Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL) doesn’t care much about the US Constitution but he’s a big fan of the DMV.
After an embarrassing confrontation at a public meeting last week Rep. Phil Hare threatened to follow a constituent and Vietnam veteran to his car and get his license plate number so he could find out who he was.
Bob McCarty at Big Government reported:
On Monday, May 31, 2001, Mr. Hare and I were engaged in a conversation concerning the statements he is making around the district about being a veteran. After I pointed out that according to the law he is not a veteran, he became very upset and demanded to know my name. I refused to tell him my name, saying that this was about his claim of being a veteran and not about me.
Mr. Hare then told one of his aids who was with him, to follow me to my car and get my license plate number so he could find out who I was. I have since been told that Mr. Hare’s daughter works for the DMV.
I then asked Mr. Hare if he was going to stop telling people that he was a veteran. Mr. Hare again demanded to know my name, and again told his aide to get my name or to follow me to get my license plate number so he could find out who I was, so he could tell all the former reservist what I said.
I asked Mr. Hare if he as a public official was going to use his official office to run name checks on private citizens, in order to intimidate them into not asking questions he did not want to answer.
As Mr. Hare was turning to walk away form me he paused, and turning back to my direction, he glared at me intently, and while leaning forward pointed his finger at me, and in a threatening and intimidating manner said, “I’ll find out who you are!” Given the nature of Illinois politics and Mr. Hare’s reputation as a mean politician, I felt intimidated by the power of Mr. Hare’s office and what he might do.