Hastert and the Environment.

Funny thing about Denny Hastert and the nation's environment. He has no environmental voting record.

His routine response on the issue is along the lines of "... vote information from special interest groups..." but we know differently.

For more than 15 years, the Hasterts lived on a prime piece of property on US Route 34, almost directly at the end of Bristol Ridge Road. That means nothing to anyone who lives outside the area (sort of like Hastert himself), but to those who know him, that meant Denny didn't have far to go to stuff himself and tip a few back down at the Bristol Tap (which is a great place, btw).

The southeast side of Hastert's old property (which is now Yorkville, but only "technically" referred to as Yorkville when he lived there) is bounded by the Fox River, a fairly shallow but brisk river that runs through about 170 miles of Wisconsin and Illinois.

One other important thing about the Fox River is that it's an endangered waterway.

Now, funny that I note it's endangered. Technically, it's not anymore. But in 1999 (coincidentally, the year Hastert accidentally became Speaker) it was placed at number seven on the list of endangered waterways in the U.S., having been polluted so badly by lawn chemicals, sewage, runoff and by industrial waste from the Dial Corporation in Montgomery, Illinois. Dial had plenty of company, too; a number of other industrial sites dumped manufacturing waste in the Fox for years.

And, oh my goodness, yes. On the other side of the Fox River are two Superfund sites. I almost forgot about them.

Now, does it make sense that a guy who would live so close to lead-infested, EPA-inspected sites, and who for many years lived on a piece of land lapped upon by polluted waters is not voting on environmental issues?

I didn't think so, either. But that's still not the big issue I alluded to the other day.

This is just a little eye-opener that people outside IL CD-14 don't know much about.

Now you do.