* The time off from work was going swimmingly until I made the mistake of checking the Intertubes this afternoon…
A black Hillary Clinton delegate on Sunday accused state Senate President Emil Jones of calling her an “Uncle Tom.”
Jones — Barack Obama’s political mentor — denied using the racially loaded slur against Chicago political consultant Delmarie Cobb, but two aldermen who said they witnessed the Saturday night exchange back up Cobb’s account.
“Last night, I was called an ‘Uncle Tom’ by Emil Jones in the lobby of the hotel, right in front of [Ald.] Freddrenna Lyle and [Ald.] Leslie Hairston and [Ald.] Latasha Thomas,” said Cobb, a member of Clinton’s Illinois Steering Committee. “I walked over to him and asked him, ‘What did you just call me?’ ” […]
Lyle, alderman of the South Side’s 6th Ward, said she was standing with Jones when the conversation took place in the lobby of the hotel where the Illinois delegation is staying, but she dismissed it as Jones engaging in harmless banter with someone he knows, although Lyle said she told him, “Emil, that’s bad even for you.”
The chief of Illinois’ National Organization for Women chapter today called on Barack Obama’s “political godfather” to resign immediately from the Illinois state Senate for calling an African-American Hillary Clinton delegate an “Uncle Tom.”
“That was a pretty horrible comment,” said Illinois NOW president Bonnie Grabenhofer, also a Clinton delegate, who issued the demand for Senate President Emil Jones’ resignation. […]
“I’ve never heard anything as awful or as sexist or as racist as to call her that for supporting Hillary,” said Clinton delegate Gay Bruhn, another NOW member in Illinois who called for a public apology from Jones.
* Larry believes this doesn’t sound like something Emil Jones would say.
I beg to differ. Jones has often referred to African-American Illinois House members as “House n—-rs” for following House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is white, instead of doing what Jones believes is right for the black community.
Larry does make this point, however…
What is missing is that Bruhn isn’t just another NOW member, she’s [Illinois NOW president Bonnie Grabenhofer’s] partner. That would be mentioned in any story referring to a heterosexual couple. So the story misses the context and treats same sex couples differently.
* Patterson interviewed Delmarie Cobb and it’s clear that she is not exactly an unbiased source…
“So when I tell that story he comes over to me and he said, ‘There were 35,000 in Springfield (for Obama’s introduction of vice presidential pick Joe Biden) 35,000 people in Springfield’
“I said, ‘Well that doesn’t mean anything, just that 35,000 more people drank the Kool-Aid.’
“I said, ‘See, he will not let this alone.’ I said, ‘What are you signifying.’
“He said, ‘I’m not signifying.’
“I said, ‘Oh, they’ve got another name for it now?’
“I said, ‘Why can’t you be gracious in victory as I am gracious in defeat?’” [emphasis added]
Cobb and at least two Chicago aldermen told friends that Jones made the “Uncle Tom” reference after a back-and-forth with the Senate president that started lightheartedly.
* And I doubt all of them could have misheard Jones…
Jones, himself an African-American, maintained Delmarie Cobb, a longtime Chicago public relations executive, misunderstood a comment in which he said it was time for those who continue to back the New York senator and former first lady to stop being “Doubting Thomases” and rally around Obama.
“She walked away and I said, ‘All you Doubting Thomases have to get on board,” Jones said of his discussion with Cobb over the weekend. “She turned around and said, ‘You called us?’ and I said, ‘No. That’s not so.’ I thought it was all over with. She just caught the last word of what I said. People make mistakes.”
Gov. Blagojevich [announced today] that he’s rewriting a state-government ethics bill that has been sitting on his desk, adding changes that include sweeping new limits on campaign contributions and an effort to stop “double-dipping” by some legislators.
The governor also plans to use his power as the state’s chief executive to impose a ban on “businesses, their affiliates and affiliated persons” with state contracts that total more than $50,000 from making contributions to himself, other state constitutional officeholders, legislators, candidates for state office and state political parties, effective Jan. 1, 2009.
* Here’s how the legislation would be changed, according to the governor’s office, with commentary by myself in brackets and in bold…
* Expands contributions ban: Governor Blagojevich is using his constitutional authority to improve House Bill 824 by applying the campaign contribution restrictions contained in the bill to all constitutional officers, members of the General Assembly, candidates for office, and state parties. [A shot at House Speaker Michael Madigan, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois - This provision was first suggested by Senate President Emil Jones, a Madigan enemy.]
* Requires legislators to affirmatively accept pay raises: Unlike the current system, legislative pay raises would have to be passed by both houses in order to take effect. [Also a suggestion from Senate President Emil Jones, who believes that the House always takes the easy way out by rejecting the pay raises in the hopes that the Senate will not follow suit.]
* Double-dippers: Outside employment by legislators with any unit of state, county or municipal government would be prohibited (except teachers, school counselors, university instructors, police officers, firefighters and elected officials). [The governor has repeatedly blamed Chicago “double dipper” legislators for killing his capital projects plan, so this is retribution on a grand scale.]
* Disclosure: Lawmakers and their spouses must disclose lobbying activity before boards, commissions, and units of local government. Legislators would be required to disclose their client, who they lobbied, and their fees. [This is a direct shot at Rep. John Fritchey, one of the co-authors of the original ethics bill who represents legal clients in Chicago zoning matters.]
* There is an agreement to override any gubernatorial changes, however…
“We’ve already talked about it: We will override him,’’ warned state Sen. Debbie Halvorson, D-Chicago Heights. “This has to be signed, as is. . . . We have worked way too long with this.”
The chief Senate sponsor of the bill, Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, predicted both houses will override the veto. While elements of the governor’s action makes sense, the bill that passed was a consensus measure that lawmakers agreed was the most that could be approved, Mr. Harmon said.
But Senate President Emil Jones, a staunch Blagojevich ally, said he was not aware of any agreement to move an override of the governor’s changes. [emphasis added]
“The governor claims he will strengthen HB 824 with an amendatory veto and executive order, but it is apparent he is trying to bypass the legislative process, rather than work towards real reform. Some of his proposed changes have merit and should be debated as separate bills. In the meantime, the General Assembly should reject his veto and put the most important reform in state statutes.”
If the Legislature refuses to accept his changes and doesn’t vote to block them, the original pay-to-play prohibitions would die entirely — and, ironically, Blagojevich could hit legislators for blocking ethics reform that he had a hand in killing.
llinois Senate President Emil Jones has never been fully appreciated as a legislative leader. Jones, who announced his retirement last week after years at the helm, has a manner of speaking which leads far too many people to assume that he is not intelligent.
Nothing could be further from the truth. He has been a supremely crafty tactician, who, despite all the bad raps and his recent blunders, has won far more than his share of legislative battles. He is literally a larger than life character.
Yet, there’s little doubt that Jones has been the most publicly vilified legislative leader in memory, particularly in the past two years.
His constant and unwavering support for Rod Blagojevich, the most unpopular (and most investigated) governor in the nation, certainly contributed to the shwacking. Jones stood by the governor’s hugely controversial Gross Receipts Tax idea last year when everyone else had abandoned it and when it had become clear that the proposal had probably killed off his professed life’s dream of enacting permanent, real education funding reform.
Jones appeared to brazenly block electric utility rate relief at the behest of his buddies at ComEd. He stood by the governor throughout a long, bitter overtime session last year and this year. His family benefitted from pay raises and no-bid contracts from the Blagojevich administration. He allegedly lied to House Speaker Michael Madigan about upholding last year’s budget agreement when he refused to override Blagojevich’s vetoes that targeted House Democrats and Senate Republicans for political punishment.
Jones blocked a constitutional amendment for recall of public officials and deliberately slow-walked an ethics reform bill at the governor’s behest. He railed against attempts to block a pay raise for lawmakers, infamously telling reporters that he needed that raise and some food stamps. And he just managed to replace himself on the November ballot with his son.
Sen. Jones has certainly become a liability for his members. You can’t get thumped for all of those outrages on an almost daily basis without at least some mud splashing on your rank and file. So his announcement last week that he would give up the Senate presidency may help ease the pain of some of his incumbents.
The retirement’s legislative impact is not completely clear. It’s thought that Speaker Madigan and maybe even some of Jones’ own members will want to put off a multi billion dollar capital construction plan until Jones leaves office. Why cut a deal now when a better one might be concocted after January?
There’s a legitimate concern in some circles about what this retirement announcement may mean for Jones’ fundraising. He is allowed to withdraw about $577,000 from his personal campaign fund because of a clause inserted into a mid 1990s ethics bill.
That would leave his bank balance at just over $1 million — about a half million shy of Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson’s June 30th total. Except for his most loyal friends, it’s difficult to see how Jones can easily add to that account now that he has made himself a lame duck.
Members were assured that there would be plenty of money in the campaign fund for incumbents, but Watson and his cohorts have to be breathing just a bit easier now that Jones has taken himself out of the game.
Meanwhile, loads of candidates are engaged in the Jones succession battle. It’s every man (literally, because there are no women in the race as I write this) for himself. And it’s far too early to make any predictions of how things will play out. There are no locks, there are no true frontrunners. This thing is wide open.
Also, word is that some candidates are already beginning to reach out to Senate Republicans in an effort to pad their margins and reach the magic number of 30 required to win the presidency — a majority of those elected in the entire Senate, not just among Democrats.
But forget about those 30 votes today. The big problem now is just finding 19 votes — a majority of the Democratic caucus. Almost that many Democrats are currently floating their names for president.
There is certainly no shortage of egos in the General Assembly, and the Senate Democratic caucus has an overabundance. It will likely take some time before many are ready to set aside their vanity candidacies and start actively engaging in the process.
* I’m taking at least this week off because the Democratic National Convention will likely drown out most state news. The Republican convention may not do so, simply because of the way things are in Illinois. I’ll make a decision later this week, and I’ll try to keep a half an eye on things and will post if necessary. Of course, our numerous automated news feeds will be running throughout, which makes this website more valuable than most places you can visit during my personal hiatus.
Meanwhile, make sure to visit Illinoize and dont’ forget to check the ads at InsiderzExchange. It’s on the move.
