Posted on 06/25/2002 8:31:32 AM PDT by KMC1
"It is important for them to see America's character!"
The words just jumped out of the television I was watching. President Bush was making remarks Monday morning to those gathered in New Jersey as he made his most recent address concerning Homeland Security. In his normally folksy, yet elegant, down home, but highly articulate way, the President again told personal stories of some who were relatives of those gathered and their heroic moments on September 11.
One story he told in particular struck me. A former Marine (though as President Bush said, you never really ever are a "former" Marine), was working in World Trade One. As people fled the building, he continued at his post at the Emergency Management desk. He talked with people in elevators, he conversed with emergency personnel headed up the towers. When a friend finally expressed concern - that he needed to get out for his own safety he simply said. "I'm a Marine, I leave no one behind!"
I wonder what that co-worker thinks today.
Then the President got to the line that hit me hard. "It's important for them to see America's character." I likened it to the story he related about the Marine. I also wonder why more of our public servants don't think more of what America's character is.
In Illinois, we have the beginning of what is starting to look like a grudge match in the race for Peter Fitzgerald's U.S. Senate seat. Now mind you, this seat is not open for election this November, yet the warning shots are already being seen. The incumbent that Fitzgerald beat in his initial election was former Senator Carol Mosley-Braun. Scandals plagued her. Her close support for Bill Clinton also worked against her. But now she's back, and it appears may have her sights set on her old seat.
Last week, Chicago Sun Times' "super-hack" Steve Neal went to town on how "unpopular" Fitzgerald is, supposedly even in Fitzgerald's own power base - conservative Republicans. According to Neal, Fitzgerald enjoys only a 51% approval rating with his fellow Republicans. According to Neal. Fitzgerald's numbers spike lower among general voters.
If these numbers are true, and who couldn't trust a super-hack who will undoubtedly report on Ms. Braun's every single move in the coming years with glowing reception? It is truly sad, given one major piece of actual evidence: No one in Illinois has fought harder for the PEOPLE of Illinois (and many times, America as a whole), than Senator Peter Fitzgerald.
Choose any of the following examples:
Lincoln Library Project - designed by current "Crook-in-Charge" Governor George Ryan as a "no competitive bidding, screw the people of Illinois out of 128 million dollars, but give the business to my good buddies" kind of project. Fitzgerald had studies done that showed the library, if competitively bid, should only end up running (worst case scenario) somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 million. That would have been a savings to Illinois taxpayers of about 58 million dollars. Fitzgerald filibustered and finally got competitive bidding added to the project.
9-11 Airline Bailout Package - A package that in the Senator's mind was too generous to airline executives and did not go far enough to protect the baggage handlers, the flight attendants, and the ground traffic crews. Fitzgerald fought alone and was the lone vote against the bailout package. The reason he fought? Because of the many actual conversations he had had with actual airline employees -- not executives.
O'Hare Expansion - Typical of Illinois, the politicians took the "dealmaking" to the back room and when the Governor and the Mayor of Chicago emerged later, the plan was simple. Since this language, if it was ever revealed, would never fly through the state legislature, they would try and make it a federal piece of legislation and argue for the "good of the region." In the meantime, they would also get it to guarantee that the FAA would be the bad guy to force people to move from their homes in the end. And follow that up with adding language that would never allow any future Mayor of Governor to change anything in the deal. Fitzgerald would again be the sticking point to codifying something so secretive and doubtless harmful to the taxpayers of America to pass without drawing attention to it.
Public Corruption - With a Governor who deserves to be indicted and a Chicago Mayor who has spent literally billions on a piece of cement in downtown Chicago, appointing a courageous outsider could be the most single important thing Sen. Fitzgerald has done. The Senator, who has now appointed two U.S. Attorney's for Illinois, has shown a commitment to the clear and impartial way he believes law enforcement should work. Senator Fitzgerald had to ward off party bosses to assure the integrity of the process. Fortunately, President Bush saw Fitzgerald's reasoning and sided with the senator in his selections for the state.
When President Bush was speaking of America's character, a man who fights for those he is elected to represent is what came to my mind. For my money, Senator Fitzgerald is going far out of his way to do the right things, and to do the right things, the right way. These are the true earmarks of character. These are the qualities we need in every senator elected in November.
Why? "Because it is important for the world to see - America's Character."
Contact Kevin McCullough at kmc@wyll.com.
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