This is almost too rich to believe.
There are some folks in the Illinois legislature that are pushing forward a bill that would put $100 Million of public money - our money - toward building the Barack Obama Presidential library.
Now...the merits of spending taxpayer money on the Presidential Library aren't what we're really interested in discussing here. But what we want to talk about is the process that the Democrats in Illinois are taking to get us (us = everybody in the State of Illinois) there.
Yesterday...The House Executive Committee meeting in Chicago today voted, by an official tally of 9-0, to authorize using state money for the library.
Yep. Nine to Nothing. The problem? Only five representatives were there.
Nine representatives were recorded as voting for the bill, even though there were five lawmakers in attendance at the hearing. That is because Rep. Bob Rita (D-Blue Island), who chairs the Executive Committee, employed a procedural move.
Rita used the attendance record from a previous hearing that occurred Wednesday as the vote for the presidential library cash. House Speaker Michael Madigan, who sat in on today’s hearing, clarified Rita’s maneuver, saying the attendance would serve as nine votes in favor of the library, even though the previous committee hearing was on a possible Chicago casino and not related to a presidential library.
No Republicans attended Thursday’s hearing on the presidential library.
Rep. Ed Sullivan (R-Mundelein) was marked as voting yes on the measure, even though he did not attend Thursday’s hearing and was working at his non-legislative job. He had attended Wednesday’s hearing on gambling expansion.
Sullivan said he was under the impression Thursday’s hearing was only to hear testimony about the presidential library, and no votes would be taken.
“They’ve broken the trust and I think they’ve done something illegal,” Sullivan said of the procedural move. “The legacy of a potential Obama library shouldn’t start out as a result of an illegal act.”So...the Democrats want to start this whole process of getting this Library stood up with this farce?
From the Ed Sullivan:
In a stunning violation of House rules, Illinois House Democrats used a subject matter only meeting today to advance legislation aimed at steering $100 million in public funds towards luring the Obama Presidential Library to Chicago.
“The legacy of the Obama Presidential Library shouldn’t be kicked off in a cloud of controversy,” stated State Representative Ed Sullivan (R, Mundelein). “Not only was the meeting a misrepresentation, so was the false roll call taken.”
