Ray LaHood took a trip to Paris paid for by lobbyists, but you’re not going to read about it in the Journal Star
There’s been chatter in the Illinois Blogosphere for weeks about how Illinois lawmakers are touring the world, sometimes on the dime of organizations which lobby members of Congress. The problem? That’s illegal.
U.S. Reps and Senators recently released some financial statements, including U.S. Rep Ray LaHood, a Republican from Peoria’s very own 18th Congressional District.
Today’s article by Dori Meinert mentions LaHood’s visit to a Lebanese university give a commencement speech, paid by the university. It also mentions the 10-day trip he and his wife took to China, paid for by the non-partisan Aspen Institute, a non-partisan think thank.
And it also includes LaHood’s bland assertion that nothing is wrong, because taxpayers weren’t billed. Well, no kidding. That’s not the issue. The issue is whether Congressmen are accepting items of value from lobbyists.
And LaHood is doing exactly that.
The article doesn’t mention LaHood’s $15,002 visit to Paris and Cherbourg, France, paid for by the Nuclear Energy Institute – a trade organization for the nuclear power industry, which includes corporations like General Electric. Does the NEI lobby Congress. You bet. Since 1998, the NEI has hired 38 firms to lobby the federal government on its behalf and at last count had 15 lobbying firms on retainer.
When LaHood was quizzed about it on WMBD radio, he said flat out that none of these trips were paid by lobbyists, a statement which is untrue.
This isn’t a secret. Everything I learned, I learned from records and documents from watchdog organizations. I know for a fact that my site and other Peoria sites that mentioned this two weeks ago are very well read in the offices of the Journal Star. So why hasn’t this information ever appeared in the pages of Peoria’s newspaper of record?
There are two possibilities. One is that the reporters at the JS who cover politics are lazy and/or stupid. But that doesn’t make sense, because these people have editors and those people have editors, who certainly are self-aware enough to realize there’s an important political story not being covered. And the last time, I checked, covering politics was something claimed was its role.
So either the editors aren’t pushing for this story, or they are deliberately keeping that story out of the paper. And also not ruling out the possibility that JS reporters aren’t even bothering to report it because they know their bosses don’t want them to cover it. Self censorship at it’s best.
Whatever the reason, it’s not pretty.
LaHood, the world traveler on lobbyist’s dime
LaHood ‘tripped’ up by lie about lobbyists?
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
So did 99% of everybody else in Congress. But it’s only bad when Republicans do it.
Vonster: You are aware, aren’t you, that I only cover Peoria and that Peoria doesn’t have a DEMOCRATIC representative in Congress? When have I ever demonstrated that I only criticize Republicans? You are spinning here just as are Durbin’s backers on the Gitmo story.
What spin?? And I wasn’t accusing you – just commenting on the whole Delay/trips thing. Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse. meeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Vonster said: “What spin?”
O…M…F…G…I’ve just spit coffee all over the monitor. That has taken it’s place at the top of the funniest things this guy has ever typed.
[...] Third: LaHood is dirty. He’s in no position to pontificate on campaign finance rules. This isn’t the ranting of some pissed off blogger with an ax to grind; it’s all a matter or public record. LaHood went on several foreign trips, some of which were paid for by a group that lobbies Congress. Then he went on local radio and said none of the trips were paid for by lobbyists. Then, an Associated Press article ran in newspapers all over America and the world about Congressmen earning frequent flyer miles on trips that were paid by these groups. The lead to this article was a quote from Ray LaHood. This article did not run in the Peoria media. [...]
[...] Perhaps one day someone at the JS will decide to question LaHood directly about his questionable decision to let lobbyists pay for his foreign travel, and the frequent flyer miles he earned directly. [...]
[...] LaHood took a trip to France paid for the Nuclear Energy Institut. I blogged about it, and WMBD 1470 asked him about it, and LaHood said it wasn’t a lobby group. It took me five minutes on the Web to disprove that statement. [...]