2004

Fine Quotes of Hyde from the Debate

ArchPundit October 26, 2004 1 Comment

From the Cegelis Campaign

Henry Hyde on Fiscal Responsibility
?We have to restrain federal spending. I must say that the Congress does not know how to say no and we have to learn how to say no, so that?s very important.?
[30 years was not enough to learn how to say no?]

Henry Hyde on Energy Independence
?We haven?t built a refinery in 20 years. We need refineries and pipelines as well as sources for petroleum.?

Henry Hyde?s Bipartisan Spirit
?You?ll never get tort reform out of the Democrats, because trial lawyers are one of the biggest supporters of that party?

Henry Hyde on Increasing Jobs
?The jobs may be there but the trained people are not, so give more money to junior colleges targeting or training for these jobs.?
[We are losing jobs because we have no trained workers?]

Henry Hyde on Campaign Finance Reform
?As far as I?m concerned you?ll never get money out of politics because money is advocacy, it buys speech.?

Henry Hyde on School Funding
?Illinois got so much funding last year that they turned back 2 million dollars, they couldn?t think of how to spend it ? There are people, school districts are sitting on money, they can?t spend it, so its very well funded.?
[Schools returned No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds after they realized that the amount they got was far less than what they would need to comply with the NCLB regulations.]

Henry Hyde on Social Security
?There are six different bills pending in congress now to revise social security, I don?t know how that?s going to work [?] as to privatizing part of it, I wouldn?t rule that out but I don?t see much support for that because as Christine said the stock market has not been a tower of strength?

Henry Hyde on the Trade Deficit
?I don?t have a cure other than to, for us to sell more than we buy and we ought to be careful about what we buy, buy American.?

Henry Hyde on the Flu Vaccine Shortage
?Well I don?t know how you can control a circumstance where a large portion of the vaccine was tainted, it would take a magician would handle that situation. They?ve done the best they can.?

Henry Hyde on Minorities in the Armed Services
?On the draft, I just want to comment briefly I don?t quite understand the point about the minorities, it?s a volunteer service, nobody is dragooned into serving?
[His Response after Cegelis noted that a disproportionate amount of our soldiers are minorities.]

Henry Hyde on Foreign Relations
?Public diplomacy [is] the selling of America. This country created Madison Avenue and the advertising industry but we can?t sell young Arabs around the world that America is a good country and that they should help support it??

Henry Hyde on Why He Should Be Re-elected
?I am getting along in years I am not the kid I used to be. Maybe I?ve lost a step or two, I?ll be the first one to admit that, but I will say there are tradeoffs and one of them is experience, another one is judgment and the other one is influence [?]I think my judgment has been proven to be sound.?
[$80 million spent investigating Bill Clinton vs. $15 million spent investigating 9/11 ? an example of good judgment?]

And last but not least ?.

Henry Hyde on How He Spends His Time in Washington
?There?s a lot to do in Washington these days, homeland security needs attention and oversight, our relationships with other countries, the prime ministers, the defense ministers, the foreign ministers of most every country come and visit me in my office, some of them leave little presents. I?m going to have an auction sale one day, I don?t know what to do with them all but they?re there.?

Clean Sweep: Daily Herald Endorses Bean

ArchPundit October 26, 2004 No Comments

Pretty much a clean sweep

Unfortunately, Crane has built another solid reputation in Congress that clearly is not admirable: That of a show horse, not a workhorse. After 35 years in office, he has accomplished little of significance.

Consider some of his Republican congressional colleagues from Chicago’s suburbs who became national figures. In less time in office, Dennis Hastert became Speaker of the House. Henry Hyde rose to chair the House Judiciary Committee that conducted the impeachment hearings of President Clinton.

Crane? His national claim to fame came in being unceremoniously rejected by his own party for the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. Crane’s tenure should have secured that powerful position, but his track record of nonperformance lost it.

Ouch.

By all accounts, it is a close race, and we enthusiastically endorse Bean as the candidate who will work hardest on behalf of the district and the candidate who best reflects the views of its residents.

Promotions as Tired as the Candidate

ArchPundit October 26, 2004 1 Comment

At the Sun-Times.

Bean’s campaign has handed out seat cushions labeled with Crane’s name, suggesting he has done little over the last 3-1/2 decades besides warm a chair in Congress. She’s blasted him for taking frequent trips — with expenses usually picked up by special interest groups — to vacation resorts in the United States and overseas. A series of postcards sent by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee label Crane the “junket king” and feature caricatures of him in Scotland, Antigua and Costa Rica.

Crane has returned fire, with his campaign recently handing out flip-flops to highlight what Crane says is Bean’s waffling on her support for tax cuts. He has blasted her for living just outside the district — thanks to the 2000 remap that changed the district’s boundaries — suggesting “that’s why she’s out of touch with the voters here.”

The best the Crane team could do was flip flops?That’s about as tired as Crane