I still remember that sickening panic 21 years ago when my passport went missing. The Bradley University men’s basketball team was leaving for Tokyo to play in a college basketball tournament in 10 days. Repeated, methodical, desperate searches throughout our Peoria townhouse failed to uncover that little blue passport with the Japanese visa stamped inside.

Without that passport, I couldn’t accompany the university’s traveling party on the long journey to the Japanese capital in December 1988. While this wouldn’t have signaled the end of the world, such a circumstance was problematic for career growth.

You have to understand that in Peoria, Ill., a midsized, central Illinois city located on the Illinois River, interest in Bradley University basketball is rivaled only by the fortunes of Caterpillar Inc. And despite the fact that this Fortune 500 Company is headquartered in Peoria, and still employs 16,000 people throughout central Illinois, it remains a close race between Bradley basketball and the giant earthmoving manufacturer over who pushes the needle the most in central Illinois.

So considering my primary job at the Journal Star required chronicling every detail surrounding this basketball team, missing this trip to Tokyo wasn’t an acceptable option.

But the stars were properly aligned this time. In 1988, Peoria’s congressman was a pleasant man named Bob Michel, a moderate Republican who also happened to be the sitting U.S. House Minority Leader. Michel’s Chief of Staff was a man named Ray LaHood, who is now serving in President Obama’s cabinet as Secretary of Transportation.

The woman in Rep. Michael’s office that December day couldn’t have been more reassuring. It seems there was an important staffer in Michel’s Washington office who personally supervised these frequent passport mishaps.

That important staffer was LaHood, who called me at the Journal Star newsroom three days later. A new temporary passport would be there in a few days, LaHood happily reported.

Now it didn’t hurt my cause that both Michel and LaHood are proud Bradley graduates, who remain living metaphors for that institution’s unique relationship with Peoria. But as I look back on that brief phone conversation with LaHood 21 years ago, one thought stands out: The world really is a pretty small place.

LaHood’s life-altering political journey remained six years away in 1988. In 1994, Michel, an engaging World War II hero universally admired for his warm, common touch, was horrified by the fire-breathing  House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich’s hyper-aggressive partisanship. Recall that Gingrich, with Michel staying on the sidelines, guided the Republicans’ ultimately successful campaign to win the House in 1994.

Michel, who never served in a House majority, announced earlier that year he would retire from the House after 39 years in the body. LaHood, a career congressional staffer, returned to central Illinois, ran for Michel’s Peoria seat and won it easily in the Republican’s historic 1994 election windfall.

It turned out LaHood was an old-fashioned American politician.  Old-fashioned in the sense that LaHood easily made friends on both sides of the aisle and get this – actually enjoys working with both Republicans and Democrats. Yes, that does sound strangely like all that bipartisan stuff we’re reading about lately.

LaHood didn’t, and doesn’t, view governing and government as some great ideological crusade between liberals and conservatives. No, LaHood – like former moderate Erie Congressman Tom Ridge and Michel – served in the House with a quaint idea that voters elected them to make tough decisions and cast difficult votes with their best interests at heart.

LaHood didn’t win Michel’s seat to score points for Gingrich’s grand ideological vision. Indeed, LaHood was one of only three Republican House candidates who did not sign Gingrich’s Contract With America in 1994. LaHood also became a member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership. In today’s Republican Party, this moderation stuff makes LaHood seem like an unrecognizable alien.

The picture I’m drawing here doesn’t look familiar these days after Indiana’s two-term U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh unexpectedly decided to retire, citing the Senate’s usual institutional dysfunction and recent descent into nasty partisanship.

Now I’m not particularly sympathetic to Bayh’s whiny exit. The Senate was largely dysfunctional when Bayh’s legendary father served there. While it’s true obnoxious Senate Republicans are abusing antiquated filibuster rules in ways that no previous minority ever did, the solution for Bayh and whimpering Senate Democrats isn’t running away and retiring (exit speech). Democrats could try fighting back and figuring how to reform cloture rules.

But what interests me here is the regrettably unusual example LaHood continues to set in Washington. LaHood just doesn’t understand why elected public servants can’t serve and legislate with the occasional smile and a friendly hand held out in a bipartisan, professional manner.

Obama, whose own bipartisan inclinations became well known in his brief time in the U.S. Senate, came to know LaHood when both served in Illinois’ congressional delegation. What Sen. Obama undoubtedly noticed is the only thing that really interests LaHood is results. Practical, pragmatic achievements that help Americans confront their daily problems. Obama also noted LaHood’s history of working with Democrats, and that the Peoria congressman founded a series of congressional retreat events designed to create a new collegiality in the House between the two parties. That nobody really took these retreats seriously says more about LaHood than his cranky House colleagues.

LaHood isn’t a polished, articulate politician like his Democratic presidential boss. Back on Feb. 3, LaHood earned some well-deserved Obama wrath after he told a congressional committee that the best thing Toyota car owners could do after the company’s 2.3 million sudden acceleration recall was “stop driving” their cars.

I’d wager Obama was laughing even as his staff took LaHood to the woodshed. LaHood was just saying out-loud what most Americans were thinking themselves about the Toyota disaster.

What’s wrong with Washington isn’t the dysfunction Evan Bayh bellyached about the other day. Washington and Congress just need more politely professional men and women like Ray LaHood doing the people’s bidding. Bidding that doesn’t always require yelling, accusations and scoring partisan points.

LaHood, who will tell you he is no transportation expert as Transportation Secretary, serves at the president’s pleasure for that very reason. If Obama wants an administration that reaches out with a bipartisan hand, he needs a bipartisan or two in his cabinet. Like Ray LaHood.

Why Didn’t Evan Bayh Just Stay And Fight It Out?

Whiny senators have come and gone ever since the Republic’s founding, many muttering like Evan Bayh about how long it takes to get even the basic stuff done in the Senate.

While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, his GOP cronies and independent know-it-all Joe Liebermann have plenty to answer for with their damaging filibuster obstruction since Obama took office in January 2009, Indiana’s junior Democratic senator didn’t have to take his ball and run home. On Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish blog, James Fallows offers an excellent alternative for Bayh and other like-minded Democrats to consider (What Does He Have To Lose?).

Fallow also writes this about Bayh:

“If he really cared about his Indiana constituents and their problems through that time, great! But if so, how can he walk away with this kind of careless disregard about whether, in the style of his departure, he is smashing up things that had said were important to him. If, on the other hand, these issues and people never really mattered that much, and public life had been a kind of popularity contest – well, that may be true of a lot of politicians, but they don’t like to reveal it quite this bluntly.”

Aside: Bayh’s father Birch was a legendary Senate liberal who served three terms as Indiana U.S. Senator before losing to Dan Quayle in the 1980 Republican Reagan landslide. Bayh was influential in the passing of Title IX to the Higher Education Act, guaranteeing women equal opportunities in sports and academics in public education. Bayh was the also the primary Senate force behind two landmark constitutional amendments:

The 25th Amendment established news rules for presidential succession and disability.

The 26th Amendment established the new minimum voting age of 18.

This is why nobody is saying “like father, like son” about Evan Bayh.

What Tiger Woods Better Say And It’s Not ‘I’m So Sorry’

From Hall of Famer Tom Watson to all the usual talking head suspects, advice for Tiger Woods is readily available in the unlikely event the world’s top golfer elects to listen.

I don’t particularly care if Woods offers some boiler plate apology Friday morning in the clubhouse at the Tournament Players Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. The only person who deserves that apology is still Elin Woods.

Here are words I desperately want Woods to utter Friday:

“I will return to the PGA Tour next month at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.”

Before Team Woods announced that their man would be making a public statement Friday, columnist Gene Wojciechowski filed an interesting column on www.ESPN.com weighing all the various possibilities for the World’s No. 1 golfer’s return to the PGA Tour.

Especially interesting are Wojciechowski’s thoughts on Watson’s surprisingly churlish comments on Woods.

“Woods’ 2009 season didn’t start until late February, so his absence this time of the year isn’t unprecedented. But the circumstances are. A reconstructed knee dictated his schedule last season. A personal life in chaos dictates it this time. Meanwhile, a growing conga line of players wonders out loud why Woods hasn’t spoken publicly about his situation. Tom Watson, whom I admire and respect, went so far to say recently that Woods must ‘take ownership of what he’s done. He must get his personal life in order.’ This from the same Watson who fiercely protects his own privacy, who has dealt with the heartache of divorce, and who successfully battled alcohol-related demons. Watson, more than anyone, should know that taking ownership of your personal life is exactly that – personal. Come to think of it, I don’t recall him issuing any weekly updates during his marital difficulties.”

What Woods better not say Friday is “I don’t know when I’m going to play golf again.” Nobody wants to hear that.

‘These Aren’t The Droids You’re Looking For’

I missed seeing the original “Star Wars” back in 1977. If it wasn’t sports or newspapers, I didn’t care. But a friend talked me into seeing “The Empire Strikes Back” three years later.

Wham, bam! I was hooked like a Lake Michigan Coho.

So we experienced a rite of passage moment over the Presidents Day weekend. After 7-year-old daughter Nicole brought home several “Star Wars” books from the library, we jointly decided it was time for her to watch the movies.

After lunch Friday – no classes in the Fairview School District because, I guess, Presidents Day was Monday! – Nic screened “Star Wars.” After I confirmed that the white-clad Storm Troopers were actually the bad guys, and answered inquiries on what happened to Luke Skywalker’s parents, Nic settled back and loved every second. I was silently thrilled.

Nic finished “The Empire Strikes Back” by 5 p.m. that Friday, armed with questions about Yoda’s mysterious hint that there was another desperate hope for the out-gunned rebel alliance besides Luke (twin sister Princess Leia), and whether or not Darth Vader was somehow related to Luke (yes, dear old dad). Then after gymnastics Saturday, Nic watched “Return of the Jedi” with rave reviews afterwards.

George Lucas didn’t make it easy for 7-year-olds. I tried to explain why Lucas identified those first three “Star Wars” as Episodes IV, V and VI. And I tried to prepare her by explaining the three newest “Star Wars” movie installments, while entertaining, weren’t in the same league as the original three. I also took a crack at explaining why these were Episodes I, II, and III, and not VLL, VIII, and IX.

Nic didn’t care. Like her Dad back in the summer of 1980, Nic’s hooked on “Star Wars” just like that Lake Michigan Coho.

* Read film critic Roger Ebert’s “Star Wars” review (Star Wars), first published on Jan. 1, 1977.

Is There Really A Runway Extension In Erie’s Future?

The Erie Times-News headline (“Erie airport project clears hurdle”) jumpstarted the memory bank. The first editorial I wrote for the Times on the Erie International Airport runway extension project was published back in 1998. The final runway extension edit I wrote ran in 2008. Since then, Times-News Public Editor Liz Allen and editorial writer Pat Cuneo have composed several editorials, stating the same familiar objectives and the same old message: Extending Erie International Airport’s runway is the most crucial project confronting the Erie region (I’d say a community college was a real close second).

The need for the runway extension is real and so are the stakes for the region. But cynical readers, realizing how long and frustrating this project remains, understandably identify the irony in describing any project that has been talked to death for 12 years as urgent or crucial.

So there is Erie Times-News staff writer John Guerriero’s story (Erie airport project clears hurdle), detailing the latest obstacle cleared again by ever reluctant Millcreek Township supervisors.

As Guerriero reported:

“Tyrone Clark, of MGC-Erie, a public-outreach consultant on the project, said the revised plans were not a problem. ‘This project continues to move forward,’  he said. The Erie Regional Airport Authority expects to advertise the first construction bid package in early summer.”

Cross your fingers, but please don’t hold your breath.