Rep. Dave Leitch has something he'd like to say ... although no one is sure who he's speaking FOR exactly

The Illinois House voted 98-15 yersterday to ban the state's five pension systems from making any future investments in companies that do business in Sudan.

State Rep. David Leitch stood up after the vote and complained that he was not given an opportunity to speak in opposition to the measure.

Perhaps he has a point.

But I recall the last time I head him speak. It was at last week's meeting of the Peoria City Council. Leitch stood up and urged the council to help guarantee a $6 million loan that National City Bank was wanting to make to Firefly Energy.

Dave Leitch is a vice president of National City Bank.

I kept wanting one of the council members to loook Leitch in the eye and ask him, in fron of God and the public access television cameras, whether he was speaking as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives or as an employee of the bank that would financially benefit from this loan. That never happened, because that's not how the game is played, in Illinois or in City Hall. And if any did, there's a good chance that Leitch's former employee, the Peoria Journal Star, would have printed an editorial lecturing that council member about the necessity of intergovernmental cooperation.

So, perhaps it's just as well Leitch wasn't allowed to speak before the Sudan investment bill was approved. I doubt that any of his colleagues would have been so crass as to ask if he was speaking as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives or as an employee of a financial institution.



Cross posted to Peoria Pundit.