For Obama, the seat on the environment and public works panel will give him a strong hand in negotiating the state's share of federal dollars in the massive highway bill expected to pass next session. Illinois, and Chicago in particular, lost considerable influence in terms of transportation funding when U.S. Rep. Bill Lipinski (D-Ill.), an influential member of the House Transportation Committee, retired this summer.

On foreign relations, Obama will have a voice on policy initiatives ranging from nuclear proliferation to the war on terror.

Democratic leaders are keen to use Obama's rising profile as a public face for their foreign-policy positions, Democratic congressional aides said.

In the same self-deprecating vein, he also raised up a mock National Enquirer headline declaring: "Obama's shocking secret. He's Strom Thurmond's Love Child."...

He said he and President Bush have a lot in common--they both graduated from Ivy League schools, married above their station and beat Alan Keyes.

The senator-elect teased about his big victory over Keyes, saying that he received 70 percent of the vote statewide "and 102 percent in Chicago. Our voting system is so advanced that the folks in Florida are coming up to study it and see what they can learn."

- posted by Cynthia @ 2:09 PM | | | Link |