Online biography dan rostenkowski

Biography.
Representative Dan Rostenkowski (1928 - 2010) In Congress 1959 - 1995 Member Hide Overview Dan Rostenkowski Collection of the US House of Representatives.
Dan Rostenkowski (Daniel David Rostenkowski) (rŏs´tənkou´skē), 1928–2010, U.S. congressman, b.

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Rostenkowski

For thirteen years, during a time of Democratic congressional dominance in Washington, Dan Rostenkowski became one of the most influential American legislators of the twentieth century. As chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, the representative from Illinois influenced the nation’s tax laws, international trade, Social Security, health care, welfare, and a good many other areas—policies that affected most Americans. Richard Cohen’s scrupulous political biography of Rostenkowski follows his rise to power from modest origins in the Democratic ward politics of Chicago’s Polish northwest side, to his legislative triumphs, and ultimately to his criminal conviction and imprisonment for abuses of House practice. Because Rostenkowski served so many years in Congress (1959-1995), his career offers a prism into the changing nature of the institution and of the Democratic party, a change that gradually brought a new bitterness to Washington politics. Even when the congressman gained national influence, he remained close to Chicago politics and his boss, Ri

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Rostenkowski, Dan

Dan Rostenkowski (Daniel David Rostenkowski) (rŏs´tənkou´skē), 1928–2010, U.S. congressman, b. Chicago, grad. Loyola Univ. (1951). A Democrat, he was first elected as a U.S. representative from Illinois in 1958 and served 18 terms. Rostenkowski became chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in 1981. Once one of the country's most influential congressmen, he helped secure (1983) legislation to keep the social security system solvent and played a major role in the passage (1986) of a new federal tax code. In 1994, Rostenkowski was indicted on corruption charges and stepped down as Ways and Means chairman; he lost his House seat in congressional elections later that year. He pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 1996, and was fined and served (1996–97) a 17-month sentence. He subsequently worked as a political consultant, commentator, and college teacher. Rostenkowski was pardoned by President Clinton in 2000.

See biography by R. E. Cohen (1999); J. L. Merriner, Mr. Chairman: Power in Dan Rostenkowski's America (1999).

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FATHERS, SONS AND UNHOLY GHOSTS

The feds are investigating ghost payrolling in Chicago. But an anthropologist decoding kinship systems of an exotic tribe would have an easier time than one tracing the web of personal and political connections inside the Chicago Machine.

Story by James L. Merriner
Illustrations by Mike Cramer

Let us consider two Chicago Democrats, a white Machine loyalist and an African-American anti-Machine crusader, and see what they might have in common.

The former, Joseph P. Rostenkowski, the father of former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, was a down-the-line regular Democrat. He served as 32nd Ward alderman from 1931 to 1955 and as ward committeeman from 1936 to 1961.

The latter, Harold Washington, won election as the city's first black mayor in 1983 and re-election in 1987. He boasted of assassinating the Machine and dancing on its grave.

What these two men had in common was that they both were ghost payrollers for the Machine in the 1950s.

The U.S. Justice Department, which has been investigating ghost payrolling in Chicago for six years