Former Ways and Means Chairman Rostenkowski dies

Former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), whose legacy as a powerful House chairman was sullied after an ethics scandal that landed him in prison, died Wednesday.

Rostenkowski was 82 and, according to The Chicago Tribune, had been battling cancer.

{mosads}Literally born into Chicago politics — he was the son of a city alderman and state representative, and the grandson of a delegate to the 1912 Democratic National Convention — Rostenkowski wasted little time in staking claim to his birthright. At 23, he was elected to his father Joe’s former seat in the state legislature and, within a decade, had secured the backing of the city’s most important figure, Mayor Richard J. Daley.

With Daley’s support, Rostenkowski cruised to victory in the 1958 race to represent Illinois’s 5th district — the start of his national career.

Rostenkowski — or “Rosty,” as he came to be known — took the lessons of Chicago politics with him to Washington. And in his quest for power he became, almost by accident, one of the most influential lawmakers of his generation.

Within eight years of arriving in the Capitol, Rostenkowski landed a spot on one of the most coveted committees: Ways and Means. As chairman of the tax-writing panel from 1981 until 1994, Rostenkowski cemented his role as a leader of the loyal Democratic opposition, first to President Reagan and then to President George H.W. Bush.

Rostenkowski’s crowning achievement as a legislator came in 1986, after he steered through Congress a major revision of the tax code. His skill sparked rumors that he would run for House Speaker following the reign of another political legend, Tip O’Neill.

After agonizing over the decision, Rostenkowski opted to retain his gavel.

In 1988, Rostenkowski led a charge to reform healthcare by creating a national catastrophic coverage health insurance system. But backlash from the public, particularly senior citizens, was strong. And in the course of one constituent meeting, where a video camera caught Rostenkowski being chased into his car and down the street by a mob of angry seniors, he became the face of one of the Democratic Party’s most stinging policy defeats.

While Rostenkowski left a multitude of marks on the House during his 36-year career, the most lasting arguably came from the scandal that effectively ended his career.

In 1993, just as Rostenkowski was readying to run the tax panel for the first time under a Democratic president, a small-scale investigation begun a year earlier into a handful of members thought to be scamming the House Post Office had grown into a major federal investigation. And Rostenkowski was at the center of the probe.

A guilty plea in 1996 to two counts of mail fraud earned Rostenkowski a 17-month federal prison sentence. But by then, he had already lost his House seat during the 1994 Republican wave.

Just months before he faced voters, and already facing a host of allegations that he had misused his office for personal gain — and with a federal indictment on the horizon — Rostenkowski passed up a chance to retire among a last wave of members allowed to convert their campaign chests to personal funds, and pressed his innocence.

He was pardoned by President Clinton in 2000.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) called Rostenkowski “one of the most powerful leaders ever to serve in U.S. Congress.”

“He was a big D Democrat, but always able to work across the aisle to get things done,” she said in a statement. “He and I didn’t always agree, but I always admired his effective leadership. My heart goes out to his family, and my hope is that his many accomplishments and his ‘larger than life’ role in the Congress will overshadow and outlive the later problems he faced.”