The bickering between Weller and Jackson shows no sign of abating.
U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller sharply criticized a congressional colleague, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., on Wednesday for spending $270,000 for a “failed” airport advertising campaign.
The summer ad campaign encouraged residents of Will, Southern Cook and Kankakee counties to contact Gov. Rod Blagojevich and urge him to lease land for a third major airport to Jackson’s group, the Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission. About 25 suburbs donated money to the fund.
Weller (R-11th) said the campaign generated only a few letters to the governor, and the money came largely from impoverished southern suburbs that couldn’t afford it. […]
Bryant said all the ad campaign expenditures were made at public meetings held by the commission and that the governor’s office was inundated with phone calls generated by the campaign.
But a spokeswoman for the governor told a Daily Southtown reporter in August that Blagojevich’s office received only a few calls.
Meanwhile, Weller’s Democratic opponent released a statement yesterday claiming that the incumbent Republican had taken an “extremist, radical position on racial profiling.” From a press release:
In response to a question from the audience regarding what he would do to address racial profiling at the local level, Rep. Weller said that “if we know a middle eastern male has entered our community, I believe our law enforcement needs to be able to go out and look for middle-eastern males.â€
In response to Weller’s comment, Pavich stated, “This isn’t going to work.â€
“We need to recognize the fact that there are a lot of Muslims in the world, and they’re not all from the middle east. A lot of them are blue-eyed and blonde haired. Al-Qaida and other groups recognize this, and are recruiting accordingly.â€
- Pat Hickey - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 9:42 am:
That is the best Pavich can come up with against Jerry Weller - my God the man is a walking treasure trove of political potshots and all legit ones and Pavich does a ‘it’s a small world after all Oprah Hug>’ Yeah Zoo Chreestay!
- Mr. Lehmann - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 9:42 am:
I’m tired of purposely blinding ourselves in the name of political correctness. If all the terrorists had red hair, would it be wrong to look for redheads? To some of you, that would be SO UNFAIR. You’d start demanding that 85 year old grandmas get strip searched because treating them differently would send some kind of message. This is PC unhinged. It lacks common sense, and no other country except Canada has fallen under the spell of mass stupidity like this. So, Weller is right.
My family was under suspicion throughout both World Wars. My great grandparents and their children watched what kind of language they spoke in public, made sure they had an American flag flying in front of their house, and behaved with decency and respect when approached by law enforcement. They didn’t demand equal treatment and whine about how unfair it all was.
Get real. We cannot randomly stop people just because we don’t want to offend someone. This is wartime. Lets get the job done and move on.
Jackson is playing games. Weller isn’t. If we cannot depend on our government protecting us because our representatives are too afraid of passing judgements, then what good are they? Get rid of them! Civil rights are no good when you are dead. Get your priorities in order!
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 9:55 am:
“Mr. Lehmann,” my German-American ancestors were also “profiled” during WWI and I think it was stupid, outrageous, reactionary, hysterical and solely devoid of reason or benefit. From what I’m told, they weren’t happy about it, either.
- cermak_rd - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 10:18 am:
More importantly, from a security standpoint is that it would be counter-productive. Does anyone think there aren’t average run-a-day Americans and Europeans who have converted to Islam? Has anyone ever experienced the annoying fervor of a new convert to any religion? I can’t believe the terrorists wouldn’t simply adapt and use those folk to carry out the attacks.
- 105th Blues - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 10:35 am:
Weller will be re-elected no matter how many times he sticks his foot in his mouth between now and november 7th. I think Weller, Tim Johnson, and Shimkus all the other George Ryan era has- beens and central IL political duds need to go bye-bye but sadly that isn’t going to happen in these Cong. districts.
- grand old partisan - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 11:10 am:
I don’t think Weller was really even talking about profiling. The remark, which was admittedly poorly worded, is taken out of context. Weller is talking about the common sense idea of allowing law enforcement to focus on Middle Eastern males when that is the description of the suspect they are looking for, without the fear of being charged with “racial profiling.â€
As for the Jackson-Weller feud, think about it: Jackson is trying to assume and maintain control of a massive project in Weller’s district. It’s common courtesy for Reps to give each other a heads up, even get permission, from another Rep if they plan on visiting their district for a public function. Jackson’s attempts to take over the Peotone airport project is at best rude, and ad worst massively disrespectful.
- E-G - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 11:44 am:
I was actually at this candidate forum in McLean County the other night, and this comment from Gongressman Weller stuck out at me too. Mr. Pavich actually surprised me too all night with how well he presented himself. I’m sure his staff is full of political hacks given how he was recruited, but I don’t feel like I will somehow be cating a vote for Rahm Emmanuel by casting my vote for Pavich.
The fact is, as Pavich pointed out, we cannot strt using profiling in such a way that we continue to view and assume that Middle-Eastern people are all up to no good. It goes against what our country represents as a pluralistic society of broad rights and puts an asterisk onto such a distinction.
Thomas Jefferson once said, “He who trades liberty deserves neither and will lose both.” While the War on Terror does represent a threat to us, we have yet to take much action at all in regards to addressing our security, our ports and borders are still pourous, and the other reccomendations of the 9/11 Commission have yet to be enacted. Saying things like Weller did is the easy way out of trying to make it look like you’re tough on the subject when you haven’t actually done a thing.
- Buck Flagojevich - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 12:04 pm:
Junior isn’t anything more than a shakedown artist like pop is. Never had a real job. And this airport business stinks to high heaven. It’s not even in Juniors district. Junior needs to stick to what the Jacksons know best. Shaking down corporations.
- Judy, Judy, Judy - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 12:12 pm:
Well, I’m sick of Jackson always ready to play the race card in any scenario whether it’s regarding blacks or some other ethnic group. His ALNAC group say those in eastern Will County do not support his group because those people are white and the majority of his constituents aren’t. Jackson does not belong making any plans in eastern Will County which is outside his legislative jurisdiction. Plans for using all the rail lines in his district would bring economic development there - not in far rural Peotone. Enough on that. The $270,000 the Weller criticized Jackson for wasting on his plan to get people to call the governor and tell him to hand over state property (less than 1/2 of the proposed inaugural site) to private developers is wrong, but yet, just a drop in the bucket as to how much federal, state, county, and local tax dollars have been spent pushing this politically driven boondoggle. Tens of millions of tax dollars have been spent lining the pockets of those studying and promoting this nightmare for more than 20 years - at the federal, state and local level. Politicians need to step out of the pockets of corporate, union, and construction companies and use funds to actually help taxpayers by developing sustainable environmentally friendly projects to areas that suit their environment. An airport in Peotone which is agricultural and home to many conservation award winning families is wrong - but it provides them with a way of getting their name and face in the media. While Weller and Jackson keep fighting over the proposed airport - their constituents are neglected and have been for years.
Whew, glad I got that out.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 1:06 pm:
In an increasingly blue state, the minority Republicans have no choice but to form coalitions to advance their causes. Also, when one party dominates state politics, it will inevitably divide itself along lines of self interest, ironically mimicking the politics of yore when there were two strong parties. Thus, Weller is working behind the scenes with Democrats like Debbie Halvorson and Larry Walsh, who have more items of self interest in common with Weller than with triple J.
In this scenario, Pavich is an outsider to his own party. Look for the eventual 11th district Democratic representative (probably one or 2 elections away) to resemble Weller in the issues important to the district, maybe with a slightly bluer hue.
- crickets chirping - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 1:27 pm:
Nothing yet on the bombshell story in the Chicago Reader that Weller apparently owns millions of dollars in Nicaraguan real estate that he failed to disclose? What gives?
Here’s the link to the Reader article: http://tinyurl.com/yhnlw2
- BBishere2 - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 2:28 pm:
“The summer ad campaign encouraged residents of Will, Southern Cook and Kankakee counties to contact Gov. Rod Blagojevich and urge him to lease land for a third major airport to Jackson’s group, the Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission. About 25 suburbs donated money to the fund.”
Like father like son - Jesse Jr. running around trying to extort money from business for him and his cronies just like his daddy. Next he’ll become a minister to avoid paying his fair and rightful share of taxes.
- CarolStreamKaren - Thursday, Oct 26, 06 @ 10:07 pm:
I am very excited about the prospect of Jackson as Mayor of Chicago. And why should Jackson respect Weller? After all, what has Weller done for his district? At least the airport would generate much needed jobs in Weller’s district. But then again, Weller does not care about his constituents. Regarding racial profiling, I agree with Jackson. Besides, since when is a white man qualified to discuss racial profiling? And no, Jackson is not a mere replica of his father.