The unlikely friendship between Jimmy Carter and Peorias Bob Michel [Video]

PEKIN (25News Now) – Letters and photographs at the Dirksen Congressional Center in Pekin show the friendship between President Jimmy Carter and Republican Congressman Bob Michel, a Peoria native.

The odds were certainly against Michel and Carter becoming friends. They were leaders in opposing political parties, and Carter had just defeated Michel’s friend Gerald Ford in 1976.

They became allies when Carter cut what he called ‘unnecessary’ projects out of the federal budget early in his presidency. Several members of Congress opposed this, but Michel supported Carter because he believed it helped taxpayers.

“Even though they disagreed politically on a lot of things, over the years they still managed to have a personal exchange and build on the similarities they had between them,” said Chris Kaergard, a Dirksen Center historian.

Michel was there in 1979 …