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Sneed: Grand jury investigating Brown campaign allegations

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Illinois

Sneed has learned that a Cook County grand jury is probing allegations that state public aid recipients were forced to circulate Cook County Board presidential candidate Dorothy Brown’s nominating petitions under threat of losing their welfare benefits.

* The kicker: Several public aid recipients, who have been called before the grand jury twice, complained they feared they’d be dropped from the job-training program (which is administered by the state Human Services Department) if they didn’t circulate Brown’s petitions as part of their training.

* The firing squad: The recipients were receiving job training at Mother’s House, a South Side social service agency managed by Hassan Muhammad, who, until recently, was a field director of Dorothy Brown’s campaign. […]

When complaints were first disclosed by Fox News Chicago in October, Brown said she had no knowledge of the practice and did not condone what was going on.

Keep in mind that a grand jury investigation doesn’t automatically mean guilt, despite the saying that “In this town you’re innocent until investigated.” Also, keep in mind that Brown may not have known anything about this. Yes, the probe could be big political trouble, but don’t jump to too many conclusions just yet.

* Meanwhile, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has fired a couple of Speaker Madigan’s guys…

Stroger isn’t pleased that Madigan has withheld his backing, county insiders say. He took political revenge first by firing longtime Madigan loyalist Richard Bono, a $99,187 county Forest Preserve District maintenance superintendent who also collects a $30,353 city pension.

“They called [Bono] in and said he was out,” a top county source said. “No mention of a reason. No feds. No grabbing computers. He was just out, and that’s it.”

On Wednesday, Cook County medical examiner’s office worker David Foley was fired from his $110,354 executive officer post. During his employment at the medical examiner’s office, Foley bragged that he was Madigan’s “No. 1 precinct captain,” sources said.

* And the Sun-Times continues to look at whether Rahm Emanuel wanted Gov. Blagojevich to find a way to appoint a replacement, a move which would’ve been blatantly unconstitutional…

On the day last year that Emanuel was named White House chief of staff, John Harris, the top aide to then-Gov. Blagojevich, began researching whether Blagojevich had the authority to appoint someone to temporarily fill Emanuel’s Northwest Side congressional seat, according to records that show the Web browser history on Harris’ state government computer.

The records show that Harris, who was Blagojevich’s chief of staff, Googled this exact search term on his state computer on Nov. 6, 2008: “temporary appointment to fill vacancies in the house of representatives.”

The confirmation of Harris’ Google search — which, by the way, yielded 308,000 hits — lends credence to previous Sun-Times reports that Blagojevich’s office was working with Emanuel at that time on a strategy that would enable Emanuel to one day reclaim his old House seat and vie for the powerful post of speaker of the House.

The top result of that search leads to a document on Sen. Joe Lieberman’s site, entitled: “House and Senate Vacancies: How Are They Filled?” Scroll down and you see this…

The Constitution thus requires that all House vacancies be filled by special election.
There is no constitutional provision for the appointment of interim Representatives.

Back to the story…

Surfing the Net, the records show, another Web site Harris visited was www.kingmadigan.com — which depicts Blagojevich’s arch political enemy, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, as a greedy “king” decked out in a jewel-studded gold crown.

Fun guys, those Blagojevichians.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 9:21 am

Comments

Perhaps Mr. harris had been up late a night or two earlier watching one of the final episodes of the 1970s TV series “Maude,” where after her Congressman suddenly dies, the Governor appoints Maude to fill the vacancy (lame-duck sit-coms don’t have to play too much attention to petty details like the US Constitution).

Comment by fedup dem Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 9:30 am
kingmadigan.com would have been better if MJM was wearing a little bling… maybe one of those 24K “$” necklaces.

Seriously, that site is amateur.

Comment by John Bambenek Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 9:34 am
What? Emanuel didn’t learn constitutional law during his ballet classes? I thought that was part of the Port de bra side position!

Emanuel was a Congressman - How could someone serving as a US Congressman not know that Congresspeople cannot be appointed?

The only reason that US Senators can be appointed is because that has always been an option. Remember that senators are suppose to represent state governments, not voters, so state legislatures elected them. After the Seventeenth Amendment was passed, it changed how senators were elected - but didn’t change how vacancies were filled between elections.

Gee, I guess they just don’t teach ballet like they used to, huh, Rahm?

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 9:36 am
Right after Blago was elected the first time, I got on the State website early in the morning and saw that someone had taken the state seal and inserted Blago’s photo in the middle where the eagle normally is. It was changed back pretty quickly - if I remember correctly, it was up for less than a day. So there must have been somebody there with some common sense.

To see the seal, go to http://www.sos.state.il.us/general/seal.html

Blago’s picture was inside the gold ring. Imagine Goldfinger using his finger to give the same opinion of Blago that Daley did with a bird call.

Comment by aufjunk Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 9:42 am
Does anyone have the complete list of web sites visited?

Comment by OneMan Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 9:44 am
Rich,
Dorothy Brown’s office is being investigated again! Great timing for Congressmen Davis’ endorsement of a dirty campaign! I think i will vote for Preckwinkle she has good policies and is the only candidate Not under investigation!

Comment by Get it straight Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 9:55 am
I’ve never bought into this Blago/Rahm seat-warmer story the Sun-Times keeps regurgitating because it assumes Rahm is incredibly stupid. Emanuel is a lot of things, but he is certainly not dumb.

Consider: Rahm is a political animal. He was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which means he all but ran at least a dozen special elections for House vacancies. He just oversaw a special election in Illinois that elected Bill Foster.

Rahm knew damn well that Blago did not have the authority to appoint a seat warmer! On the other hand, it’s quite easy to believe Blago had no idea what his legal authority was or wasn’t when it came congressional vacancies. If their was a “seat-warmer” conspiracy, it was a one-sided conspiracy that existed only in Blago’s mind.

Comment by Sam E. Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:12 am
VanillaMan, don’t forget that Emanuel was the head of the DCCC. You’d think someone whose job it was to increase the number of Dems in the House would know exactly how that can and can’t be done.

That’s why I’d like to propose “No Congressman Left Behind”, which would require members of Congress to take the Constitution exam, similar to what’s required in schools.

Comment by PFK Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:19 am
Sam E., I totally agree. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a scheme Blago & Harris concocted to try and win favor with Rahm.

Comment by Lincoln Parker Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:20 am
I’m more inclined to lean towards Sam E on this, but we’ll see.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:25 am
Rich,
I assum you will be submitting a weekly FOIA for all of J. Stermer’s computer searches and, while you are at it, requesting the legislative leaders and their top staffs. We can see what they were working on when they should have been focused on the State.

Comment by R Rotunda Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:27 am
Other google searches by Harris:

– extorting childrens’ hospitals made easy.

– how to shakedown racetrack owners

– warm-weather countries with no extradition treaties with the U.S.

– when to rollover on your boss.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:29 am
Oh dear. If I should ever run for public office or my boss gets indicted (thankfully, not likely), will some reporter FOIA all my google searches and discover that I used my state computer to check Capitol Fax at least a dozen times a day?

Comment by Secret Square Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:29 am
I worked for Dorothy Brown at the Clerk’s Office. Just before Xmas one year, she invited recent hires to a luncheon on a Saturday. Attendance, we were told, was mandatory. After Dorothy Brown gave a speech, she left and her #2 at the time (Squire Lance) told all of us that we owed our allegiance to her and intimated that there was an wxpected quid pro quo for keeping our jobs.

I have no idea if Brown knew about the goings on at Mother’s House, but she has surrounded herself with questionable people ever since she got in office. And when you add in the gift-taking that she certainly did know about…have to believe that where there’s smoke…

Comment by Anon Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:32 am
Anon (Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:32 am):

You would be doing a huge service to the people of Cook County if you and a few others who were at that lunch would come out and tell that story publically. The voters need to know the bad deal they are going to get if Brown is elected but they can only know it if people speak up and speak out. If there is any way you can do it I urge to do so.

Comment by Lakefront Liberal Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:47 am
Many believe “Funbles” Harris actually ran/owned the KingMadigan site, but ST could not get that info….suspect bills went to a Friends of Blagoof credit card and will turn up at trial.

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:48 am
Rich,

It’s nice of you to give Dorothy Brown the benefit of the doubt, but frankly it’s unwarranted. The woman has a pretty long pattern of blurring the lines between politics and government and doing it all rather old school.

So maybe we can say we don’t know for certain that she knew it was going on. But we can say for certain that when confronted on it, her response was to attack the report as being a political attack. Had she responded with, “This should never happen and anybody doing it will not be part of my campaign,” I might have had a different view.

Wonder if she’ll collect more Xmas cards this year from employees with cash.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:50 am
Anon1032,

We are pretty good over at the BGA in protecting our sources. If you’d like to talk, please call Pat Rehkamp or Mark Lamet at 312.427.8330.

Comment by BGA Dave Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 10:52 am
;) LOL @this thread!

Comment by Will County Woman Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 11:13 am
So walk me through this. Rahm Emanuel was conspiring with the Blagojevich Administration to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow Rod to appoint a temporary congressman who would hold the seat until 2010? or give him a superspecial appointment that would allow this temp to hold the seat until such time as Congressman Emanuel wants to leave the White House? Say, 2016?

Wow, Congressman Emanuel must have way more respect for the effectiveness of the Blagojevich Administration than I ever did.

Comment by soccermom Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 11:13 am
Sam E, you cite the fact that Emanuel was 1) a member of the house 2) a “political animal” and 3) helped Foster win a special election, and therefore must have known that governors can’t appoint U.S. Reps, so it must have been Blagojevich who advanced this stupid idea.

Okay. Consider this though: Blagojevich was also a member of the U.S. House, in the same district as Emanuel, in fact. He is also a “political animal”. He was also involved in Foster’s Special Election — he set the date for it. Don’t you think he would have looked into his options about setting a date or even appointing someone around then?

But then, who knows, maybe they were both just playing each other.

Comment by PFK Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 11:15 am
- PFK -

All good points. Though, I think the record is very clear that Blago was not a details guy, while Rahm probably is.

No doubt, there was some playing going on.

Comment by Sam E. Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 11:44 am
@ Lakefront Liberal –

The stuff I mentioned in my post happened years ago — it’s old news. The sad reality is, that with google, etc. these days, I don’t want my name connected with her or the shenanigans at her office. There was actually a good deal more that went on — expectations to buy tickets to fundraisers (mine came from the then head of HR), expectations to buy her presents, ghost payrolling, and I heard - but did not personally see - political work on county time.

Oddly enough, I have some interaction with her office from time to time and I do think that the staff has improved a bit. Whether this is Brown’s doing or not, I have no idea. Still, I will not ever vote for her based on my personal knowledge of wrongdoingin her office.

Comment by Anon Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 11:48 am
In Cook County politics, the benefit of the doubt is a very small measure of doubt. Regarding Dorothy Brown in particular, she admits that she took cash gifts from employees over whom she had direct hire-and-fire authority. So clearly her ethical standing is in the toilet. The only doubt that can remain is which ethical breach she committed, not whether she might be worthy of respect.

Comment by Thomas Westgard Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 12:22 pm
To Anon 10:32 yep! Dorothy is not clean as a whistle, lots to uncover here…just ask some of her current and former employees…like I said last week she the female iteration…
of good old boy…

Danny Davis should get out of the way so one of his underlings can under represent me in Congress…maybe his district will be redistricted out of existence…please make it happen someone….

Comment by Loop Lady Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 12:34 pm
Sounds like a pretty crummy Christmas party: Show up, give your inept boss a bunch of money.

Comment by P. Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 1:42 pm
90 thousand bucks for a political hack in county govnerment while soldiers getting shot at make 30k. what a joke.

by the way pat brady, as party chair you are free to discuss matters like fiscal responsibility and government waste as pertains to cook county and the city.

Comment by shore Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 2:15 pm
shore, that’s a simplistic comparison, even for you.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 2:16 pm
Anyone else think how sad it is that the Gov’s office had an entire legal team at their dispoals and yet the Chief of Staff of a major state is doing his own legal research, on a subject as important as filling a vacancy in Congress via Google? Perhaps Mr. Harris realized what kind of people he had hired.

Comment by CarreerBureaucrat Monday, Dec 21, 09 @ 8:19 pm