The Peregrine Gallery
presents
DENNIS HASTERT
Sightings from The Catbird Seat
~ o ~
From DDNB:
Dennis Hastert
Before going into politics, Dennis Hastert was a restaurateur and later a high school history teacher and wrestling coach. His wrestlers at Yorkville High School won the Class A Illinois state championship in 1976. He was elected to the Illinois state legislature in 1980, and worked there until 1986, when he ran for the US House of Representatives.
As a US Congressman and a staunch Republican, Hastert has supported harsher penalties for use of illegal drugs, tax breaks for oil conglomerates, welfare cuts, the PATRIOT Act, and the invasion of Iraq. He has generally opposed gay rights, abortion unless the woman's life is in danger, and federal funding for stem cell research. He became Speaker of the House in 1999, after Newt Gingrich resigned.
In 2005, Hastert and Bill Frist quietly inserted a few lines into a Defense spending bill, now law, that effectively shields pharmaceutical companies from liability if improperly-prepared flu vaccinations lead to serious injury or death. Haster's eldest son, Joshua, is a lobbyist for Amgen, a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer, and he also works for PodestaMattoon, a public relations firm whose major clients include the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America.
Rep Hastert reportedly used an Illinois trust to invest in low-priced real estate in an undeveloped area of Illinois. Luckily for Hastert, he was then able to shepherd $207 million in earmarked appropriations for the Prairie Parkway, a highway project which includes an exit near his land, and greatly increases its value.
On September 1, 2005, as New Orleans lay underwater in the aftermath of Huricane Katrina, Hastert said that using any federal funds to rebuild the city "doesn't make sense to me." Instead, he helpfully suggested that "It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."
Hastert was intertwined in the Jack Abramoff scandals of 2006, having signed an impassioned letter ghost-written by an Abramoff co-conspirator in 2003, arguing Abramoff's position against allowing a Louisiana Indian tribe to open a casino. Hastert's political action committee, Keep Our Majority, raked in over $100,000 at a 2003 fundraiser hosted by Abramoff, then apparently failed to properly report the arrangement.
In 2006, Hastert was again at the epicenter of controversy after fellow Republican Mark Foley resigned over sending sexually explicit emails to Congressional pages. The evidence suggests that Hastert was told about Foley's inappropriate emails up to two years before the emails were publicly released, but Hastert not only made little attempt to reign in Rep Foley, he actually urged Foley to run for another term in Congress.
http://www.nndb.com/people/150/000026072/
November 3, 2000
GOVERNOR RYAN AND LT. GOVERNOR WOOD HAIL PASSAGE OF WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ACT
Federal funding secured for Illinois Rivers 2020
CHICAGO -- Governor George H. Ryan and Lieutenant Governor Corinne Wood today praised the passage of the Water Resources Development Act, providing $100 million over three years to fund Illinois Rivers 2020 program.
"I want to thank Speaker Hastert, and Congressman LaHood (R-Peoria) for their commitment to restore the Illinois River and I look forward to President Clinton signing this bill," said Governor Ryan....
Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who strongly supported Illinois Rivers 2020, said that authorization of the program "is vital to the economic and environmental health not only of Illinois, but of the entire Midwest."
The Speaker also commended the program's comprehensive approach to protecting the state's waterways and said that "the Illinois Rivers 2020 initiative demonstrates how federal and state efforts can be coordinated with private, citizen-led organizations to advance sound environmental policy."...
All 22 members of the Illinois congressional delegation, more than 65 environmental, conservation and agricultural groups and more than 350 mayors endorsed the initiative. Participating groups included the Nature Conservancy, the Illinois Farm Bureau, Prairie Rivers Network, the Illinois Department of Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency....
The Illinois Rivers 2020 initiative requires federal/state-matching funds before any restoration programs begin along the Illinois River. Lt. Gov. Wood and council partners will draft state legislation that will be introduced in the General Assembly next spring.
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Last Updated on May 25, 2007 by The Catbird