, simply because they were upset with him over his trampling on what should have been a "republican" moment, the revelations of pending charges against another democratic congressman.

Which just shows that the internet is repleat with people who have too much time, and too little sense.