LOOSE-TONGUED SPEAKER?

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert - having already enraged some New
Yorkers with his remarks about local office-holders' "unseemly scramble"
for federal money after 9/11 - yesterday opened a second front.

On "Fox News Sunday," the Illinois Republican insinuated that billionaire
financier George Soros, who's funding an independent media campaign to
dislodge President Bush, is getting his big bucks from shady sources.

"You know, I don't know where George Soros gets his money. I don't know
where - if it comes overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from,"
Hastert mused.

An astonished Chris Wallace asked: "Excuse me?"

The Speaker went on: "Well, that's what he's been for a number years -
George Soros has been for legalizing drugs in this country. So, I mean,
he's got a lot of ancillary interests out there."

Wallace: "You think he may be getting money from the drug cartel?"

Hastert: "I'm saying I don't know where groups - could be people who
support this type of thing. I'm saying we don't know."