WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., called New York lawmakers' efforts to obtain post-Sept. 11 financial aid an "unseemly scramble" for money.
"All the tragedy was converted into dollars and cents," Hastert told the New York Post. "People kind of lost the sense of the depth of the tragedy itself."
In his newly published autobiography, "Speaker: Lessons From Forty Years of Coaching and Politics," Hastert writes after the worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in history: "We heard voices asking: 'Who's going to pay for this? How much will it cost?' The unseemly scramble for dollars had begun."
Hastert's comments come on the eve of the Republican National Convention in New York, of which he is the chairman.
In February 2002 Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels called New Yorkers' push for aid in rebuilding Ground Zero a "money-grubbing game." Bush criticized the remark, and Daniels apologized.
