Progress Illinois

Back from his surprise trip to Honduras, in which he and a Republican delegation met with the nation's interim president President Roberto Micheletti (who assumed power through a military coup and has been subsequently condemned by the Obama administration and the European Union), Rep. Peter Roskam had some generous things to say about one of his travel partners, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina). Listen as he speaks admiringly of his congressional colleague on WLS’ Don Wade and Roma:

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ROSKAM: Senator DeMint is so grounded and wise and I came away just very, very impressed with him.

Is there a second Jim DeMint serving in Washington? Because if we're talking about the South Carolina arch-conservative, words like "grounded" and "wise" seem a tad inappropriate.

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After failing to derail President Obama’s popular stimulus package, House Republicans are turning their attention to one of the White House’s next big endeavors: cap-and-trade. Specifically, the caucus is attempting to paint the scheme—which aims to reduce industrial carbon emissions—as too expensive for both consumers and businesses.

For an example of what this approach looks like, take a listen to these remarks from GOP Rep. Peter Roskam's on WLS’ Don Wade and Roma yesterday, in which he equates cap-and-trade with a massive tax increase:

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DON WADE: Is there anything that won’t rise in price if we have a cap-and-trade system installed?

ROSKAM: No. I’ve not thought of it that way before Don, but I think you’ve put it really well. Cap-and-trade is something that is going to have an impact on every American and every product that they use or every service that they use. We had a witness—ironically, it was a Democratic witness that was before the Ways and Means Committee last week, Dr. Hansen I believe—who says, “Let’s not call this cap-and-trade, call it what it is: tax-and-trade.” It is a broad tax that is going to run into a lot of opposition I think in the House of Representatives. But you’re right to characterize it that way. It is incredibly sweeping. And I think a lot of folks don’t understand how broad and how wide the implications are.

Roskam’s GOP colleague Rep. John Shimkus used a similar line in January when he said cap-and-trade is little more than a “shell game to hide the cost from the ultimate person who is going to pay.” And there is a kernel of truth to their critique. Initially, low-income households will face higher costs (PDF) for a variety of products and services that rely on carbon inputs. And if designed poorly, cap-and-trade could be quite regressive. But ending the discussion there is insufficient.

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When President Obama stopped by the Catepillar plant in Peoria last week, he urged freshman GOP Rep. Aaron Schock to buck his party’s leaders and support the stimulus bill. Like every other Republican in the House, Schock ultimately voted against the measure. And his main justification is completely divorced from reality. Listen to his explanation yesterday on WLS’ Don Wade and Roma:

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ROMA: Let me ask this question. How many pages are in that final stimulus package?

SCHOCK: It’s over 1,000 pages.

ROMA: Over 1,000 pages. Would you even dream of signing a contract which you knew was highly controversial with a mind-boggling price tag—$787 billion—without ever reading the contract?

SCHOCK: Absolutely not. This was the biggest spending bill in our nation’s history. And not only would I not sign it without reading it, but no honest American or no honest congressman would sign it either.”

The last phrase is patently absurd. According to his logic, all 246 Democrats in the House and 60 Senators who voted for the bill are not “honest Americans.” I can’t imagine he actually believes that. Then again, he has been prone to these kinds of careless generalizations in the past.

But let’s focus on his first point. Does the length of the bill reflect its value in any way? Stan Collender, critiquing a similar argument made by Foreign Times blogger Clive Crook, says not in the slightest:

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To succeed as President, Barack Obama is going to have to help revive the American economy. That's the issue that dominated the campaign, especially the last two months, and it's what voters are entrusting him to do. We've already blogged at length about the importance of a vibrant economic stimulus plan, a plan Obama seems to favor. But a government injection shouldn't stop there. As Rep. Danny Davis suggested on WLS' Don Wade and Roma this morning, the federal government can play a constructive role in creating sustainable jobs now. Listen:

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ROMA: What’s the first issue you want to see resolved, other than the economy, when Obama comes to Washington?

DAVIS: Well, it would be a clear-cut stategy -- and a very direct one -- for putting more people to work. One way shape, form, or fashion.

While Davis' point is general, it's one that's been echoed by progressives for months.

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Hoping to survive an oncoming Democratic wave, John McCain and his Republican cohorts popularized a new campaign meme this past week -- the "dangerous threesome":

Referring to Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, House speaker, and Harry Reid, Senate majority leader, Mr. McCain told a rally in Cleveland, Ohio: "You know, my friends, this is a dangerous threesome. They believe that $1 trillion of rescue financing is not enough and have already proposed another $300bn spending spree they're calling a stimulus plan."

This idea that voting for Republican candidates will prevent the "threesome" from overreaching has trickled into some tight congressional races too, especially in districts where Obama is expected to fare well. GOP Rep. Peter Roskam, fearing a 14-point Obama landslide in the 6th District, warned of one-party rule on WLS' Don Wade & Roma In The Morning last Wednesday:

ROSKAM: My predecessor Henry Hyde had a great description for things. And he said, “There’s one thing worse than gridlock in Washington and the worse thing is the greased shoot of government.” And I think there’s a lot of wisdom there.  If government does things fast, without other voices, without other people raising issues and raising questions, it tends not to work out too well.

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After more than 20 years on the air, WLS' Don Wade & Roma Morning Show is a Chicago media institution, regularly featuring appearances from high-profile journalists and commentators, not to mention politicians from both sides of the aisle.  As the Tribune's Eric Zorn recently explained, "The idea used to be the conservative, Don, sparring with the liberal, Roma. But Roma has veered to the right in recent years and the show has lost its bi-partisan charm."  Indeed, while they bill themselves as the "most positive, optimistic radio show in the universe," Don's hard-line conservative views and contempt for the Democratic presidential nominee have been anything but "positive" or "optimistic" in recent months.

That lack of charm was evident Friday morning when Don -- fed up with the media's purported coddling of Barack Obama -- imagined how the press would react if shown a video of the candidate murdering his elderly, ailing grandmother in Hawaii.  Here's how he set the scene:

The video clearly shows grandmother greeting Barack Obama, coming through the door.  Barack Obama comes over, sits down beside the grandmother, and places a pillow over her face -- and holds the pillow over her face -- holds the pillow over her face until she struggles no more.

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GOP Rep. Mark Kirk is all in a tizzy about the newest TV ad coming from Democrat challenger Dan Seals' camp. The video features Caleb Davis -- an Iraq vet from Peoria -- making the case that the incumbent Republican sent troops to war irresponsibly and didn't care for them when they returned from battle. Watch it here:

Rather than take on the message of the ad -- which he can't be too thrilled about -- Kirk has opted to go after the messenger, highlighting a Peoria Journal Star report that Davis wore a black T-shirt proclaiming "Investigate 9/11@911truth.org" to an event at a Peoria library.

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As we noted in the Early Bird, Rep. Mark Kirk is now expressing skepticism about John McCain's running mate. When asked if Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had the qualifications to become president, the North Shore Republican told the Tribune editorial board yesterday: "Quite frankly, I don't know." When pressed further, he told the assembled reporters "I would have picked someone different."

But one month ago, Kirk was signing a different tune.

Talking to the Tribune on September 1, he described himself as "encouraged" by the pick. In an September 2 interview on WLS' Don Wade And Roma In The Morning, Kirk praised the governor for her ethics crusading nature. Listen below:

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There's contrarian and then there's just silly. Speaking to WLS's Don Wade and Roma early this morning, Time editor-at-large Mark Halperin lauded House Republicans for protecting American taxpayers during the negotiations surrounding the mammoth -- and now defeated -- Wall Street bailout bill. Listen:

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HALPERIN: The House Republicans are kind of like the beleaguered, red-headed step children of our political system right now. They are the minority in the lower house. But if it weren’t for them, I think we would have had a deal passed that would have had less oversight, more money, more dictatorial powers. And so we're in a better place than we were, but it still ain't a great place. 

DON WADE: Are we marking down Mark Halperin: friend of House Republicans?

HALPERIN: A staunch backer in this case. I really think they did the public a lot of good because the House Democrats weren’t crazy about what the White House proposed.  But if House Republicans had stepped forward and said "We're in line, Mr. President.  We're going to vote for this," the thing would have passed probably largely the way the administration would have proposed it.

Where to start ...

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Some conservatives are laying blame for the mortgage crisis in all the wrong places.

Earlier this week, the National Review joined others on the right in in castigating the Community Reinvestment Act, which forced banks to loan in communities of color at the same level as other neighborhoods.

Others, like Chicago radio personality Don Wade, thinks it's the fault of Congress for their lack of oversight. While interviewing Rep. Jan Schakowsky on WLS' Don Wade & Roma In The Morning today, he asked: "But what about the very regulators who were supposed to be manning the gates – the people like [Rep.] Barney Frank [D-MA] and [Sen.] Chris Dodd [D-CT] and all of those people?"  Of course, many overlook that the securitization and selling of the debt got us where we are today, not the mortgage defaults themselves. This practice was made possible by Congress' dismantling of the depression-era Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, which had the effect of handcuffing government regulators whose job it was to prevent such risky financial maneuvers.

Schakowsky reminded the WLS hosts that not everyone in Washington supported that move. Listen below:

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ROMA: You guys were all overseeing all of this. You were supposed to be being sure everyone was on the mark as well. So I think the blame is going to spread both sides of the aisle.  I think it’s going to spread all the way up the tree to the top.  And I think the average citizen who takes out a mortgage in good faith is the one left holding the bag. I feel like I'm on a snipe-hunt.

SCHAKOWSKY: You know … in 1999, there were 57 of us who voted not to do the deregulation of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley bill that actually set the stage for all of this -- the repeal of Glass-Steagall. And you know, and this is the result of that. The Congress has been working all year to try and help homeowners and communities, not just people who got themselves into bad loans, and we did pass some legislation. But the regulation system is completely out of whack.

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