Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Letter to the Editor

Even though the Chicago Tribune didn't publish it, I still have the luxury of posting a letter I wrote to their editor online here. The letter is in response to what I thought was a (characteristically) one-sided article about the strained relationship between Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Yorkville) and fellow Representative from Illinois, Congressman Rahm Emmanuel (D-Chicago). While Emmanuel has made me bristle at times during his leadership of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, I had to defend him over this ridiculous article. Here's my letter.
Monday’s article about strained relations between Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Congressman Rahm Emmanuel (“Oil, water and political fireworks”) proves yet again the Tribune’s propensity to give Illinois Democrats a much harder time than their Republican counterparts. The article portrays Emmanuel’s efforts in Congress as politically motivated, but I’ll take a representative who gets cheaper drug legislation passed and honors our soldiers killed in battle over Hastert, who—contrary to the Tribune’s sympathetic portrayal of him as victim to partisan attacks—has always made snide comments about Democrats (and New Orleans!) the name of the game. If Emmanuel is no longer conforming to the Illinois delegation’s “long tradition of setting aside partisan differences,” it is because he wisely realizes that his colleagues on the other side of the aisle have advanced the highly partisan agenda of President Bush to the detriment of the state of Illinois.

No comments: