Dan Rostenkowski Dies at 82

(USA Today) Former U.S. House Representative Dan Rostenkowski, the Chicago Democrat who became the leading architect of Congressional tax policy in the Reagan administration, died Wednesday.  He was 82 years old.  Daniel David Rostenkowski was born on January 2, 1928 into one of Chicago's leading Polish-American political families.  His father was an alderman.  Rostenkowski was educated at St. John's Academy, a Wisconsin military school, and Loyola University in Chicago.  He served in the infantry in Korea from 1946 to 1948.  He was a state representative and later a state senator in Illinois before his election to the U.S. House in 1958.  He served 18 terms before losing in 1994.  He died surrounded by family at his home in Lake Benedict, Wisconsin.  He died of lung cancer. 

He was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.  He was known as a consensus builder and a master of legislative tactics.  He is credited with leading a 1983 effort to rescue Social Security from insolvency and pushing through a sweeping 1986 overhaul of the nation's tax system.  He was involved in a corruption scandal which eventually landed him in federal prison for a few years.  Despite the corruption scandal that plagued Rostenkowski prior to being ousted from Congress in 1994, friends and colleagues said he will be mostly remembered as a master politican who was able to get things accomplished.  "He was the go-to-guy for Chicago mayors," former Secretary of Commerce William Daley said.  Rostenkowski was proud of representing an urban district and supposedly saw his job as bringing projects back to Chicago, including major construction projects such as the Kennedy Expressway and the subway between O'Hare International Airport and downtown, William Daley said.  Rostenkowski acknowledged that his legacy would be tained by his stint in federal prison.  "I know that my obituary will say," 'Dan Rostenkowski, felon' and it is something that I have to live with," he said in a 1998 broadcast interview with Robert Novak and Mark Shields.

In 2000 President Clinton pardoned Rostenkowski with encouragement from former president Gerald Ford and former House minority leader Robert Michel.  Rostenkowski's troubles began in 1992 when a grand jury in Washington charged him with 17 counts of misusing government and campaign funds.  The scandal forced him to step down as chairman and led to his 1994 defeat by unknown Republican Michael Patrick Flanagan.  In the end, Rostenkowski pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud.  He admitted that he had converted office funds to his own use for gifts such as Lenox china and armchairs.  He even admitted hiring people on his congressional payroll who did little or no official work--but took care of his lawn, took photographs at political events and family weddings, helped his family's business and supervised the renovation of his house. 

Rostenkowski served 17 months in prison, mainly at the federal government's correctional center at Oxford, Wisconsin.  I can recall Rush Limbaugh back in the early 90's referring to Rostenkowski as Daniel "Rostie" Rostenkowski.  He was another career politician who abused his position of power for his own personal gain.  It's tragic!  There are those presently serving in Congress much worse than Rostenkowski such as Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.  We definitely need to vote those two thieves and scumbugs out.