Years ago, I briefly considered buying a teardown house in Bridgeport because of its easy proximity to the Loop. Not a good idea, I was warned by several people. They don’t cotton to outsiders, particularly those with a trouble-making bent. That memory came to mind as I read this piece in today’s Tribune:
A federal judge on Wednesday blasted neighborhood residents who harassed a Bridgeport man and vandalized his home after he cooperated with the government and testified for prosecutors in this year’s City Hall hiring fraud trial. […]
“When his cooperation surfaced, it was not received with the grace and warmth in his neighborhood that one would hope,” attorney Jeff Steinback told Coar Wednesday at the sentencing of Katalinic, a former deputy commissioner in the Streets and Sanitation Department, who spent more than 30 years there.
There were harassing phone calls and slashed car tires, Steinback said. There was also graffiti on Katalinic’s house. And finally, last Easter morning, there was a large bottle tossed through the glass front door of the home he shares with his wife and three young children, Steinback said.
Katalic helped send Robert Sorich to prison. Sorich is a local Bridgeport hero for keeping his yap shut during his ordeal. The locals even held a fundraiser for him.
The Beachwood Reporter has a good question for Mayor Daley:
“Following their sentencing, Daley defended Sorich and the others, saying they were all men of good character,” the Tribune notes.
I wonder what Daley thinks of Sorich’s other friends and defenders - the ones harassing Katalinic.
And this one would be a great question to ask at Daley’s next press conference:
“I know what I did was wrong,” Katalinic told a federal judge yesterday, when he was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his own role in the massive hiring fraud the city has engaged in under Daley.
Does the mayor think what Katalinic did was wrong?
* The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz takes a look at the Chicago media’s coverage of the Rezko-Obama matter and concludes:
This seems like a minor-league issue. But as Bill Clinton learned about his money-losing Arkansas land deal, when you run for president, everything in your past gets magnified.
* A Washington Times editorial today takes a look at Obama’s pre US Senate record and concludes:
In short, Mr. Obama’s record as an Illinois state senator was down-the-line liberal. For someone representing a liberal district in Chicago, that’s not very surprising. What is surprising is how Mr. Obama’s liberal label has been effectively wiped clean since he entered the U.S. Senate.
* CNN’s Jeanne Moos asks people on the street about Barack Hussein Obama’s name:
* The Draft Obama organization is reportedly planning to run this TV ad in New Hampshire.
* Joe Novak jabs again at Obama’s wife, Michelle, for her position on a corporate board of directors involved in massive layoffs.
Hispanic union workers like Santiago Vasquez lose jobs because Michelle Obama wants to improve efficiency? She defends layoffs telling Chicago Crains Business that her firm “hopes to expand and hire more workers, many minorities, once it boosts its efficiency.â€
* New York Daily News columnist/blogger notes that Obama has picked up the support of a bigtime money guy.
Lou Susman, John Kerry’s national finance chairman in 2004 and, reportedly, a supporter of Tom Vilsack in 2008, told me yesterday that if Barack Obama runs for president, he’ll support Obama.
Susman’s comment is another mark of the entree Obama has to the very top tier of Democratic moneymen, one I wrote about in this week’s column.
* Here’s an excerpt from his column:
There were only about a dozen people in George Soros’ midtown conference room to meet Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is getting used to crowds of thousands at bookstore readings and public speeches.
But the men meeting Obama last Monday still matter more in Democratic presidential politics than your average bookstore crowd. They were some of New York’s elite political donors, including John Kerry’s top New York fund-raiser from 2004, Hassan Nemazee, and the former chief of staff at Bill Clinton’s Treasury Department, Michael Froman.
Also there were financiers Blair Effron, Mark Gallogly and Orin Kramer, each of whom donates tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats and can raise tens of thousands more from friends. (Soros himself had met alone with Obama earlier in the day; that evening, he was reading from his own new book at a Barnes & Noble store.)
When Obama - considered Hillary Clinton’s most serious threat - meets with the biggest of the big-money donors, it sends a clear message.
* Speaking of money, he’s also picking up a lot of small donations.
A political action committee that Obama has formed already has taken in more than $1 million this year in the kind of low-dollar donations that reflect excitement among ordinary voters. More than $165,000 flowed in during a six-week period this fall that coincided with the Democratic senator’s highly publicized book tour, according to federal disclosure documents.
Finally, I think the resistance to Obama is rooted in this — he’s popular with the public way before a newcomer to the national scene should be. By which I mean that only political reporters and the people who work the system for a living are supposed to be paying attention and making their judgments.
“The Gang of 500,” as ABC’s newsletter The Note calls the political insider class, is supposed to weigh and pass judgment on candidates long before voters even in Iowa or New Hampshire have started paying serious attention. At this point, the only stories are supposed to be about which candidate is hiring which adviser, and what that signals about what the smart money thinks about his (or now her) chances.
Obama circumvents all that. He’s a star winning the hearts and minds of the people regardless of whatever skepticism the chattering class in Washington may harbor about him. No wonder that class is starting to hate him.
* George Will, of all people, says: “Run Now, Obama”
* I think Rush Limbaugh played this snippet that “Libertarian Reason” blog wrote about today.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a piece last week in which she teased 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama about his big ears. Well it seems he can’t quite handle that. Microphones picked up a conversation he had with Dowd after a speech of his in New Hampshire last Sunday:
“You talked about my ears, and I just want to put you on notice: I’m very sensitive about - what I told them was - I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.” Dowd replies comradely, “Oh, we’re just trying to toughen you up!” The rest of the conversation is unclear.
He’s “sensitive” about his ears? The cartoonists and blogggers are gonna have a field day with this one. Perhaps he could adjust his hair style or consider ear reduction surgery. And, just to be clear, I’m joking here, as I believe Obama was.
* Old poll conducted in Iowa for special interest group passed off as new development.
Oops. Forgot to post the QOTD. You’d think I would remember to do it out of habit, if nothing else. The good news is my hangover from last night’s outstanding holiday party is finally starting to subside. Thanks once again to everyone who showed up. We even had a few bigshots there, which was nice.
One of those bigshots was Daniel White, the executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections. Director White told me the Board is in the process of completely revamping its website. I use the site almost every day, often many times a day, so I had some pointed criticisms (probably made a little too pointed by the Miller Lites I was drinking - oops, another trade name) and some suggestions.
Today’s question: What would you do to improve the State Board of Elections website? They read the blog over there, so it’s certain that your suggestions will be seen.
Peter Francis Geraci’s ubiquitous advertising about its bankruptcy tapes has made the firm a success. That success appears to have gone to the firm’s head.
Yesterday, the site’s administrator received an e-mail from Scott Stoolmaker, Peter Francis Geraci’s director of operations.
You [sic] site is engaging in the unauthorized use of out [sic] trade name ‘Peter Francis Geraci’. Remove the content immediately.
Despite the illiterate nature of the e-mail, IR immediately pulled the name off the post, but others have stepped into the fray. Greg Blankenship pointed out the ridiculousness of the firm’s claim in a post entitled “Peter Francis Geraci, Call a 1st Amendment Lawyer.”
…We can also say, Nike, Proctor & Gamble, Exxon and any other number trade names all damn day and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Mr. Stoolmaker, with the number hits on blogs and their power to shape news, break stories you do your brand identity no good by threatening political activists engaged in political speech. It’s the kind of thing that can make you infamous in a hurry.
The ultimate outcome of this ridiculous claim is that anyone seeking to hire the Law Firm of Peter Francis Geraci now knows that they are incompetent lawyers.
Congratulations.
I sent Stoolmaker an e-mail this morning.
Could you please explain to me exactly how Illinois Review violated your trade name by merely putting it in a headline?
He responded thusly:
The only issue I have with the use of our name is when other sites link to your site which they were doing when the site used the name Peter Francis Geraci.
Um, huh?
Stoolmaker sent a longer note of explanation to IR:
Please let your readers/posters know that the content itself was not the issue. The issue arises when others link to your site using our name as a keyword search picked up by Google, Yahoo and other similar search engines. Many websites “tag” our name to direct/redirect clients and prospective clients to websites that have little to do with our law firm or direct them our competitors and is a constant problem. Your site was being linked by the following company: [link]
Scott Stoolmaker, Director of Operations
Law Offices of Peter Francis Geraci
What a moronic explanation. So, according to this law firm, no blogger can ever mention the name Peter Francis Geraci because some search engine might somehow refer potential customers to their sites instead of the firm’s website?
Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-Daddy) told Lynn Sweet this week how he snagged a seat on the Transportation Committee, which are usually reserved for team players.
As important as it was for him to pitch House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the speaker designate, and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who will be majority leader in the new Congress, Lipinski had to get with the program. Lipinski told me he knew “it is also important to show I am a team player. That is part of that. I am a Democrat, and I am going to be supportive of the party.” That is “part of building up the relationship.”
At one point Lipinski, who likes to bike, took what he said was a 30-mile ride in Maryland with Oberstar. In September, he hosted a fund-raiser for Oberstar at Chicago’s Union League Club. “My father certainly helped on that,” Lipinski said.
He also had been talking to Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) about the appointment. Lipinski had to pay his dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which Emanuel chairs. Lipinski said he gave more than $50,000 to the committee; records I checked showed a few thousand less. “That’s part of showing I am a team player.”
The Nov. 7 election gave Democrats the House and vaulted Emanuel to leadership. Emanuel gave a green light to Pelosi about Lipinski. That was generous, because Lipinski’s dues invoice was for $100,000, and Lipinski did not donate to Emanuel’s highest priority candidates.
Lipinski’s father, former Congressman Bill Lipinski, lobbies for United Airlines.
The ice storm wrecked the Christmas lights on the Statehouse.
Some of the color went out of Springfield’s Christmas season on Wednesday. I was on the roof of the state Capitol to watch workers remove the colored lights from the dome. I am sorry to report that the lights will not be going back up this year.
Unlike most of what goes on at the Statehouse, there were no politics in this decision. The Nov. 30-Dec. 1 winter storm decided it.
We enjoyed the lights for a short time. They were turned on Nov. 27, so we saw them for about three days. But it wasn’t until Wednesday, almost two weeks after the storm hit, that the Capitol roof was safe enough for workers to get out and see just how bad the damage was.
Nine of the 12 strings of colored lights that annually hang from the dome snapped. There was maybe a bucketful of broken glass lying about. Jim Speis, electrical general foreman, says there is no way the lights could be replaced before the end of the year.
Bakke’s column is really quite good today. Go read the whole thing.
Carol Marin’s column today is about the hurdles faced by female candidates.
And just Tuesday, Thomas B. Edsall’s New York Times column pointed to what he called “disturbing” Democratic numbers. “In the 42 top-tier ‘Red to Blue’ races selected by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for intensive financing and support, 25 of the candidates were male and 17 were female,” wrote Edsall. “In those contests, male candidates batted .800: 20 victories to five defeats. The women faced higher barriers: three won and 14 lost, batting .176.”
It’s got to be something that Hillary Clinton is studying. As the Democrats embark on a presidential season that arguably could yield a woman or a person of color like Sen. Barack Obama as its presidential nominee, we are once again asking if the country is ready for either.
We have a long way to go on both fronts.
But it may well be that gender remains the larger liability.
Which is the “larger liability” in American politics today? Gender or race? Explain.
*** UPDATE *** As if on cue, we have some new polling numbers.
CNN just ran results from an Opinion Research Corporation poll that asked two questions:
* Do you think America is ready for a black/African-American president or not?
* Do you think America is ready for a woman president or not?
And here’s the story:
Sixty percent of voters said, “A female president? No problem.'’ Both men and women agree. Do Democrats see a problem? Nope. Seventy percent of Democrats say the country’s ready for a female president. Perhaps they have one in mind.
How about an African-American president? A slightly higher number, 62 percent, see no problem with that either. Whites are a little more confident than blacks that the country is ready for a black president. But a majority of blacks believe the country is ready.
Can those results be trusted? Polls are not always reliable when they ask people about prejudice. As CNN’s polling director, Keating Holland, noted, “Sometimes people will hear a question and give pollsters the answer that they think the pollster wants to hear.'’
The question of electability may be less about prejudice in general and more about this woman and this African-American. Holland said, “Americans may be thinking about these specific people, [New York Sen.] Hillary Clinton and [Illinois Sen.] Barack Obama.'’
I think a much better question to ask would be “Would you rule out voting for a black or female presidential candidate?” and I think there was a poll earlier this year about the female side of that (with quite a few saying “No”) but I haven’t been able to find it yet.
Obama appeared yesterday at a public hearing by the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health to push for compensation for poisoned workers, but his mere presence was more interesting to some.
Apologetic for the “fuss†he was creating at a meeting Tuesday in Naperville, Sen. Barack Obama pleaded the cases of hundreds of Illinois workers who became sick toiling at nuclear weapons plants less than a half century ago.
The prospective Democratic presidential candidate also brought along a crush of media attention.
“This is one of the rare times it’s useful to have this big throng,†he said to the more than two dozen media members attending a federal worker health advisory board meeting. “That’s a joke. Don’t hold it against me.â€
He is not concerned that his star power presence at these types of hearings gets in the way of his message.
“A lot of you wouldn’t be here today, otherwise,†he said. “The whole point of appearing here is to make sure the story is widely disseminated.â€
For the 29 years he worked at a Joliet chemical plant, John Keca thought he was manufacturing detergents.
“He was sick most of his time” at the plant, his widow, Phyllis, 80, said Tuesday.
But in fact, Keca had been exposed to uranium dust while working at the Blockson Chemical Co. Blockson had a government contract to extract uranium from ore between 1952 and 1962.
John Keca died in 1996 of colon cancer, his wife said.
Meanwhile, one of the AP’s top political reporters demonstrated once again why the Beltway media crowd is such an object of derision. Check out this lede:
Sen. Barack Obama had a good first date in New Hampshire this week — he was a little late, but wore a nice suit, had interesting things to say and used a little flattery.
* And Jeff Greenfield, who used to be a decent reporter, has apparently lost his freaking mind. This Greenfield piece for CNN has been making the rounds on the blogs this week.
The senator was in New Hampshire over the weekend, sporting what’s getting to be the classic Obama look. Call it business casual, a jacket, a collared shirt, but no tie.
It is a look the senator seems to favor. And why not? It is dressy enough to suggest seriousness of purpose, but without the stuffiness of a tie, much less a suit. There is a comfort level here that reflects one of Obama’s strongest political assets, a sense that he is comfortable in his own skin, that he knows who he is. […]
But, in the case of Obama, he may be walking around with a sartorial time bomb. Ask yourself, is there any other major public figure who dresses the way he does? Why, yes. It is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who, unlike most of his predecessors, seems to have skipped through enough copies of “GQ” to find the jacket-and-no-tie look agreeable.
And maybe that’s not the comparison a possible presidential contender really wants to evoke.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Washington, DC - all of it, from the very tippity top right down to the lowliest janitor who thinks he owns the place - is the problem.
Instead of answering detailed questions at a campaign announcement press conference, Mayor Daley had reporters lining up yesterday for ten minute, one-on-one interviews. Here are some highlights:
* Sun-Times: City casino ‘not on our priority list’
Mayor Daley bobbed and weaved to avoid questions posed by the city hiring scandal Tuesday, even as he made himself available for a parade of 10-minute interviews.
Throughout the day reporters lined up at the mayor’s campaign headquarters for one-on-ones with Daley. But when it came time for answers about the scandal that culminated in the conviction of his former patronage chief and three other high-ranking city officials, Daley was less than forthcoming. […]
On his on-again, off-again quest for a Chicago casino, the mayor said it’s “up to the governor.”
Mayor Richard M. Daley, in a campaign-kickoff interview Tuesday, left the door open for residential development on the doomed A. Finkl & Sons Co. factory site on the city’s North Side that has been the focus of efforts to preserve industrial jobs in Chicago. […]
[Question] If you’re really for the property tax cap extension, as (Illinois House Speaker) Michael Madigan says he is too, why hasn’t it passed the House?
[Answer] We’re getting closer every vote. We have another vote next month, coming up in January. And we’re going to follow through.
[Question] Are you really going to push for it?
[Answer] Oh, yeah.
* AP: Daley cites “few bad apples'’ for City Hall problems
A relaxed and chatty Daley said he was different from private-sector CEOs who step down when bad things go on under their watch.
“They failed to act,” he said.
Daley said he has taken steps to clean up problems at City Hall. He has said the city would continue retooling its hiring and contracting systems to prevent abuse and had imposed new fundraising rules.
“So far, sure, I think I’ve done enough,” Daley said. He said the city has to meet higher standards than a public company because it operates on taxpayer money.
When Daley was asked if he thought he could be charged as part of the federal investigation, he said: “I wouldn’t even know that.”
* NBC5: Mayor Talks About Corruption, Iraq, Passion For Job [video is here]
Daley was upbeat and frank during the interview, during which Ahern fired off many different topics, ranging from his own son’s embarking on a career in the Army to Daley’s position on corruption within his administration to his unbridled passion for the job.
“I’m the most accessible public official you’ve ever met, and you know that in your own career,” Daley told Ahern with a smile.
* The Tribune story concentrated mostly on the mechanics of the interview process.
Bill Cameron, a reporter for WLS radio, said while he appreciated Daley giving the gift of time, it was clearly an effort by the mayor to deliver a campaign message “that he was fighting corruption and never benefited from any of it.”
“He wouldn’t even concede that he has benefited politically by the work of those who have been prosecuted,” Cameron said. “He not only said to me that he’s not worried about what may be coming to him from the feds, because he did nothing wrong, but that he didn’t know what was going on and he didn’t benefit from any of it. But of course he did.”
But even the most seasoned journalists, recognizing Daley’s availability as more a political tactic than an act of holiday kindness, weren’t about to look a gift mayor in the mouth.
“Everybody’s always happy to get a one-on-one with the mayor,” Cameron said. “But he stayed right on message.”
Although I’m sure it will take heat from people who think that it’s a cover to help illegals, this seems like a decent idea.
A panel of state agencies wants to create “welcoming centers” for immigrants, allowing them to apply for job training, health care and other services at one location.
The proposed state-funded centers would be based in suburbs and in Downstate towns with recent spikes in immigrants, according to the panel’s report being released Wednesday.
The last four or five small-town, Downstate restaurants I’ve eaten at (far outside Springfield in previously all-Anglo areas) had a surprisingly large number of Latino, Southastern European and even Arabic employees, so just based on that admittedly cursory observation, the help may be needed.
But, as always with this administration, there’s a big announcement with no funding attached.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who commissioned the two panels, is endorsing the recommendations but has not yet committed any funding, a spokesman said.
Grace Hou, co-chair of the state agency panel and assistant secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, acknowledged that dwindling money in the state budget might make it difficult to secure expanded funding for immigrant integration.
One the eve of a crucial vote in the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules to roll back mercury emissions, Midwest Gen cuts a deal.
The operator of six coal-fired power plants in northern and central Illinois has struck a deal with Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration calling for drastic cuts in mercury emissions.
Under the deal announced Monday, Midwest Generation officials also agreed to reduce smog and soot at its plants in Chicago, Waukegan, and outside of Romeoville, Joliet and Peoria.
Officials said the fate of three older plants, two in Chicago and one in Waukegan, will be determined by the cost of their cleanup. Those plants could be closed if the cleanup is too costly.
State officials and environmental activists cheered the agreement Monday.
Gotta give the guv props when he deserves it, and he certainly deserves it today. The worst offending plants are terrible polluters (as I recall, some of the company’s plants were grandfathered out of federal clean air laws), but let’s hope they can clean them up because workers there make a good buck.
Meanwhile, on a somewhat related note, Ameren claims the price tag for dealing with the ice storm could be more than $25 million.
Ameren’s efforts to restore electricity to hundreds of thousands of households and businesses after a Nov. 30 ice and snow storm probably will cost more than $25 million, the head of the Ameren Illinois utility companies said Monday.
Scott Cisel, president of the three Ameren Illinois utilities, said he does not yet have a price tag for the recently concluded storm recovery effort. But he expects it will exceed the $20 million to $25 million cost of recovering from a July windstorm that also knocked out electricity for days. […]
Cisel also responded to news reports that the Illinois Commerce Commission last year told Ameren its tree-trimming program did not meet state standards. He disagreed.
“Tree trimming is important, but tree trimming does not mitigate the problems of a severe storm. When you have ice on limbs that are 10, 15 feet away from a line, that fall into your line, that’s way beyond tree trimming.â€
The big story of Mayor Daley’s announcement yesterday wasn’t what he said, but what he filed. I’m not sure if this means his organization is a hollow shell or he wants it to look that way, but, anyway, here’s the story.
Although Daley’s announcement was a scripted show of force, his nominating petitions showed a potential sign of weakness. The mayor filed only 24,160 signatures — fewer than twice the legal requirement and at least 14,000 fewer than mayoral challenger Bill “Dock” Walls. It was the first time in six mayoral elections that a challenger filed more signatures than Daley did.
Four years ago, the mayor filed a wheelbarrow filled with 140,000 signatures. But that was before the city hiring scandal — and before Daley demanded that Democratic precinct workers who circulated petitions swear they were promised no jobs, promotions or benefits.
“People are no longer willing to work for Daley if they can’t be assured a job, a promotion or a contract,” Walls said.
Even bigger news was the interest in aldermanic races.
“We think we’re going to probably if not beat, possibly meet where we were in 1991,” said Langdon Neal, chairman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. “We hear that there’s going to be a lot of candidates per ward.”
By day’s end, 37 of the 47 sitting alderman were facing challengers, and 12 hopefuls had filed for the open seats in the 7th, 8th and 18th wards, where the incumbents have moved on to other elected offices.
“It’s indicative of the interest the people have in local government,” said Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), dean of the City Council. “Municipal government is really where the rubber meets the road.”
And Natarus tries to put the best spin on a dire situation.
Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), who has been on the council since 1971, filed for re-election just moments after Brendan Reilly joined the race. Reilly is a former aide to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
“I think I’ll be OK,” Natarus told reporters as Reilly stood a few feet away.
Natarus is in the fight of his life, but I’m not sure he realizes it yet.
I have some YouTube videos about filing day, but the site appears to be bloggered for now (thanks, Google) so check back here a little later.
*** UPDATE *** YouTube is back online, and here are the promised videos, which were posted by 50th Ward candidate Naisy Dolar. That fight in 50 is gonna be interesting. The best news for the broken down warhorse incumbent Bernie Stone is that he faces two strong opponents, who could cancel each other out. Otherwise, this would be one of the hottest races in the city. Dolar, by the way, seems to handle herself well in front of the cameras.
ABC7…
NBC5…
WTTW…
*** UPDATE 2 *** In case you were wondering after seeing the NBC5 report, Joe Moore’s opponent Jim Ginderske has not yet filed any campaign finance reports beyond the usual creating the committee stuff.
* Emanuel knew more than he admitted in Foley scandal
* Obama makes the official announcement: He’s a Bears fan
* Judge: Pay up the fees, governor - Administration told to file payment plan in video-game lawsuit
* Shimkus to quit page board - Says he enjoyed the job, except for the scandal
* 2 take Tusk’s place - Nix, Peters replace deputy governor
* Strom circulates peititions for mayoral candidacy against Davlin
* Six candidates filed Monday to run for Hoffman Estates village trustee, on the first day of filing for municipal races in Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates and Palatine.
* Wheaton already close to primary - Candidates” first day of filing makes it close
* Here’s who filed Monday for positions on the spring ballot in Naperville.
