Peoria Pundit

I’ve recently remarked to more than one person that with his son Darin running against Kevin Lyons for Peoria County State’s Attorney, Congressman Ray LaHood is going to have to do something especially nefarious to get any criticism from me. That’s how much I want Lyons out of office (and how much I think young Mr. LaHood is qualified for the job). I don’t want any criticism of Ray to be used against Darin.

Still, it wouldn’t be right for me to pass up mention of this Associated Press report on the less-than-heinous travel habits of Illinois’ Congressional delegation:

Two Republicans, the now-retired Rep. Dennis Hastert and retiring Rep. Ray LaHood, and two Democrats, Reps. Danny Davis and Luis Gutierrez, accounted for more than half the reported value of all the trips. Hastert’s tab was more than $20,000 of the $72,000 total of taxpayer-funded expenses.

[snip]

LaHood made two of his taxpayer-funded trips at a cost of $6,847 after he announced last July that he would not seek re-election to an eighth term. These included a five-day trip to Denmark, Sweden and Ireland, and eight days with another delegation in Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.

In an interview, LaHood said the trips increased his knowledge on such issues as energy and trade so that he would be better prepared in casting the remaining votes in the final months of his congressional career.

“I am not leaving (right now),” he said. “I was elected to January 3.”

Courtesy of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan leadership organization, LaHood and his wife also had $6,947 in expenses paid for a five-day trip to Costa Rica last fall so the congressman could attend a conference on Latin America. Lodging and meals were $3,485 of the cost.

LaHood noted that his district includes the headquarters of Caterpillar Inc., a company with major interest in trade matters as the world’s leading manufacturer of farm equipment.

I have been critical in the past because some of the trips were funded by lobbyist groups, like the above-mentioned Aspen Institute and the Nuclear Energy Institute, which lobbies Congress on behalf of the nuclear power industry.

The difference now, I think, is that LaHood did answer questions from the Associated Press.

And I am curious as why the article doesn’t mention LaHood’s trips to Lebanon, where he was representing the United States.

This entry was posted on June 21, 2008 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Politics . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.