House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., told a leading conservative Wednesday that he would resign as the top congressional leader if it would help the Republican Party stave off defeat in November.

But conservative activist Paul Weyrich said Hastert has rejected calls for his resignation because he believes it would prompt "a feeding frenzy" that ultimately would lead to the downfall of other GOP leaders as well.

"He said if he thought that resigning would be helpful to the Republicans maintaining the majority, he would do it. But he did not think it would be helpful for Republicans," Weyrich said in an interview after holding what he described as an emotional telephone conversation with Hastert, who is home in Illinois campaigning and trying to deal with the fallout from the Mark Foley scandal.

"He said he thought his resignation would just lead to a feeding frenzy where they would go after (Majority Leader John A.) Boehner, then (Rep. Thomas M.) Reynolds, then (Rep. John) Shimkus," Weyrich added. "And he said we would have the story running right up to the election."

Weyrich, who was one of the first to publicly call for the Speaker's head, said the conversation has led him to retract his day-old demand that Hastert resign.

"I changed my mind after talking to the Speaker," Weyrich said. "I feel now that he ought to be given the benefit of the doubt. He has never, ever lied to me or dissembled. I regard him as one of the good people up there."

Weyrich, a bridge to conservative constituents, said Hastert expressed anger at Boehner, R-Ohio, who has maintained that he warned the Speaker about Foley last spring.

"The Speaker was ticked by that one involving Boehner," Weyrich said. "Boehner threw it in his lap, and said he warned him. The Speaker said no such warning ever came from Boehner."

The conversation with Weyrich appeared to be part of a Hastert offensive aimed putting an end to calls for an immediate resignation over his handling of the scandal. But there is still increasing talk of Republican leadership challenges after the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

Such a shake-up is virtually assured if Democrats gain control of the House, but Hastert could step down even if Republicans hang on.

As lawmakers, lobbyists and pollsters probed the impact of the Foley case on the elections and the future makeup of the GOP leadership, the Justice Department ordered House officials to "preserve all records" related to Foley's electronic correspondence with teen-age congressional pages and former pages.

Hastert Stands Pat

Hastert appears to have dug in against calls for his resignation, at least in the short term.

In an interview Tuesday with radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Hastert said he has no intention of resigning and said calls for his ouster are clearly tied to the elections.

"I'm not going to do that," Hastert said when asked about demands for his head. "This a political issue . . . and there are some people that try to tear us down. We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well," he said.

Social conservatives have been the most vocal critics of Hastert's handling of the Foley case. But two prominent House conservatives said Wednesday that he should not resign.

Republican Study Committee Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana and Pennsylvanian Joe Pitts, chairman of the Values Action Team, said: "Regardless of our reservations about how this matter was handled administratively, we believe Speaker Hastert is a man of integrity who has led our conference honorably and effectively throughout the past eight years. Speaker Dennis Hastert should not resign."

Another conservative, Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said calls for Hastert's resignation "are misguided, based on the facts as I know them. I believe in my heart that neither the Speaker nor any of my colleagues realized the content of Mr. Foley's instant messages prior to their release by ABC news last week. Speaker Hastert is a man of integrity, and I take him at his word."

Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, said Wednesday that he saw no reason for Hastert to resign "unless there was a systematic coverup."

But he said the leadership's handling of the Foley scandal could become "a pretext or excuse, if Republicans stay in power, to push for change in the leadership."

Creating Space

Next in line behind Hastert is Boehner, who has provided only fuzzy public accounts of what he knew and when about e-mails sent by Foley to underage former congressional pages.

Boehner on Tuesday both defended Hastert in a letter to the Washington Times after the Times called for Hastert's resignation in its lead editorial and publicly distanced himself from the Speaker in an interview with a Cincinnati radio station.

In the radio interview, Boehner said: "I believe I talked to the Speaker and he told me it had been taken care of. And, and, and my position is it's in his corner, it's his responsibility. The Clerk of the House who runs the page program, the Page Board — all report to the Speaker. And I believe it had been dealt with."

On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the No. 3 man in the leadership, said he would have handled it differently if he had known about it. Blunt was the acting majority leader when the Foley e-mail to an underage Louisiana former page first came to the attention of GOP leaders.

"I think I could have given some good advice here, which is you have to be curious, you have to ask all the questions you can think of," Blunt said. "You absolutely can't decide not to look into activities because one individual's parents don't want you to."

House GOP leadership aides said there appears to be no move among members to oust Hastert or Boehner.

"Everything we've heard from the members individually has been generally positive, and there has been a lot of support for the Speaker and the leaders," one Republican leadership aide said. "Obviously members have concerns about the specifics of what they've heard, but in general we've gotten a lot of support. The problem is, there is no control over what happens next, whether another hammer could drop or some other lurid detail comes out. There is no control over that."

Another House GOP aide said Wednesday, "If the Speaker were to step down, or not run again . . . the next guy is going to have to be squeaky clean, which is why you see Boehner putting some daylight between him and the Speaker."

A slate of challengers for other leadership positions could develop quickly. Republicans will meet the week after Election Day to choose their leaders for the 110th Congress.

Mike Rogers, R-Mich., is reportedly considering running against Blunt. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Jack Kingston, R-Ga., are both reportedly weighing a bid for GOP Conference chairman — a position occupied by Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, who is locked in a difficult re-election contest back home.

Other races are possible on the bottom rungs of the ladder.

Latest Polls

Polls conducted in the wake of Foley's Sept. 29 resignation offered a somewhat mixed picture but no good news for Republicans. A CNN poll taken Sept. 29-Oct. 2 and released Tuesday, found 57 percent of those queried still believe their own member of Congress deserves re-election; 33 percent disagreed, while 10 percent had no opinion. Only 38 percent of those surveyed said most GOP incumbents should be re-elected, while 53 percent said most Democrats in Congress deserve re-election.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted last weekend and released Tuesday night showed 41 percent of those surveyed said news they "have seen and heard over the past few weeks" has made them less favorable toward continued Republican control of Congress; 18 percent disagreed. By 34-23 percent, respondents said they were more favorably inclined toward Democratic control.

At a more partisan level, Democratic operatives Stan Greenberg and James Carville said a new survey for Democracy Corps, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, shows a "crash in the standing of the Republican Congress."

Their survey, they said, shows "Democrats have made significant gains on the Republicans on the issues of Iraq, national security, and on values. The survey also finds a demoralization of Republicans with a widening gap in enthusiasm between Republican and Democratic voters heading into the November elections."

Manu Raju, Martin Kady II and Susan Ferrechio contributed to this story.

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