NO SPEEDY EXIT: Dennis Hastert, the wrestling coach who went to the House and got drafted into a Potemkin Speakership by Tom DeLay, would like nothing more than to quit Congress and make big bucks as a lobbyist. Unfortunately, Barack Obama stands in his way. Hastert, who knew he was in over his head as a backbench Congressman, never wanted to be Speaker. He was forced to take the top job by DeLay in the late '90s. DeLay wanted to run the House but knew he was too unappealing to be the face of the Republican majority. So he tapped a loyal lieutenant, Hastert, as his frontman.

Now DeLay is gone--potentially to jail. And Hastert is synonymous with failure, having mismanaged the concession so badly his party has little chance of retaking control of the House for as long as memories of the DeLay/Hastert days linger. In fact, a flurry of recent resignations by senior Republicans threaten to set the GOP even further back in 2008. So Hastert's not seeking a new term. And he would like to quit before this one ends--a move that would speed up the process of attracting lucrative lobbying contracts. But that's where his Obama problem comes in. If Hastert quits now, Illinois would likely hold a special election to fill his seat February 5. That's the day Obama will be competing in Illinois's presidential primary. A big Democratic turnout for Obama in Hastert's district could flip the seat out of GOP hands. So a frustrated Hastert must go through the motions of serving the people for a few more months.   JOHN NICHOLS

AS CALI BURNS: With wildfires engulfing Southern California, Senator Barbara Boxer notes, "Right now, we are down 50 percent in terms of our National Guard equipment, because they're all in Iraq." Lt. Gov. John Garamendi echoes her plea: "What we really need are those firefighters, we need the equipment. We need, frankly, we need our troops back from Iraq."

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