Chicago Tribune
June 25, 2006
The highway to Hastertland
By Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University and a longtime critic of congressional ethics rules
Washington is abuzz with the disclosure that House Speaker Dennis
Hastert (R-Ill.) recently made a windfall profit in a real estate
venture linked to a highway deal that he personally "earmarked" in
Congress. What should concern voters, however, is not that such deals
routinely occur, but that they are allowed under the widely ridiculed
ethics rules that the members wrote for themselves.
Hastert is accused of muscling through two appropriations that may have
directly benefited his real estate venture. In 2002, Hastert worked
with two partners, of which one was Kendall County Republican Chairman
Dallas Ingemunson, to buy 196 acres of land near Plano, Ill. This land
was largely landlocked with no major access road to it at the time.
When they purchased the land--through a land trust--in 2002, Hastert
began to push for a highway near the property.
In the summer of 2005, Hastert then personally intervened to "earmark"
two appropriations that gave $207 million to build a highway and an
interchange just 5 1/2 miles from his property. In December 2005, the
land trust sold land to a real estate developer for $5 million. As a
result, Hastert had made a whopping $1.8 million profit for himself.
Hastert's lawyers insist that there is nothing unlawful about this
transaction. They insist that he was merely bringing back federal
dollars to his district and that the value of this land was rising in
the real estate boom--unrelated to the highway.
What is clear is that the transaction is neither unlawful nor unusual under the current ethics rules.
Indeed, as reported last week by the Washington Post, various members
of the House have pushed through federal projects that benefit their
own land holdings. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) and a partner allegedly
purchased land near March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif.,
shortly before he secured federal funds for a freeway interchange near
the property. He also secured federal funding for commercial
development around the field. They then sold the property within one
year for roughly twice their investment.
Another member, Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.), reportedly secured federal
funding for highway improvements near a planned commercial development
that he co-owned.
The fact is that a nimble public servant can make a lot of money in
Congress. Like many members, Hastert (a former high school wrestling
coach) came to the House with few personal assets but became a
millionaire while in public service. Hastert, however, is not viewed as
one of the most self-enriching members--indeed he is viewed as
comparatively honest within his congressional company. The most
commonly cited "rags to riches" story is Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)
who came to Washington with little money after disastrous investments
in the 1980s. Stevens reportedly told a real estate developer that he
was, according to the Los Angeles Times, "serious about making money."
As a result, Stevens was given a series of windfall investments with
little money down or financial risk. He was soon a multimillionaire. He
then turned around and secured a $450 million military contract for his
real estate partner as well as other controversial deals.
Members have resisted any effort to require that they create blind
investment trusts or to recuse themselves from any matter in which they
have a financial interest. Unlike judges, they continue to legislate in
areas where they hold significant financial interests.
The fact is that, even after the disclosures of rampant corruption by
members of both parties, little is being done to clean up the mess.
Even on the most minor issues, members have fought reforms for years.
For example, for more than 10 years, public interest groups have tried
to stop members from accepting free vacations to Europe and other hot
spots from outside groups. These trips are labeled as "educational" but
constitute tens of thousands of dollars of gifts to members. For
example, a recent study by Northwestern University's Medill School of
Journalism found that such outside groups paid almost $50 million for
23,000 congressional trips by lawmakers, their families and their staff
members over a five-year period. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), accepted
some 50 privately paid trips (including some with his wife, Loretta)
totaling more than $150,000.
The current ethics rules are nothing more than a license to steal. Yet,
if Hastert and his colleagues are taking citizens for a ride, it is on
a highway paved by voters who cannot see beyond their party
affiliations. They are corrupt because our own expectations have been
corrupted.
We have bought into the red-state/blue-state hype by the two parties to
snuff out third-party candidates and fend off any voter backlash. We
blindly return the same members to a grotesquely corrupt Congress in
the name of party loyalty. To put it simply, we have become a nation of
chumps and we have the highways to prove it.