Posted on 10/29/2004 6:34:54 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
At times, Rep. Jan Schakowsky sounds like she's running for re-election not against her Republican opponent, but against President Bush.
The Evanston Democrat said the Bush administration "is squandering opportunities one after another and, I believe in almost every respect, leading our country in the wrong direction."
Asked to elaborate, the three-term incumbent quickly knocks the president's record on the economy, national poverty rate, health insurance, the flu vaccine shortage, college tuition, veterans' benefits and combat deaths in Iraq.
"And we're headed toward an expenditure of $200 billion in a war I thought from the beginning was unnecessary," she said. "I think Americans are less secure than they were, not more."
Running against the president plays well in the eastern half of the 9th Congressional District - Evanston, Skokie and Chicago's Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods - but is risky in traditionally Republican Maine Township.
Even so, Schakowsky said she discerns unrest and anger at the administration that goes beyond partisan politics.
"Even among Republicans, there is concern about this unprecedented deficit that has been created in the last four years," she said, also citing the $8 trillion turnaround from surplus to debt.
But Schakowsky, 60, knows her real opponent is Republican Kurt Eckhardt, 44, a hedge fund manager and GOP ward committeeman in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood.
So she's also quick to tout her constituent service and her work with Des Plaines and Park Ridge officials earlier this year when the flooding Des Plaines River threatened both cities. She reiterates her support for creating a water management district along the river.
If given a fourth term, Schakowsky said she and Congress must make progress on health care and insurance, and on fixing problems with the No Child Left Behind Act.
She said she supports Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's plans to let people and small businesses buy into the federal employees' health benefit program, and allow people ages 55 through 64 buy into Medicare.
Schakowsky said her personal preference, however, is universal, government-financed health care.
"Kind of a Medicare for all," she added.
Schakowsky acknowledges Eckhardt brings up the fact that her husband, Phil Creamer, is under a federal indictment for bank fraud and income tax evasion between 1996 and 2000, while he was executive director of the Illinois Public Action Fund.
Federal prosecutors in March alleged Creamer failed to pay federal income taxes on himself or the organization's employees between 1996 and 2000, and that he filed false individual income tax returns from 1996 through 1999. Prosecutors did not allege wrongdoing by Schakowsky, who served on the fund's board at the time.
She said she was not privy to the group's finances. Creamer pleaded not guilty in April. His trial is scheduled to begin in February.
Schakowsky said her husband will be vindicated, and suggested the charges, which stem from a 7-year-old investigation, are politically motivated.
"I think lots of people, like me, wonder about the timing of it," she said. "It seems curious. I've been an outspoken opponent of the Justice Department and the administration. ..."
Eckhardt aside, "I don't hear about it (on the campaign trail)," Schakowsky said. "I don't think it's a major issue."
Check out Rep. Jan Schakowsky's website, voting records and political activities. She is to the Left of most Democrats even in liberal Cook County. The Hon. Jan portrays herself as just a consumerist, middle-of-the-road Democrat, when in fact she is out in left field with Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. She's also part of a special left-wing caucus in the House that is out to sabotague the President on anything that he does. If one believes that she doesn't know what her husband was doing for his alleged illegal activities, then I suggest that they get marital counseling.
I was lobbying in Springfield and she had a bill introduced into committee to ban gun shows. She went to a local Retirement Home, told all the Seniors there that she needed their help "to keep guns out of the hands of children," and bussed them all to the committee hearing.
Taking advantage of Seniors. How much lower can you sink?
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