Results tagged “congress”

With today being the drop deadline for next year's elections, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis has announced he will forgo a run at Cook County Board President and instead focus on getting re-elected to his current position, Congressman of Illinois' 7th District, and office he has held since 1996.

Not a day goes by that we don’t have some sort of press release cross our desk, or get an email promising “secret information that will "distroy" [Sic] Mayor Daley’s House of Cards,”, but it isn’t often that a U.S. Congressman gets on national television to read his love for the Second City into the Congressional record. That said, Mike Quigley’s “Top Ten Reasons the world should still stop by for a slice of deep dish in Chicago, the greatest city in the world” is way too populist on the food angle (really, he couldn’t mention Alinea or the Publican?), and really kind of ridiculous on the schools end (as in, our high schoolers could kick Rio’s high schooler’s asses).

That then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel of the 5th Congressional District of Illinois wanted a hand-picked replacement who could essentially serve as a "seat-warmer" when he was selected as then-President-Elect Obama's Chief of Staff is no surprise. That "seat-warmer" would hold Rahm's seat in Congress until Rahm was done working for Obama and could return to his place on the Hill. And that Rahm had contact with Blagojevich about various replacements - including the infamous "for sale" U.S. Senate seat - is also no surprise. Rahm's admitted they talked shop but also maintained he did nothing wrong. But this morning we're getting more specifics courtesy of an investigation by the Sun-Times who reports that Rahm wanted Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool as his "seat-warmer."

          

Last night, President Obama addressed a joint-session of Congress and the American public to make his case for his health care reform plan, addressed controversies such as the "death panel" accusation, and mixed the usual Obama pragmatism with a bit more of a hard-line stance (the Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet called it "a magnificent balancing act"). You can watch the speech below in its entirety and read the full text here.

Mark Kirk, Illinois's 10th District Congressman and GOP front runner for the state's U.S. Senate seat, has been been trying to get in front of conservative rage at Obama lately. Earlier this month he held a press conference in a downtown Chicago federal building (in his capacity as a U.S. Congressman) to denounce the House version of the proposed health care reform legislation. Then, he called the bill partisan and expensive, and cited medical malpractice reforms as the key to cutting costs. This week he's upped the ante, lying about the details of the proposed legislation. "Should we provide taxpayer health care for people who are illegally here in the U. S.? I do not think we should provide federally-subsidized health care to illegal aliens," Kirk asked the crowd before rhetorically answering his own question. He failed to mention that the proposed legislation doesn't actually offer health insurance coverage for those in the United States illegally.

We're not doing anything fancy like a liveblog or anything, but below is streaming video of President Obama's speech. Feel free to share your thoughts as it happens in the comments.

After a long night of congressional aides and clerks working on the specifics and minutiae of the bill, as well as assurances from three key Republicans in the Senate - Arlin Specter of Pennsylvania, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced yesterday afternoon that the House and the Senate had reached a compromise on the Obama administration's centerpiece economic recovery bill. “Like any negotiation, this involved give-and-take, and if you don’t mind my saying so, that’s an understatement,” Reid said.

Roland Burris heads off to Capital Hill today and the fireworks have already begun. The secretary of the senate, Nancy Erickson, today rejected Burris’s appointment certification because it didn’t include Secretary of State Jesse White’s signature as required. Without the certification, Burris will be barred from entering the Senate floor. Burris yesterday said he hoped his appointment would go smoothly as he spoke to hundreds gathered at New Covenant Baptist Church. “I am now the junior senator from the state of Illinois,” he said, only this time not referring to himself in the royal we. He added that he hopes critics won’t get in the way of what the “Lord ordained.”

Rahm Emanuel will be resigning his 5th U.S. Congressional District seat this Friday, January 2nd. Emanuel informed his constituents (including a few of us) of the decision via a recorded phone message. Seriously, for the first five seconds, I thought Rahm was actually returning one of my numerous phone calls; not cool! Anyway. Lynn Sweet has a list of those who have already expressed an interest in pursuing the seat and it's pretty long already: Alexander Victor Forys, Mike Quigley, Charles J. Wheelan, Sara Feigenholtz, Reichel Matthew, Joey Vartanian, Israel Vasquez, Justin Oberman, Cary Capparelli, Debra Mell, and Jan H. Donatelli. Meanwhile, Emanuel's Chicago and D.C. offices will remain open as to allow any current casework to be completed. A special election will now be scheduled to select Rahm's replacement.

Just a day after the Obama team released their internal report on the contact anyone in the administration had with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Sun-Times is reporting that incoming Chief of Staff - and still currently Fifth Congressional District Rep. - Rahm Emanuel had a conversation with Blago over one day returning to his Congressional post. It seems Rahm is/was interested in one day becoming U.S. Speaker of the House. State law calls for a special election to be held to replace Emanuel, but Rahmbo apparently "broached with Blagojevich the subject of finding a candidate to temporarily fill the seat. But Emanuel isn't accused of promising something in return." This story just won't go away.

Cook County Commissioner and notarized Red Wings hater Mike Quigley is filing papers to run for the U.S. Congressional seat being vacated by Rahm Emanuel, a race which continues to heat up. Quigley has a history of battling with Mayor Daley so he could become The Anti-Daley Candidate. While many have talked the talked about joining the race to replace Rahm, the only other candidate to officially file is state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz.

Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool has decided he won't run in the special election to select a replacement for outgoing U.S. Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who is vacating his Fifth District seat to become President-Elect Obama's Chief of Staff. Claypool told the Sun-Times, "It was tempting and something I gave a lot of thought. It would be an exciting time to be in Congress and support the president-elect’s agenda and work with people I know and have a long history with in a time of national crisis. But I’ve spent six years working hard to reform county government — I think I can make a bigger difference locally than nationally.”

The Cubs of politics Jim Oberweis was soundly beaten 57% - 43% in his attempt to capture the congressional seat in the 14th District. Oberweis was challenging incumbent Democrat Bill Foster for the second time -- the first was back in March during a special election to replace the outgoing Dennis Hastert, who retired. The 14th District had previously been represented by a Republican for over 30 years, and the shift is seen as monumental by those in the area. It will be interesting to see what happens in 2010 when Foster won't be riding on the Obama momentum wave, especially if the state GOP can finally get their act together and present a formidable candidate for governor.

Since none of us have anything better to do while waiting around for Congress to get its collective head out of its ass and crank out a bailout plan, we thought: $700 Billion is a metric shit-ton of money. What could it buy?

Yesterday, Washington and Wall St. descended into chaos as the bailout plan was voted down by the House of Representatives. But why? What happened? Some House Republicans blamed a speech by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), “I do believe that we could have gotten there today, had it not been for the partisan speech that the Speaker gave on the floor of the House. We put everything we had into getting the vote to get there today.” Here's the speech. Does Pelosi speak the truth? Or is it an unnecessary poke in the eye? And is it really a valid excuse by Republicans? Somehow, we don't see this speech also causing 40 percent of Democrats to vote against the bailout.

The House Judiciary Committee approved the Great Lakes Basin Compact yesterday, paving the way for approval by congress. "The compact will ensure that our Great Lakes will remain stabile and vibrant for generations to come," said Michigan Democrat and committee chair John Conyers. Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner echoed that sentiment, saying, "the sooner this compact can be ratified by the Congress, the sooner it will become effective and the greater protection will be given."

We told you earlier today about monkeys being outlawed as pets. At least we know what Congress has been up to all this time. And it got us thinking about some classic monkey moments. There are many to be found, but this is one of our all-time favorites.

Floods? Housing crisis? Crippled economy? Bah! says Congress. By a 3-to-1 margin (302-96), the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Captive Primate Safety Act which would amend the currently imposed Lacey Act by adding "nonhuman primates" to the list of "live animal of any prohibited wildlife species." The bill has 26 sponsors, including Mark Kirk (R), Jan Schakowsky (D), and Luis Gutierrez (D), all of Illinois.

] if you haven't figured it out a stay-cation is a lot like a vacation...but you don't go too far from home. Duh.

If you guessed that a former Navy nuclear submarine officer who served in and around the Arabian Gulf during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, who owns a real estate investment firm in suburban Chicago, and who was Officer in Charge of the Center for Information Dominance Learning Site at Great Lakes Naval Station is running for congress as a Green this year, you'd be right.

Ozinga Concrete launched a large ad buy last week on WLS-AM (890) radio. The ads, which promote a porous, environmentally friendly concrete, mention the Ozinga name eight times. Which wouldn't really be news if Marty Ozinga, who owns the company, didn't want to run for congress this year.

After an increasingly nasty campaign, science nerd Bill Foster prevailed over perennial candidate Jim Oberweis to win the 14th District congressional seat vacated by Dennis Hastert. The jury is still out as to if Foster won because of his methods to get out the vote, or just because even a lot of Republicans think Oberweis is a douche. But the flurry of mailers featuring cow puns and fear mongering isn't over yet -- thanks to Denny's bad timing of his retirement, Foster and Oberweis will face off yet again in November.

If the RTA extended the Blue Line out to the Yorktown Mall in Lombard, would you go? The Sun-Times reported yesterday that possible improvements to the city's transit system could include a longer trek on the Forest Park line, new bus routes on major expressways, and a north-south train between Midway and O'hare, among other things.

Ah, late February in Chicago. Cubs tickets go on sale today, there's a forecast for a high temperature above 35 degrees next week, and thousands of indie rock kids around Chicago will soon be shedding their parkas for high-priced hoodies bought from Wicker Park boutiques (tip: ours cost us $12 at Target!) for several worthwhile shows around the Chicago area. Lots of tickets go on sale this weekend. So, despite this crappy weather, there is, in the words of Spoon, "something to look forward to."

With the Democratic primary election in the 14th Congressional District all but settled, Bill Foster and Jim Oberweis are duking it out over Iraq. Oberweis is accusing Foster of politicizing the Iraq War in his bid to take the seat that Dennis Hastert vacated by retiring. Foster says he won't support any policies that don't "change the course in Iraq and do it now."

In a political season that has been marked by the theme of change, Illinois's 3rd Congressional District has become one of the battle grounds over what the Democratic Party might look like going forward in 2008. Critics of the incumbent, Dan Lipinski, are unhappy with his opposition to abortion rights and stem cell research, and his siding with moderate Republicans on the war in Iraq and domestic spying. Besides his voting record, they also don't like how he came to congress: If you don't remember the 2004 general election, the elder Lipinski won renomination in the primary, withdrew during the campaign year, and then led the process to pick his replacement on the November ballot - his son Dan, a political science professor from Tennessee. Although Dan won handily in 2004, angry challenges in 2006 held him at only 54% in the primary, with the opposition split between two opponents.

The Tribune Editorial Board released its list of endorsements in the upcoming Illinois primaries on February 5. Among the list are 3rd District Congressman Dan Lipinski (striking a blow to challenger and progressive blog champion Mark Pera) and tenacious ice cream magnate Jim Oberweis -- running for Congress in the 14th District -- who is determined to get himself elected to some office, somewhere, some time (we hear Sugar Grove is looking for a new mayor, perhaps he should start there). They also endorse Senator Dick Durbin's challenger, Steve Sauerberg, who has about as much chance of unseating Durbin as Spanky the Clown.

Head to Daley Plaza this morning at 10:30 a.m. for a quick early voting rally for Mark Pera. Pera, the assistant Cook County State's Attorney who is running against Dan Lipinski for the 3rd Congressional District seat, is the first serious candidate to challenge Lipinski since he went to congress in 2004. Pera's campaign has attracted a lot of attention, both online and in the district. Online support has helped helped fund his campaign, but anger in the district at how the elder Lipinski handed his seat to his son has fueled the viability of his candidacy. Still, he's running against the full force and weight of Chicago's entrenched Democratic Machine.

Born on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King would have been 79 this year. In 1984 an act of Congress made the third Monday of this month Martin Luther King Day. With most government offices closed today, there are a plethora of events honoring his memory. The Chicago Park District is holding a series of events dedicated to his legacy. The University of Chicago is hosting panels and speakers all week, with a series of films and documentaries this evening starting at 5 p.m. The DuSable Museum of African American History is holding workshops, performances and panel discussions on the legacy of the civil rights movement and the challenges it still faces in 21st century America. The Chicago History Museum kicks the day off with crafts and storytelling for children, followed by songs and spirituals performed by the Chicago Chamber Choir. At 1 p.m., LeRoyce Hawkins and Cameron Drake will perform Jeff Stetson's critically acclaimed "The Meeting", an imagined meeting between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, followed by a reading of King's "I have a Dream" speech.

The split between Mayor Daley and Chicago's labor movement grew a little bit bigger this week, as the Congress Hotel, which has been on strike for the last four and a half years, was denied an expansion request by the city's Plan Commission. Four of the nine Plan Commission members voted for the proposal Thursday, one member rejected the request, and four other members abstained from voting. Mayor Daley supported the proposal, saying that "it would be inappropriate to bring the hotel's labor issues into a discussion.... The matter before the Chicago Plan Commission is to determine if these plans are in accordance with the Lakefront Protection Ordinance. And that's all it has to do." The hotel's New York-based ownership wants to build an additional five floors to the historic property, to be used for a swimming pool, a health club, a restaurant, and more rooms.