Schock whines for funds, already

JPDATE Dec. 21, 2008: Check out this helpful link to Open Secrets for information on Schock's finances.

PEORIA -- As usual, the Springfield State Journal-Register has the best political coverage on Peoria's newly elected Republican Congressman Aaron Schock.

Its crack political reporter Bernie Schoenburg reports that the 27-year-old newbie Schock has sent out an aggressive fund raising letter to area Republicans apparently based on his own and Cong. Ray LaHood's lists. LaHood (R-18th) is retiring at the end of this year, to be replaced by Schock.

Read the entire piece, and the letter, on the newspaper's site, linked to above.

It contains an attack on the press where Schock refuses to name names (shades of Joe McCarthy) and other amusing goodies.

The thin-skinned Schock apparently doesn't like press criticism.

Schoenburg's piece does contain one misrepresentation, which has been repeated endlessly by the press in Schock's favor:

Schock did say that he was referring to stories involving Schock’s being a notary. Callahan ran late ads in the campaign after it was reported that Schock’s father had testified in a trial that the younger Schock years earlier had notarized documents with false dates while helping his parents set up tax shelters. Neither Schock was accused of wrongdoing, and the elder Schock testified as the victim of an alleged scam.

There's another way to interpret Schock's dad's actions in this case: he was trying to cheat the US out of taxes, got caught, and ratted out the guys who set up the scam.

And Schock, in supplying false documents (a misdemeanor, with prosecution barred by the statute of limitations) also helped. So they were not ACCUSED of wrongdoing in court, but in the court of public opinion, plenty of people thought what Schock did was wrongdoing.

But not enough. Schock won the election anyway. Looks like he would shut up about it instead of raise it again by issuing such a letter. But no matter.

Will nukes to Taiwan be resurrected next? We'll see.

See other stories under the heading "Schock and the 18th District" for more on Schock.

-- Elaine Hopkins