* I think I’ve found the single worst Rahm Emanuel story in the history of Planet Earth…
Rahm Emanuel reached out to Chicago voters in his White House resignation speech even though he hasn’t formally announced he’s running for mayor.
He connected to Jewish voters by mentioning his bar mitzvah. He got to sports fans by mentioning the Chicago Bears’ 3-0 record. He talked about how his mother marched with Martin Luther King Jr., in a nod to black voters and others. He choked up talking about his family, showing his sensitive side.
Wow. Just, wow. I’ve seen campaign-generated tip sheets which were far more subtle than that idiotic tripe.
* Robert Gibbs had this to say at today’s White House press briefing when asked if the president would campaign for Rahm Emanuel…
“I don’t — I don’t believe any — I don’t have anything on that. I don’t — I don’t know the answer to that, to be honest with you. I think — I mean, obviously the president was — you’ve heard what the president said over the past several weeks and what the president said today about Rahm and his next endeavors.”
Smooth talker, that Gibbs. And just in case anyone at the White House sees this, have Gibbs return my call, please. I want to ask him about a topic I’ve never seen the president address: State Sen. Bill Brady. The two often played poker together back when Obama was a colleague. Brady’s been in the race for months, but Obama has been curiously silent.
* Let’s move on to far more interesting mayoral news…
Sneed is told [Rev. Sen. James Meeks], a state senator who is very unpopular in the gay community for his track record on gay issues, requested a hush-hush meeting with Rick Garcia, a top Illinois gay rights activist, days after Mayor Daley decided not to run again.
“Rev. Meeks, who would never return Rick’s calls in the past, is now treating Rick like his best friend,” said a source familiar with the meeting.
• The upshot: “It’s true we met, and Rev. Meeks has a completely anti-gay voting record and said horrible things about the gay community,” Garcia, a founder of Equality Illinois, told Sneed. “But my job is to build bridges, so we met at his Salem Baptist Church.”
• The final shot: “He [Meeks] told me he knows its going to be a hard sell and a hard stretch to endorse him, but he wanted to make sure he didn’t say things wrong. It was mainly an educational meeting,” said Garcia, “but it lasted two hours.”
Glenn Poshard snubbed the gay community in 1998 and it cost him dearly. Meeks won’t change his stripes, but at least he can change his rhetoric. Whoever wins will be mayor of the entire city, so it’s good to see he realizes that he needs to work on his mouth, as well as his heart.
* Greg Hinz has an interesting take on where the big money is going. Mostly, right now, to THE MAN WHO MUST NOT BE MENTIONED, but Sheriff Dart is picking up some bucksters…
Insiders say a second candidate, Sheriff Tom Dart, is likely to have one big business name in his camp, Mesirow Financial’s James Tyree — who’s also an owner of the Sun-Times. Mr. Tyree wouldn’t commit when my colleague Steve Strahler briefly chatted with him early in the week, but he has deep roots in Mr. Dart’s home 19th Ward on the Southwest Side.
Mr. Dart also may be best positioned to get money and troops from the Service Employees International Union, with whom he’s had a decent relationship at Cook County Jail.
SEIU absolutely despises THE MAN WHO MUST NOT BE MENTIONED. That’ll be a lot of fun to watch.
Hinz claims that Gery Chico is saying he can raise $5 million and reports that the Illinois Restaurant Association is gearing up to spend $150,000. More…
Preacher-politician James Meeks has deep respect in portions of the business community for his willingness to back school vouchers. Others, in the gambling business, like him because he’s against any further expansion of legal gambling here.
But many African-American business types are said to really like former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. And it will be fascinating to see where President Obama’s circle of black business folk ends up — with Mr. Meeks, Ms. Braun or Mr. Emanuel.
*** UPDATE *** Your weekly exclusive preview of WBEZ’s “Best Game in Town” has just arrived. Click here to listen. From the producer…
This week on Best Game in Town – we head to Chicago’s Daley Plaza to talk about the resignation of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the week’s political news with NPR’s David Schaper and Crain’s Chicago Business Columnist Greg Hinz.
Also, we sit down with Nancy Kaszak to talk about her experience running against Rahm almost a decade ago.
* Rahmup…
* Emanuel mayoral team would need to explain $17 million bank pay: Emanuel, 50, earned at least $17 million in three years as an investment banker after leaving the Clinton White House, public records show. While that part of his resume didn’t hurt him when he first ran for Congress in 2002, any new bid for public office would come amid criticism of Wall Street’s excesses and a U.S. unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. “It didn’t have traction because it was before the markets went down,” said Nancy Kaszak, who lost to Emanuel in the 2002 Democratic primary to represent part of Chicago’s north side and northwest suburbs. “There are a lot of people who are very angry now because of the finances they are facing. I think it is a potentially more harmful issue now.”
* Davis: No “Coronation of Prince Rahm Emanuel”
* Emanuel leaves White House: Alderman Ed Burke says he cannot remember when Emanuel ever visited his Southwest Side 14th Ward and wonders if just under five months is enough time for any candidate to make a citywide impression.
* Former Emanuel Foe: ‘Take Him Very Very Very Seriously’: I mean, he brought Bill Clinton in to campaign for him here. He had Paul Simon endorse him.
* It’s the Big Leagues Now, Rahm: “He’s a big political bully,” said Ricardo Munoz, an alderman who admits that he is “not a fan” of Mr. Emanuel. “There’s talk at City Hall, people out loud saying, ‘Do we want to go from a Daley dictatorship to another bully dictatorship?’ ”
