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| LaHOOD: The new congressman |
Voters
in the central Illinois-based congressional district centered around Peoria (or
at least as centered as anything is in a heavily-gerrymandered political world)
were asked to pick someone to finish out the end of the term of Aaron Schock.
REMEMBER
HIM? THE wunderkid whom we once thought would be a Republican candidate for
governor, but now faces a criminal indictment in the U.S. District Court for
central Illinois!
Thursday
was the day for the special election that saw Republican Darin LaHood predictably leading Rob Mellon, a Democrat, in a congressional district that has such GOP political
leanings that it was the July primary amongst LaHood and two other candidates
that was the real election.
Anyway,
Illinois has a new person in Congress – yet one who follows one of the oldest
of political traditions. Nepotism. LaHood is the son of one-time Congressman
and Transportation secretary Ray LaHood.
Or
as one-time newspaper columnist Mike Royko might have put it, Ray LaHood begat
Darin. Which means the next time some Republican political hack tries to claim
that all Democrats are nothing more than families passing along their power to
the next generation, there is something to throw back in their faces.
ALTHOUGH
ANYONE WHO objectively looks at the situation ought to realize that ideological
leanings don’t always get passed along.
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| LaHOOD: The man who begat Darin |
Ray
LaHood was the guy who served in Congress during the overly-partisan era of
Newt Gingrich as House Speaker, yet always tried to behave in a more
conciliatory and non-partisan manner.
Similar
to his mentor, former House Speaker Bob Michel (for whom Ray was a chief of
staff).
It
is what made Ray LaHood a pick of Barack Obama when the president put together
his cabinet and decided he wanted a taste of bipartisanship. Which is how Ray
got the transportation secretary post that he held for a few years before
retiring as a public servant.
NOT
THAT WE should think Darin will keep up such a bipartisan trend. His voting
record in the Illinois Senate (the post he held, and gave up to run in Thursday’s
special election) is more traditional Republican.
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| MADIGAN: Also differs with her father |
And
he made a point of talking during the campaign cycle about how much more
conservative he is than papa Ray.
Some
might think that’s just talk. But it is possible for stances to change with the
passage of power to a new generation. My own thoughts on this come to Illinois
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and daughter Lisa (a.k.a., the
Illinois attorney general).
Madigan,
as in Mr. Speaker, was always the kind of guy who was a Democrat because of his
support for organized labor. He can be a force for them to use.
BUT
PEOPLE WHO bring up social issues from a liberal perspective can tell you tales
of getting the perpetual run-around from Madigan, who will want to be overly
cautious before pushing such measures up for a vote.
By
comparison, the Madigan daughter is a more liberal-minded person on those
social issues. A part of me would like to someday hear the two of them go at it
(the speaker against, the A.G. for) on abortion. It could be as feisty a fight as any we’ve ever heard between a
Planned Parenthood official and a Bible-thumpin’ preacher-man.
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| MADIGAN: Has his critics |
Could
the LaHoods be the Republican counterpart for Illinois political observers?
So
here’s wondering what kind of Congressman Darin LaHood will make as he follows
his father’s footsteps in federal government.
ALTHOUGH
I’M SURE Darin is breathing a sigh of relief upon his victory. Now that he’s
no longer a state senator from Peoria, he no longer has to be involved in
figuring out the mess that has become our state’s lack of a balanced budget.
Anytime
that federal government comes across as being governed more sanely and
logically than the state, you know you have problems!
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