WASHINGTON — Dennis Hastert’s former House colleagues said the emergence of sexual abuse allegations against him has been jarring, at odds with a reason they anointed him speaker in the late 1990s — his squeaky-clean reputation.

Former Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., a top GOP vote-counter when Hastert rose from obscurity during a chaotic December 1998, said Friday that Republicans turned to him partly because “there wasn’t any inkling of anything” hidden in his past.

“We’ve got to do something quick,” Kingston recalled top Republicans saying as they frantically sought a new leader after an election setback and the impeachment of President Bill Clinton following his affair with Monica Lewinsky. “We can’t have division. We have to have somebody who can stand the scrutiny and move on.”

Another Hastert contemporary, former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., agreed there were no hints of problems for the Illinois Republican. He said during the frenzy of Clinton’s impeachment and the GOP scramble to replace Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., they did no research to make sure Hastert wasn’t hiding anything.

In a situation like that, “there’s no time for internal vetting,” said Davis, who was part of the GOP leadership. “In the way he conducted his office, he never got close to the line ethically on anything.”