Time for Denny's Statue
Now that United States Representative Dennis Hastert has announced his intention to retire from his leadership position, it is time for the Illinois General Assembly to appropriate money to build a statute to this longest serving Republican House Speaker.
During the late 1970’s I drove through Greene County and saw a statue. I was surprised to find that it was of a United States House Speaker.
When Denny was elected Speaker, I suggested to State Rep. Tom Cross that there should be a statue of Denny.
It would be appropriate for it to be in the State Capitol, but Tom and I concluded that in front of the firehouse on Route 47 in Yorkville would be the place it should stand.
Before he was House Speaker and before the 1992 re-apportionment, he represented the Coral Township part of McHenry County.
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6 comments:
Considering that for years over 65% of Hastert's vote came from Kane County perhaps another statue needs to be built there.
How about somewhere along the Prairie Parkway in Kendall County, to commemorate Hastert's corrupt real estate deal? "Here stands a tribute to the former Speaker's skill at enriching himself at the expense of Illinois taxpayers..."
Rather than a statue, why don't you convince Cross to sponsor an Instant Runoff Voting bill in the Illinois General Assembly? Surely this would be better than their gubernatioral candidate attacking the Green candidate and attempting to steal his votes, in a final act of desperation.
How about we wait until the Foley investigation is finished and we know if it will be even worth discussing. Honoring someone who protects pedophiles does not represent the values of 14th district voters. And if one is made, make sure it has cash from the drug industry coming out of his pockets, and a donut hole in one hand, representing the money my mom is paying out of her pocket under the Medicare plan he pushed through....
I don't think there's enough metal in the state to build Denny a statue that would be true to life.
And why not wait till he dies? By the looks at him, that won't be too long of a wait.
Slightly off topic, but: what is the deal with honoring living politicians? There was a time when renaming buildings, or building statues and memorials was reserved as a post-mortem honor. The Postal Service still (and very sensibly) keeps a rule preventing the image of live people from being printed on stamps.
Memorials and statues of living politicians smacks of the type of cult of personality that typifies dictatorial regimes. I don't like it.
PS -- This isn't a partisan post. The worst offender is Democrat Robert Byrd, who is still in office. I had the pleasure of spending a week in West Virginia a couple of years ago, and no matter which town you visited, you wouldn't get lost as long as you found the Robert C. Byrd Parkway, which leads to the Robert C. Byrd Federal Building.
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