that would be dennis hastert. we talked before about how he had this amazing increase in his net worthwhile he was speaker of the house. one way in which he did it was the land deal. in 2004 he bought a total of 333 acres in rural illinois. four months after he made that final purchase, he put in an earmark for $207 million to build something called the prairie parkway. well, what it did was make the land that he purchased not out in the middle of nowhere anymore, because the road was going to run right by the property he had purchased only three or four months later. and what was he able to do? in less than a year, he was able to sell that land at more than twice what he paid for it. his net gain was about $2 million off of that one real estate transaction. well, how can it be? this can't be ethical, this can't be legal. actually, by the standards of washington, d.c. it is. there's nothing illegal about it, and as far as the ethics committees are concerned, the ethics committees having an amazingly low bar when i

the speaker of the house was dennis hastert from illinois. dennis hastert when he became speaker in the late 1990s had a network around $300,000. when he left a speaker less than a decade later, it was in the millions and could potentially have been $11 million. he didn't inherit money, didn't win the lotto. it's a function of him leveraging his position in order to enrich itself. those are two individuals with multiple others i talk about in the book. any people from political parties in this information comes from the public financial disclosures and comparing their dvds with what they are working on this legislation, what as they might have to sensitive information. so how does this work? how is it elected officials are able to reference their position and make money? the first example i would care for the ipo, which i would consider simply a form of sleekly let me just give you an example of this. let's say john is in the united states senate and i come into his office and i need a favor and i say john, i need a favor. here's a shoebox at

way, and the helicopters were together, and we went around to the front, and tom spoke, and dennis h hastert spoke, and then when we could look down and literally see the pentagon on fire. another example and -- well, the anthrax issue. after that happened, you can't imagine how that affected you, too. you had staff people who were exposed to it, and it was tom's office and pat leahy's office and we ended up meeting together, republicans and democrats in the dining room in the capitol talking about the threat and what that meant, and how to deal with it, and everything. there was, you know, a guarantee you there was no partisanship, and we were trying to figure out what to do with the situation. the other one that is a little lighter and one of my favorite ones is that i called tom after christmas after the house voted for impeachment and i was sick to my stomach of what we might have to go through and i did nont how not know how to do it, because it had not been done. i said, we have a problem. we have to figure out what to do with this. and we asked joe lieberman and slade gordon to get to

former democratic congressman martin frost from texas and former communications director to dennis hastertjoining us. >> thank you. >> heather: what do the numbers mean for rick santorum's campaign? does he have what it takes to go the distance, congressman frost, i will start with you. also, we have to add in, the straw poll that happened. the cpac straw poll. santorum coming in second there today. >> you can't really tell. first of all, the cpac was 62% of the people wanted somebody other than romney. in terms of santorum, he's got the same problem that gingrich had and that he has a thinly funded campaign. we'll see how he does. the interesting thing is he may well emerge as the clear alternative to romney because gingrich is coming over as just a bitter old guy. now, the problem with santorum is he has extreme views and when people start focusing on them, he may not look so good. there was an interview where he was asked what would happen if his daughter were raped, he said he would counsel his daughter to keep the child, not to get an abortion. i don't think very many parents would ta

my wife made denny hastert come in one to prove to him a grown man, particularly one my size or his -- a grown man could not turn around in the bathroom of a fema trailer with the door closed. so we needed a new housing crew. our job was to make people feel like if i go home, biloxi is going to be normal again, or better than it was. that's all these people needed was some hope. >> last question. what are the outers of a brokered g.o.p. convention and what would it be like? >> of course, the odds are enormously against it. but the fact it's even in our conversation is unusual. i was at the last contested republican convention in 1976. but it was a convention where there were only two candidates, and neither reagan nor ford had the votes when we got there. they were within 100. this would be different. if we have a contested convention this time -- and i think, we republicans would rather it be called a contested convention than a brokered convention. no offense. but i we have a contested convention this time it won't be two people. it will be three or four, possibly, and depending on

my wife made denny hastert come in one to prove to him a grown man, particularly one my size or his -- a grown man could not turn around in the bathroom of a fema trailer with the door closed. so we needed a new housing crew. our job was to make people feel like if i go home, biloxi is going to be normal again, or better than it was. that's all these people needed was some hope. >> last question. what are the outers of a brokered g.o.p. convention and what would it be like? >> of course, the odds are enormously against it. but the fact it's even in our conversation is unusual. i was at the last contested republican convention in 1976. but it was a convention where there were only two candidates, and neither reagan nor ford had the votes when we got there. they were within 100. this would be different. if we have a contested convention this time -- and i think, we republicans would rather it be called a contested convention than a brokered convention. no offense. but i we have a contested convention this time it won't be two people. it will be three or four, possibly, and depending on