* Let’s lighten things up a bit. The Illinois Third House is a sort of trade organization for Illinois lobbyists. They elect a “Speaker” every year, complete with gavel. The group held its annual holiday party yesterday and announced the new Speaker, Keith Sias of the Illinois Credit Union League. I’ve known Keith forever and have always been amazed at how much he works.

Anyway, here’s Keith with the longest serving Speaker of the Third House, Dick Lockhart. Dick also lobbies for the ICUL. Lockhart is flying to Belgium today to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, during which he was taken prisoner by the Germans…

       

23 Comments - PublicServant - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 11:27 am: Dick Lockhart shown with his secret weapon, the neon-green tie. He’d remove it only after the legislator agreed with his client’s way of seeing things. Worked like a charm. - Wordslinger - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 11:32 am: Wow. 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. Good on Dick. - Give Me A Break - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 11:33 am: Dick to Keith: Abe and I use to take your great-great grandfather to lunch on session days. - Ronbo - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 11:35 am: Who’s Madigan? - Amalia - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 11:46 am: Embarrassed Elf did not realize that Santa would not be appearing in Christmas attire. - Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 11:49 am: Dick: Next spring’s session will be rough, Keith, but riding in a German box-car for a week was no picnic either. - elder lobbyist - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 11:49 am: I worked with Dick for years. A great guy and a credit to our profession as one of the generation that kept our country safe from oppression. - Highland, IL - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 11:49 am: Mike Meyer found this gentleman at the end of the rainbow. Wayne’s World, Partytime, Excellent! - north shore cynic - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 12:02 pm: apparently, Keith did not learn from the Lebron James faux pas. You don’t touch royalty!! - Knome Sane - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 12:03 pm: By rubbing the “Elf on a Shelf’s” tummy three times, Keith Sias inadvertently brought him to life. Now Keith is having a hard time getting the Elf to sit still on his bookcase. - A guy... - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 12:10 pm: Mr. Lockhart “At least this prison camp has an open bar”. - Wordslinger - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 12:16 pm: Rich, do you know where Dick was imprisoned? Dresden? - Commonsense in Illinois - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 12:52 pm: Dick Lockhart is among the classiest lobbyists I’ve known in my 40 years around the rail. I’m glad he’s getting the chance to return to Belgium for the anniversary. Best wishes for a wonderful trip, Dick. - Team Sleep - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 1:02 pm: Mr. Lockhart: “I outlasted Hitler, the Red Scare and I might outlast Mike Madigan. What have you outlasted?!” Mr. Sias: “Taxes on credit unions.” - Chicago Bars - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 1:05 pm: No caption, just respect and all the best wishes for Mr Lockhart. Wordslinger… He was at Stalag IX-B (so he probably didn’t bunk with Vonnegut in Dresden) which was pretty brutal. Mr Lockhart did a lengthy interview with the Pritzker Military Museum about his service and POW experience. 45 fascinating minutes. http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/holt-oral-history-program/ricard-t-lockhart-corporal/ - Nearly Normal - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 1:11 pm: Dick, thank you for your service in both battlegrounds. Here is a bit about his service. Dick has contributed two oral histories to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum. Here are the summaries from the ALPLM website– World War II Dick Lockhart served in the 423rd Infantry Regiment’s anti-tank company, part of the 106th Infantry Division, a unit that saw its first action during the Battle of the Bulge. The entire regiment surrendered to the Germans on December 19th, and Lockhart spent the rest of the war in Stalag IX-B during a time when the Germans were unable to adequately care for their POWs. Those American POWs of Jewish descent in Lockhart’s camp were sent to a brutal work camp in Eastern Germany.. Illinois Statecraft Dick Lockhart began a long career in lobbying and journalism in the mid 1950s, starting his own lobbying firm, Social Engineering Associates, in 1958. Lockhart focused his energies on smaller clients, in particular, the Mental Health Association of IL, and later the IL Press Association, public sector unions, and many others. With over fifty years of lobbying in Springfield, Lockhart has helped to shape scores of pieces of legislation, and worked with all of the state’s top legislators. - Nearly Normal - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 1:15 pm: Access to Dick’s ALPML oral histories–and many others– http://www2.illinois.gov/ALPLM/LIBRARY/COLLECTIONS/ORALHISTORY/Pages/default.aspx - Nearly Normal - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 1:24 pm: I guess it’s the researcher in me but found this excerpt written by Dick on another website for WWII Prisoners of War– Some of you know me as a professional lobbyist and indeed I have been one for thirty-two years. However, few know of my personal experience with the Holocaust in Germany during World War II. When the war came, I was eager to be in it, and in fact, enlisted and volunteered for infantry. In due course I found myself a casualty during the Battle of The Bulge. I became a Prisoner Of War. I will not attempt to describe those combat conditions in December of 1944, the “Ardennes Snow March,” four days and nights jammed into box cars with no food or water (and being bombed by your own Air Force in the process). Suffice it to say, I, along with several thousand other GI’s, found myself entering the gates of Stalag IXB, Bad Orb, Germany, on December 26. Stalag IXB was a very primitive camp, housing several thousand Russian, Serbian, and French soldiers. It was reserved for Privates and Privates- First Class only. In the American compound there were no American officers, except a Protestant, a Catholic Chaplain, and a Dentist. There were no medical facilities, no sanitary services, no heat, and not much grass soup. Men died every day. You may wonder how the Nazis identified the Jewish GI’s. The answer is that they volunteered such fact. Frankly, it is something that I never understood to this day. Was it done as an affirmation of their culture and religion? Was it done out of naiveté? Was it done out of a false sense that because they were American soldiers, … that it would protect them? After forty-six years I still do not know. What I do know is that it happened. Demonstrating once again the enormous capacity of some to impose the cruelest of punishment on others, solely because of difference of race, religion, nationality, or culture. Those Jewish GI’s in Stalag IXB may have thought they would be exempt from the Nazi Holocaust. They were not, and their fate should never be forgotten. Message to Future Generations: There is an inscription in a World War II cemetery that reads…. ” When you go home, tell them of us and say for your tomorrow, we gave our today” http://www.axpow.org/lockhartdick.htm - VanillaMan - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 1:30 pm: Where did you park my Crosley, fat boy? - Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 1:36 pm: C’mon, Rich. We can’t make fun of a WW II combat vet. Politicians only in caption contests, please. Thanks for your service Mr. Lockhart, and Merry Christmas. - Stones - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 1:39 pm: Normally I’d have a snappy comment about someone wearing a red vest and a neon green tie. Anyone taken prisoner in the Battle of the Bulge gets my undivided respect. Cudos Mr. Lockhart - you are truly a man’s man. - VanillaMan - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 1:45 pm: In the old lobbying days we used to just take them out to a steak dinner, give them whiskey and cigars and get them a girl. And a wallet full of cash! Then we’d get a gumshoe to take photos of him with the girl going into the Leland Hotel. Once we showed him the photos, we’d get their support! NOW? For crissakes! It is downright tougher than all holy hell to get around all these goo-goo laws. These legislators are like cats on a hot tin roof! All jumpy about meeting with us and us showing them any kind of hospitality! We can barely buy them a beer! We’re just down to a wallet full of cash now, and criminy - we’ve got to go over so many hurtles! - viva las vegas - Friday, Dec 12, 14 @ 2:43 pm: Before and After Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.