“When I cross the river for the last time, my thoughts will be of the House, the House, the House." -Henry Hyde, repeating what he overheard a father of four from Hoboken say on the tee vee about the subprime mortgage scandal.
Chicago’s own Henry Hyde, former Democrat turned Republican Congressman who had an affair with a married woman in his forties and went on to lead the charge in Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial over his indiscretion with White House intern Monica Lewinsky died early this morning at the age of 83.
Hyde was best known for the Hyde Amendment. If anyone couldn’t keep their rosaries out of somebody else’s ovaries, it was Congressman Hyde:
"Hyde represented a GOP district in suburban Chicago and cut his teeth on the rough-and-tumble politics of the city. He served in the state legislature before being elected to Congress in 1974. Not long after, he sponsored the Hyde Amendment, which essentially banned federally funded abortions. It passed in 1976."
In addition to the well liked, Irish Catholic Congressman with the “sharp wit” who was respected by “both sides of the aisle”, Hyde went on to soak Chicago land taxpayers an estimated $68 million during the Clyde Federal Savings and Loan scandal. Hyde, after leaving left the S&L, insisted that he engaged in no wrongdoing and was the only director who refused to contribute $850,000 settlement that eventually led to the lawsuit's dismissal. Henry Hyde was also a stand-up comedian.
-2Truthy
3 comments:
n 1981, after leaving the House Banking Committee, Hyde went on the board of directors of Clyde Federal Savings and Loan, whose President was one of many of Hyde's banker contributors. The Congress deregulated S&L industry in 1982, and Clyde began taking part in loans for luxury residences in Texas and bought a bank in the Cayman Islands, a notorious financial exchange for laundering money. Since 1984, when Hyde left the board, it was clear to the directors from the reports that the establishment had failed, but Hyde and others on the board continued to give inappropriate financial loans to cronies and insiders and make it possible for the establishment to overcharge the government on student loans. In 1990, the federal government put Clyde in receivership, and finally paid $67 million to cover deposits. In 1993, the Resolution Trust Corporation sued Hyde and other directors for $17.2 million.
Hyde had an extramarital affair in the late 1960 and destroyed a family.
Hyde was 41, a state legislator, and the father of four sons when the affair began in 1965 with a
29-year-old Cherie Snodgrass, who had a son and two daughters between the ages of 7 and 9 at the time. The relationship lasted until at least 1969.
The Snodgrasses divorced because of the affair.
Shalom,
---Leland Milton Goldblatt, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Thank you, Professor Goldblatt, for these details which round out the extent to which Hyde was neck deep in cronism and screwing the public and another man's wife. Indeeed, the Chicago Tribune's eulogy was a tad more 'reverent.'
It's like "Hey Hank! Don't let the casket lid hit you on the way down!" kind of dirt like this that makes you want to finally just say "NO" to paying income tax.
-t.t.
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