Posts tagged ‘Dennis Hastert’

Guethle’s Glass House

by , posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2018 at 2:01 pm

As we are approaching this primary – one that most people agree is leading up to an historic wave election – I want to spend some time thinking about what it means to build the Democratic Party locally, how to recruit candidates, how to increase involvement, how to actually get and keep people enthused and engaged and out there going door to door, and perhaps most importantly, how to build a bench. I want to talk about how Kane County Democratic Chairman Mark Guethle is doing that job.

And I want to start by taking a tour of the career of a local Republican. Bear with me, and I think you will find the trip illuminating.
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47 Plus Coalition: Federal Government Withdraws Prairie Parkway Approval, Ending Federal Funding for the Highway Project

by , posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2012 at 1:18 pm

from a 47 Plus Coalition press releaase

The federal government has rescinded its approval of the proposed Prairie Parkway which would connect I-80 and I-88 in Kane, Kendall, and Grundy counties under an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by opponents of the highway project.

The action eliminates federal funding for the project, and the Illinois Department of Transportation will now shift federal funds previously allocated to the Prairie Parkway to improvements to Illinois 47 and US 34.

After an 11-year fight, we have finally scuttled this highway which would have destroyed thousands of acres of prime farmland, threatened the Fox River and its tributaries, and forever changed the area’s small community way of life,” said Jan Strasma, Chairman, Citizens Against the Sprawlway (CATS), the grassroots organization long opposing the highway.

Note: The Prairie Parkway opponents will celebrate the end of the project at the 11th Annual “Stop the Beltway’ Picnic which begins at 4 pm Sunday at the Marvel Davis farm, 47W066 Jericho Rd, near Big Rock, about 5 miles west of Illinois 47.

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Things Rich Miller Pretends to Know About-Part 1

by , posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 1:46 am

I was a bit fascinated by Illinois Media Progressives posting of this item on their blog, now cross-posted here on Progressive Fox. I can’t say I disagree with anything in the post, but I can say this: It doesn’t go far enough.

I know the author of the post, in fact in the interest of my own full disclosure I’ll point out that I first met the author when we were both working on John Laesch’s 2008 primary campaign, which is when he also first met John Laesch. My acquaintance with Laesch goes a bit farther back – to the 2006 campaign. Which is part of the reason I think the post does not go far enough: the author of it was not in the room when Rich Miller’s favorite Republican 18 second John Laesch YouTube sound-bite was taped. I was.

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Ethan Hastert officially in: IL-14 officially over

by , posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 7:45 pm

The Kane County Chronicle is reporting that Ethan Hastert has officially declared he will run for the IL-14 congressional seat formerly held by daddy Denny.

Meh – no surer way of ensuring Foster hangs on to the seat, imho.

Anyone who was paying any attention at all knows that Foster outpolled Obama in Kane County (which contains about 50% of all voters in IL-14) in ’08 – and anyone who is local knows damned well why that happened: Lauzen supporters voting for Foster as a means of getting even with the powers-that-be who got behind Oberweis and managed to leverage the nomination for him.

Which makes 2010 a repeat-in-the-making, because Lauzen will be Lauzen, will be Lauzen, ad nauseum: he’s so scary that moderates will vote for Foster (or whatever alternative is on the ballot) if Lauzen does get the nom, and his supporters are so violently pro-Chris, they will likewise vote for whatever alternative there may be to the Repub who beat Chris out for the nomination – exactly as they did in ’08.

Only way out of the spoiler-Lauzen scenario for local Repubs is if they can get Lauzen to throw his support behind someone like Ethan Hastert. And anyone who has followed Lauzen’s career knows there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.

So the Dem on the ballot in IL-14 in 2010 is elected by default: barring Lauzen getting struck by lightning or a random meteorite, it’s already done.

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Another Blow to Dennis Hastert’s Highway

by , posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 9:40 am

Last night, May 11, 2009, Alderman Bob Hausler was sworn in as the new Mayor of Plano.

It was an exciting night for progressives, union members and environmentalists — Bob Hausler is all of the above. The retired UAW Local 145 member

is well known for taking his retirement in stride by enjoying the outdoors at Silver Springs State Park with a fishing rod in his hands. He successfully ran for Alderman in 2007 and became the popular voice of the people almost instantaneously. A year into his first term as Alderman, Bob became the voice of opposition to a proposed waste transfer station in Plano and we all knew that Plano would soon have a new Mayor.

Bob fought off two strong opponents with a steady, consistent door-to-door campaign and became the Mayor-elect on April 7th. Much more could be written about the shy, grassroots Mayor of Plano and the many activists who helped get him into the winners circle, but I want to get to the good stuff.

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Ethan Hastert officially “exploring”

by , posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 9:06 pm

Laesch had it first, but the Daily Herald is now reporting that Ethan Hastert is exploring a run in IL-14.

Lovely. We can now look forward to a run by a guy whose two greatest claims to fame are:
a.) being the son of the Speaker-from-hell who presided over the gutting of the checks and balances that we should expect from the People’s House in order to serve instead as the Cheerleader in Chief for a criminal administration
b.) working for the only person, Scooter Libby, actually convicted from that administration

Just charming.

UPDATE (already)
Andre Salles at the Beacon has it here.

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Another Hastert for Congress Effort?

by , posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 8:06 am

Last evening on my drive home from work, I received a call from a campaign supporter by the name of Ben. He was calling to tell me that he had received a polling call yesterday.

Ben, who lives in Illinois’ 14th Congressional District, did not know who conducted the poll, but he recognized that the polling questions were framed by the Republican Party. Issue questions framed Obama’s agenda in a negative light and focused on tax cuts. It always amazes me that the Republicans have not figured out the fact that their tried and true message of the past, “tax cuts will save America,” is not working.

The interesting part of the poll was the question about Dennis Hastert.

“If the election were held today, would you vote for Dennis Hastert or Bill Foster.”

The next question was similar.

“If the election were held today, would you vote for Ethan Hastert or Bill Foster.”

Speculate away.

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IL-14: Capitulation, “With Biometrics if Necessary”

by , posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 10:03 am

Originally posted at Fireside 14, Open Left, MyDD and Daily Kos.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I was in a public place, right here in St. Charles, Illinois, when I overheard a conversation that alarmed, but failed to surprise, me. The person doing most of the talking was talking complaining bitterly about her new job in an area public elementary school. Not a St. Charles school and not an educator. She’s a peripheral professional who has frequent contact with children however, and that’s bad enough.

Her major complaint? “All these Hispanic children.”

According to her, not only are “all these Hispanic children” unable to communicate, they are “aggressive and obnoxiously rude –
especially the girls.” I was supposed to be paying attention to what the person in front of me was saying and lost some of the conversation I was overhearing, but suspect her companion must have voiced some objections, because she started trying to explain herself dig herself in deeper.

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Today I am a Healthcare Voter: a personal rant

by , posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 4:33 pm

Originally posted at Daily Kos.

In case anyone is unaware, I want to state for the record that I worked for the Laesch for Congress campaign in ’06, I work for it now, I will work for it in future. But this diary is a personal story, not vetted by the campaign, although also an explanation of why, in fact, I started working for the election of John Laesch as my congressperson in the first place, why I’m probably going to drop in an ActBlue link in the end anyway, as well as why I am, oh, pissed off at the world today.  Again.

Today Kate’s life is in danger.  Again.

Kate is my late-twenty-something youngest daughter.  She is herself the mother of two, my only grandchildren.  Kate is smart, witty, charming, creative, funny, willful, stubborn, disorganized, proud, courageous, kind, and a free-spirit if ever there was one.  I mention these things because, like most people with a chronic illness, she hates being defined by it so I don’t want it to be the only thing I say about her here, but Kate has Type I Diabetes.

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Denny’s Double Dealing: Hastert and the Gaming Industry. Part 3 of 3

by , posted on Saturday, November 4th, 2006 at 9:05 am

Originally posted at Fireside 14 and Daily Kos.

AMERICAN VALUES

When Republicans first began pushing internet gambling prohibition about ten years ago, it was a fairly straightforward proposition. As the titles of the legislation would indicate — Computer Gambling Prevention Act of 1996, Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 1997 — these were anti-gambling measures, no doubt about it. And the National Gambling Impact Study Commission report recommendations regarding internet gambling, released in June 1999, called for prohibition “without allowing new exemptions or the expansion of existing federal exemptions to other jurisdictions.”

But there was a problem with this approach. The bills never made it to the floor for a vote. Too many Members had gaming interests in their districts that would be harmed by the legislation. So, in order to sweeten the deal, loopholes began to show up in these bills. So many loopholes, in fact, that House Resources Committee Chairman Don Young wrote to Hastert to complain.

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