First, let me say that John Laesch is an excellent candidate in his own right, and deserves to be supported as such.  He has a record of universal healthcare advocacy, and will work towards universal healthcare coverage when elected.  He also will work toward the redeployment of our troops.  His Navy intelligence background gives him a unique perspective that will help us nationally as we try to get out of this mess.  He works for a living. He is supportive of veterans' rights, worker's rights and education funding.  He is extremely bright, thoughtful and listens to his constituents.   And he would, in my view, actually bring back representation to his district (something of which, as a constituent, I am wholeheartedly in favor.) Regarding his campaign, he won the local Democratic primary (a Dem contest is almost unheard-of in my red IL-14) with 2/3 of the vote. He has hundreds of volunteers and has gotten strong endorsements.

But my vote for John Laesch's netroots endorsement goes way beyond his candidacy.  For me, 2006 is about the survival of the House of Representatives.  And as the netroots is a national endorsement, I think that must be the focus.  And in my view, there is no greater current threat to the very health and survival of the House of Representatives than Dennis Hastert.

His time will be known as a time of wanton lawlessness by the governing party and leading public officials of the day. Specifically, he and his team have disgraced the People's house and betrayed the public trust. DeLay. Ney. Lewis. Cunningham. Wide-spread bribery. Prostitutes. A corrupt earmarking regime. Anyone who has been in Washington during the Hastert years knows it has been pay to play, on every issue, every day.

That is Dennis Hastert.  

The Sunlight Foundation took the occasion of today's release of Dennis Hastert's financial disclosure statement to call out an allegedly undisclosed land trust deal near the planned Prairie Parkway.  The land trust was set up and coordinated by the treasurer of Hastert's election campaign, Dallas Ingemunson (who is also the chairman of the Kendall County Republicans).

"Tell me the weight of a snowflake," a coal-mouse asked a wild dove.  "Nothing more than nothing," was the answer.  "In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story," the coal-mouse said.

"I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow-not heavily, not in a raging blizzard-no, just like a dream, without a sound and without any violence. Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the 3,741,953rd dropped onto the branch, nothing more than nothing, as you say-the branch broke off."

Having said that, the coal-mouse flew away.

The dove, since Noah's time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for awhile, and finally said to herself, "Perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace to come to the world."

One thing I have come to know about John Laesch: he understands tipping points.