Aurora Beacon-News
June 23, 2006
• 'Hastert Highway': Speaker blames 'Democratic media' for land-dealing criticisms
By Lynn Sweet
Sun-Times news group
"Nothing to it,'' said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, asked about his $2
million windfall from selling land near his Plano home, a few miles
from the proposed Prairie Parkway he has championed.
That transaction — reported last week in The Beacon News and
other newspapers and on the Web site of a new political watchdog group
— was a front-page story in the Thursday Washington Post,
headlined, "Lawmakers' Profits Are Scrutinized."
It's unusual heat for the Yorkville Republican.
Hastert is walking and talking in the Capitol, not stopping as he takes
a few questions. At issue is whether land values in Kendall County
became more valuable because of the proposed Prairie Parkway.
"There is no substance to it. I've been working on the Prairie Parkway
probably for a good 18 years. That's a matter of record, it is not
built. Nothing to it," he said.
Hastert is in the spotlight in part because he used what's called in
Washington an "earmark'' to secure $207 million in federal funding for
the proposed road.
The money was in a massive transportation bill signed by President Bush
last year at a ceremony at Caterpillar Inc. in Hastert's home Kendall
County.
Earmarks are specific projects written into legislation at the last
minute, bypassing the committee process, inserted anonymously into
bills.
Congress is considering changing the rules regarding earmarks, on economic and ethical grounds.
The earmarking process is controversial for several reasons: on the
budget side because the burgeoning use of earmarks is driving up the
cost of government.
On the ethics side, earmarks — and the ability of some powerful
lawmakers to virtually write projects into law — are at the
center of the investigation of convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Hastert, however, has never made a secret of his sponsorship for the
Prairie Parkway, the subject of much local debate as Kendall Country
wrestles with explosive development.
This earmark was not as sneaky as some because Hastert telegraphed his
punch. It was included in a proposed list of Illinois projects in a
document put together by former Rep. William Lipinski, D-Ill., on Jan.
24, 2003.
At a GOP fundraiser Monday, Hastert blasted what he called the "unrelenting Democratic media.''
He seems irritated at accusations of personal profit from the "Hastert
Highway" and why he did not specifically describe the transactions on
his disclosure statement, as required by the House Ethics Manual.
"I listed it the way the disclosure said I should list it exactly," he said.