Playing part of a pol, without having to carry out accompanying responsibilities

Perhaps it’s only natural that people who can’t hold a position any longer (or are just tired of it) use their fame to try to get themselves a television gig.

Will we someday have to see Rahm … 

Being a “commentator” allows them to keep portraying themselves as some sort of expert on whatever it is they’re interested in – without having to carry out any of the actual responsibilities.

OR HAVING TO go through the hassles of continually getting themselves re-elected to office!

Think about it? We’re now forevermore going to see Luis Gutierrez as the outspoken critic of our national immigration policy, while Rahm Emanuel will portray himself for as long as he wishes as Chicago’s “mayor.”

No matter how much the thought of those two men in those positions stirs up levels of contempt and disgust, we’ll always now think of them as “congressman” and “mayor” no matter what it is they really do in life.

These thoughts popped into my head when, on Monday, Gutierrez felt compelled to release a statement saying he’s now a part of CNN. He’ll be someone they can put on the air to talk about immigration policy and the Puerto Rican population of our nation.

… and Luis speak out … 

IN SHORT, THE man who during his two-plus decades in Congress portrayed himself as “Mr. Puerto Rico” himself any time a related issue came up on Capitol Hill can now go about portraying himself as the ultimate expert.

Those of us who remember back even further when he was a City Council member bellowing about like a crowing rooster (giving him the nickname “El Gallito”) will find act old – if not downright repetitive.

Yet the rest of the nation is going to get his share of the act. Particularly the ideologues who often will find themselves on the receiving end of whatever admonishment Gutierrez feels to dish out at any given time.

It assures that even though Gutierrez ceased to be a Congressman last week, he’ll continue to be heard. Personally, I’m waiting for the moment Gutierrez successor Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., does something that Luis considers to be a screw-up.

… on our television sets?

I HAVE NO doubt the rhetoric will be ugly – in both English en Español.

Not that it will be any more pretty when Rahm Emanuel finally steps down as mayor come May. For the talk is that brother Ari, a professional talent agent in his own right, already is doing the groundwork for Rahm to become one of the ranks of professional commentators himself.

For as a former member of Congress and White House aide under both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, he has a certain amount of issues and policy background. Combined with his eight years as Chicago mayor, he may wind up trying to claim himself as the expert on all sorts of things.

Could Garcia be blasted by Luis and Rahm?

Maybe he can even develop a personality of sorts that would allow him to be declared an unofficial “mayor” of the nation – someone who can forevermore be thought of as having an expertise. Even on issues upon which he knows absolutely nothing.

THAT ACTUALLY WAS the niche Rudy Giuliani once held, as the symbolic “America’s mayor” – at least until he became associated publicly with fellow New Yorker Donald Trump and relegated himself to the niche of the crackpot’s protector.

Will Rahm replace Rudy as 'America's mayor?'

Is the nation ready for Rahm; to speak out at his own will on whatever he thinks interesting? Anybody who tries claiming Rahm doesn’t have Rudy’s stature is engaging in crackpot rhetoric of their own – both men served as mayors of their respective cities for eight years.

But every time they appear on television, we get reminded of their stints – and many of us may wind up thinking they’re still in office doing great things; instead of merely blathering about on various issues that they had little to actually do with.

Which almost has me wondering if the greater point of running for electoral office is to gain the years of experience so that, one day, one can claim the legitimacy so they can someday go on television and have people think they used to “be somebody.”

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Trump “beating” Lincoln? Well, he wasn’t ever going to take Illinois vote

How over-bloated is the ego of President Donald J. Trump? He’s the guy going around saying he’s the most popular Republican ever – even topping one of the Republican Party’s founders, Abraham Lincoln.

Besmirching the rep of Honest Abe?

Of course, the fact that Trump would say he’s bigger than Honest Abe, so to speak, is predictable. If he really wanted to engage in overbearing egomaniacal rhetoric, he’d claim he’s bigger than Reagan.

EXCEPT THAT THEN, former President Ronald W. Reagan has surviving family members who would immediately rush out to “clean his clock,” so to speak. The Lincoln family line of descendants came to an end several generations ago.

So who’s about to challenge Trump’s nonsensical claim?

For the record, Trump was basing his claim off a poll showing that amongst people inclined to vote Republican, some 90 percent think favorably of The Donald. Which could be true – a recent Gallup Organization poll of Trump’s popularity shows 88 percent of Republicans favor him.

Compared to 37 percent of people who call themselves political independents, and only 9 percent of those who are Democrats. None of this is surprising.

NOT EVEN THE fact that Trump feels compelled to bloat his political significance with this trivial tidbit. Does it really mean much that the people who voted for Trump in the first place support their action of 2016 – or that the people who didn’t want him back then still can’t stand him!

TRUMP: The Man of the Over-bloated Ego

Or that Trump is the kind of guy inclined to believe that only certain people in our society matter. Those who didn’t like Trump in the first place, the hell with them, is probably his honest attitude.

I noticed that CNN felt compelled to do a story about Trump’s claims, saying that just about every Republican who has been president in recent years has had overwhelming favorable approval ratings amongst Republican voters.

And that there is no credible polling data remaining from the 1860 and 1864 election cycles to show us just how popular Lincoln really was amongst the American people.

'Bigger than Reagan' would be a real fight

OF COURSE, CONSIDERING that the election and inauguration of Lincoln as president was so unpopular that it caused officials in 11 southern states to talk of trying to break away and create their own nation (the whole Civil War was about whether such an action was legitimate), it wouldn’t surprise me to learn the noble image of Honest Abe held in Illinois isn’t universal.

Even if Lincoln did ultimately get his image on the penny – and the five-dollar bill. What will Trump ever get; other than his name on a batch of tacky buildings that society as a whole will celebrate when the day comes that they are reduced to rubble!

Considering that many of the kinds of people who now support Trump are the ones who also are determined to look back upon the Civil War as the “War for Southern Independence,” it may well be that amongst Trump supporters, they look more favorably upon him than that of Abraham Lincoln.

Trump may be truthful, but his ridiculous claim goes a long way towards explaining just what is wrong with this Age of Trump our society is now in.

I’VE ALSO NOTICED that some people are bringing to mind that moment from 1966 when John Lennon of the Beatles said he and his co-horts were “more popular than Jesus Christ.”

Is John Lennon more popular than Trump?

Which had an element of truth if you consider many of that era were shallow enough to be more concerned with pop music than religion. Lennon’s statement wasn’t really anything to be taken as a compliment.

So the idea that Trump is more popular than Honest Abe? I suppose it’s not like he said HE’S bigger than Jesus? Although I wonder if the kind of people inclined to support Trump would forgive him for such a blasphemous thought because they’d like how the very notion would offend people of sense.

Such as those of us of Illinois, where Lincoln remains our biggest political name in U.S. history. Ah well, it’s not like Trump was ever going to get Electoral College votes out of Illinois or would be a political asset to any Republican running for office in the Land of Lincoln.

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Trump’s just a bully best dealt with by ignoring his rhetorical nonsense

There are times when I think the best way to deal with the trash talk that emanates from the mouth of President Donald J. Trump is to ignore it.
 

A favorite spot for tourists to pose these days

He’s a bully and a dullard and is one who seems to relish being the center of attention.

WHICH IS WHY I wonder how much it would hurt him emotionally if we paid little attention to him – treated him for the triviality he truly is, rather than regarding much of anything he says as significant.

I think that would be the cruelest blow we could dish out to this egomaniac whom 46 percent of the electorate chose to be our nation’s leader.

I’m having these thoughts leading into Independence Day; the date upon which we celebrate the creation of our nation and the ideals of social justice for all that it supposedly stands for.

It is one upon which I can’t help but feel a little bit of shame over the pathetically-partisan nature our society has taken a turn to. We’re in an era in which some people are determined to turn back the advances we have made in our society toward achieving the American ideal – and those who voted for Trump did so largely because they think he supports their vision.

THAT IS WHY it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn of polls showing that Trump’s support levels remain ridiculously high amongst those people who voted for him.

Many are the kind of people who find themselves intimidated by people who actually understand government and its procedures and find Trump’s simple-mindedness easier to comprehend.

Particularly if it repeats to them over and over that everything wrong is somebody else’s fault!

Which is why I can’t help but chuckle at the recent outburst caused by Trump using some doctored video from the days of old when he tried boosting his public persona by becoming a character in professional wrestling.

ONLY NOW, INSTEAD of taking down a real wrestler, the video shows that wrestler being representative of CNN – the national news network that gets demonized by people who don’t want a dose of reality in their reports but want to be reassured that everything wrong is somebody else’s fault!

There are those people who are concerned that Trump has crossed over a line and is trying to incite violence against reporter-type people. As though he’s nothing more than one of those third-world tyrants who likes to criminalize people who dare to speak out against him.

Personally, I think that’s giving Trump way too much credit!

While it always is possible that some irrational sort is capable of taking anything out of context and turning it into a gross over-reaction, we also can’t go too far in terms of trying to limit this kind of stupid talk. People do, after all, have a right to be wrong.

IT SAYS SO in the Constitution – that document we’re supposedly celebrating Tuesday that says we have a right to free expression of our ideals. No matter how trivial or ridiculous those ideals may be.

In the case of Trump, personally I don’t think he has much in the way of a political philosophy. It wouldn’t shock me if his presidency winds up being a collection of contradictions, along with many trivial outbursts. Personally, I do believe that the political structure created by our Founding Fathers is capable of withstanding the nastiness we’re going to endure during this Age of Trump.

Which is why as a reporter-type person myself, I actually think the best way to respond to Trump’s doctored image of a body-slam of CNN is to come up with an alternate reality follow-up.

Perhaps one in which a symbolic American people puts Trump over its knee and gives him a spanking worthy of an insolent and bratty child!

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Could Trump solve Chicago’s problems within a week? Only in his mind!

It seems that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s failed attempt to hold a campaign rally last spring at the University of Illinois at Chicago made a bigger impression on him than we would have envisioned.

 

Has Trump ever really been in Chi outside his tower?

But in true Trump fashion, the event has become a distorted twist of fantasy that makes no sense on just about any level.

FOR MEMORIES OF that time came up during television interviews on the national cable news channels as Trump and his allies tried to seriously twist the happenings of that Friday night into something it was not.

The reality was that the would-be rally Trump wanted to hold on the Near West Side campus wound up being cancelled because the unruly crowds of spectators got out of hand – although Chicago Police have since said they never advised Trump to cancel the event outright.

It was Trump himself who didn’t have the backbone to face off against people inclined to be critical of him. It is to be expected considering that most Trump rallies are programmed to devolve in the true faithful harassing, intimidating and even beating on the candidate’s critics.

Which is what made the comments by Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, during an interview with CNN all the more laughable.

HE TRIED TO describe that Chicago appearance as one in which Trump tried to speak out to African-American voters, only to be rebuffed by them.

As Lewandowski said, Trump, “went to the heart of Chicago to go and give a speech to the University of Chicago in a campus, which is predominantly African-America, to make that argument. And you know what happened? The campus was overrun, and it was not a safe environment.”

It seems to me that Trump, if he really believes this, didn’t have a clue what was going on – and not just because he wasn’t anywhere near the Hyde Park neighborhood that actually has the University of Chicago.

Or that the University of Illinois at Chicago is in a neighborhood bordering on upscale that has more white people living in it than any other type.

PERHAPS TRUMP THOUGHT he was at Chicago State University? Then again, probably all Chicago college campuses look alike to Trump because they’re not a part of Trump University.

The reality is that Trump wasn’t anywhere near the “ghetto” that he envisions all of Chicago is. Perhaps he has spent too much time watching reruns of “Good Times” and comedian Jimmie Walker’s humor-tinged vision of life at the old Cabrini-Green.

But if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, Trump himself had to open his mouth during a Fox News Channel interview, saying he had met with high-ranking Chicago Police Department officials who he says told him they could “stop much of this horror show that’s going on” if they were let loose to actually enforce the law.

As Trump then put it, the officer said, “I’d be able to stop it in one week.”

GEE, ONLY ONE week to resolve the problems confronting Chicago? It’s just too bad that the likely solution suggested by this mythical cop is use of more force that would actually enhance the real problem law enforcement has in dealing with people.

Plus, there’s also the fact that Chicago Police officials on Wednesday insisted that no department officials ever met with Trump. Which leads me to believe this may have been a lone cop who was present at the University of Illinois at Chicago that night who was just shooting his mouth off.

Similar to how Trump often engages in that phenomenon known as “diarrhea of the mouth.” Saying whatever thoughts come to mind without regard to whether they make any sense.

Which is why those people who get all worked up over the violence level of Chicago (personally, I remember the late 1980s when it was much worse) are living in the ultimate fantasyland if they think a vote for Trump means a thing!

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Ugly tidbit tips a part of the job when trying to figure out what is “news”

I found a Chicago Tribune story amusing – one in which they admitted burning anoperative to Mayor Rahm Emanuel who was trying to feed them dirt on potential opponent Toni Preckwinkle.

Tip beneficiaries?

No matter how many times the Cook County Board president has said she’s seeking re-election this year, rather than running for mayor next year, there are those who want to believe there will be an Emanuel/Preckwinkle matchup in the 2015 election cycle.

IT WOULD SEEM there are those within Emanuel’s camp who are taking such speculation seriously. For the Tribune reported about how one of Emanuel’s people sent them an e-mail message filled with story suggestions.

All of which – if written in the same tone suggested by the aide – would have made Preckwinkle look ridiculous or inept in the way she has managed the Cook County Board president’s post.

Which would go against the conventional wisdom of Preckwinkle being one of the few competent people within our local government – a view held by many county government people themselves, who find her absolutely wonderful by comparison to her predecessor; Todd Stroger.

It’s humorous to me that the Tribune would feel the need to so quickly reveal this e-mail – which caused the aide in question to have to issue a public apology (and privately to add a pair of Tribune reporters to his “enemies” list).

ALTHOUGH I’M SURE those reporters will be able to sleep at night. This might be one of those instances where revealing the tactic was newsworthy in itself – it shows the degree to which Emanuel takes Preckwinkle seriously. I’d have thought less of them if they had just eagerly lapped it up – the way some people want to believe CNN did with their recent “Chicagoland” documentary series.

Even though publicly, the two say they “work together” (with many people still getting their chuckles from a recent Preckwinkle appearance on the WTTW-TV program “My Chicago” in which Preckwinkle abruptly said she and Emanuel “work together,” then refused to elaborate).

In my own time, I have received my share of tips and tidbits and suggestions about the way I should cover things. Usually from people who want to ensure that I don’t think much of their political foes.

For that matter, the campaign of Bruce Rauner for governor sends me nearly daily e-messages informing me of their latest spin about how despicable we should think Pat Quinn is. Although that effort differs from the Emanuel attempt – in that they send their messages to everybody they can think of, and don’t try to be secretive about it.

THERE ARE TIMES when they do get secretive, and they usually go through such covert efforts to cover up their tracks. Which is what makes this direct e-mail message so unique.

Not like the telephone call I got just the other day telling me about a suburban police chief who supposedly is trying to get other village officials to turn against the local mayor. Not sure yet how truthful the tip is – hence the lack of details.

I recall one person who tried to feed me a nasty tip once about a would-be political candidate. He wouldn’t say anything over the telephone. He insisted on meeting me face-to-face in a neighboring town.

Then, when we were standing at an obscure intersection in a residential neighborhood and he was convinced no one was watching, he fed me the dirt – which as I recall offended my editor (it involved an act of oral sex performed on the candidate while on government time) so much we didn’t rush to write it up.

WHEN IT TURNED out that the candidate in question ran into troubles and couldn’t even get on the ballot for the upcoming election, the tip died with the candidate.

Although I suppose if this candidate ever tries a political comeback, the tip could be resurrected – and written up if it actually checks out.

Because one thing about such tips. They’re usually somebody’s wishful thinking about what they’d like the story to be. Reality doesn’t always turn out that way.

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'Chicagoland' ratings that bad? Missing airplane overtakes documentary

I haven't commented on the 'Chicagoland' documentary being broadcast in eight parts by CNN because I've hardly seen it.

Will I forevermore be 'Part Two'-less?

I watched the initial part the day it was broadcast, but missed the second part when it aired Thursday night of last week because I had to work. Earning a living struck me as being more important at that particular moment.

BUT HEY, THIS is the 21st Century. These cable channels air programs over and over and over. Particularly something like this documentary, which CNN is making a big deal of.

It should have been no problem for me to catch a repeat airing some time during the weekend. In fact, it was scheduled to be a rerun both Saturday and Sunday nights, along with early Sunday and Monday mornings.

Believe it or not, I tuned in each and every time -- only to find out that it got pre-empted every single time. The latest trivial details of that airplane that went missing somewhere over the Indian Ocean were put on live every time.

Now before some of you get offended that I characterized it as "trivial details," keep in mind that I say so because we still don't really know what happened there in that incident that caused an airplane, its crew and passengers to suddenly vanish.

FROM WHAT I gather, officials now suspect that the pilots themselves were "in on it," so to speak. But what "it" is, we don't know.

So I really don't feel any more educated about that incident. And I still haven't seen Part Two of the documentary series -- which from the little blurb I read is supposed to continue the tales we in Chicago are all too familiar with.

You know -- 2013 was a particularly violent year, particularly in select South and West side neighborhoods, while there are those who think Rahm Emanuel is Satan incarnate for those inner-city neighborhood schools that were closed.

Although it seems that the most recent Chicago Black Hawks Stanley Cup championship was thrown into the mix in Part Two -- giving us a few moments of happiness while enduring an arrogant mayor and senseless violence.

THEN AGAIN, I also suspect that those people who most got into the whole hockey championship thing were the ones who were least affected by either urban violence or school closings.

I know that the reports indicated the ratings weren't so good for that first part of 'Chicagoland.' They were considered disappointing -- although better than the ratings that most CNN-aired documentary programs get.

Could it be that CNN has that little faith in this series that they're cutting their losses? Why keep re-airing a program that will only be watched by the random few like I who managed to miss it Thursday night?

Even the latest non-details that only slightly advance the missing airplane story were considered more interesting!

THERE MAY BE a few people out there asking why I don't just turn to my laptop computer and the CNN website to watch a program. Part of it is that I don't want to.

I'd rather watch a program on my television screen (26 inches), compared to that (16 inches) of my laptop. I really don't comprehend those people who think that a smartphone's dinky screen is at all suitable for watching anything on video -- not even some self-shot video of one's friends in some way acting stupid.

But there's also the fact that when I go to the website to try to find it, all I can find are little samples and snippets. Which is probably the only practical way to handle video off a television screen.

Definitely not ideal for viewing an hour-long program.

SO WHAT DO I think of 'Chicagoland?' By and large, I feel like it is telling me a story I already know -- because I (and many of you, I presume) have been following it in detail. It's not adding much of anything new to the mix.

I suspect most of those people complaining about it are the ones who want a program that indicts the reputation of Emanuel, and that anything that isn't super-critical will be considered a "whitewash" by them.

Such a review of what is happening in Chicago might be intriguing if it were helping to spread the story amongst more people.

Yet the fact that the ratings have been sub-par, and that it is becoming something not easily watched, makes me wonder if it's failing on those grounds, too.

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THE INK-STAINED WRETCH: CNN kept Waukegan explosion "humor" in check

Perhaps it is because I worked for two decades in the news business, but I could see the CNN anchor Thursday afternoon doing her best to suppress a laugh as she gave us the update on an explosion in Waukegan, Ill., that the network had reported live earlier in the day.

As it turns out, no one was killed in what officials say was a gas explosion that gutted several businesses and was felt by people as far as a block away. Eight people were taken to area hospitals for minor injuries.

THE POTENTIAL FOR humor came out of the fact that the initial image presented by the explosion was so incredibly disgusting. Firefighters and other emergency crews arriving at the scene found body parts strewn all about the street.

For a few seconds, officials surveying the scene saw the flesh-colored parts and feared they were going to be spending their next few hours picking through rubble while trying to resurrect the parts of people who just happened to be present at the wrong time.

But in what sounds like a bit from a “Marx Brothers” movie, the body parts turned out to be not quite what they appeared at first glance. Among the businesses gutted by the explosion were a hair salon and a clothing store – specifically, one that sold tuxedos.

Had the body parts not come from mannequins, Waukegan, Ill., would no longer be remembered primarily as the birthplace of Jack Benny. Photograph provided by City of Waukegan.

The body parts in question belonged to the mannequins used in the store to display the tuxedoes. At least those mannequins ended their time on this planet while being well dressed. Except for the mannequin clad in the light blue tuxedo with a ruffled shirt and dark blue cummerbund. That one gets the shame of dying in a tacky high school prom outfit.

SOME PEOPLE ARE going to be repulsed at the notion that anyone could find humor in an explosion. But actually, it is the way reporter-types (and many law enforcement officials I have known) deal with the potential tragedy once it turns out there is no real carnage.

It’s not like anybody is making quips about Tinley Park, where police continue to look for the man who earlier this month killed five women and seriously wounded a sixth during a robbery attempt at a Lane Bryant women’s clothing store.

Nonetheless, I can appreciate the differing viewpoint that non-reporters take toward incidents. After all, a reporter (particularly one who focuses attention on crime and disasters) usually pops into the lives of people at their absolute low point.

It is why I can understand why reporters approached Gov. Rod Blagojevich when he attended a ceremony at Northern Illinois University, and then proceeded to ask him questions about issues other than the 21st Century version of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre that left five students dead and several others shot.

SEVERAL STUDENTS BOO-ED and heckled reporter types, which probably fed into the governor’s ego and makes him think all the more that the people of the state of Illinois love him (they really love him) and will forgive him for anything he does.

The simple fact is that Blagojevich may be implicated in a federal investigation of political corruption. He gives people so few chances to talk to him, that this occasion had to be used.

Besides, the world does not revolve around DeKalb, Ill., even though some students may wish it did. Blagojevich said he would push for state funds to pay for demolition of the hall where the shootings took place and construction of a new memorial. That story got reported as well as Blagojevich’s lame response to being “Public Official A.”

What else was notable this week in the world of the Chicago-area reporter types who try to follow in the footsteps of “The Front Page?”

SUN-TIMES DINGS TRIBUNE, WHOOPIE!!!: The Chicago Sun-Times went a tad overboard with its coverage Thursday of how Tribune Co. chief Sam Zell seriously wants to find some corporation to pay him big bucks for the right to put their name on the stadium used by the Chicago Cubs.

With a screaming headline reading, “It’s Trib vs. Chicago,” the newspaper made a big splash with stories and columns denouncing Zell for even daring to think of changing the name of Wrigley Field (which is named for the Wrigley family that used to own the team and still owns the chewing gum manufacturing company).

The newspaper also devoted ample space on their website to the comments of Cubs fans (many of whom read as though they forgot to take their medication) who want to get all worked up over this.

THE ONLY REASON the Sun-Times cares about this is that it is an excuse to beat up on the opposition newspaper. If anybody other than Tribune Co. owned the Cubs, the Sun-Times would take a more rational viewpoint on this issue.

The truth is that modern sports economics make all of Zell’s proposed moves (including more night games and concerts at the stadium) the norm. He is not asking for anything out of line with other professional sports teams.

If our government officials are going to be forced to deal with this issue (the state may wind up buying the stadium and paying for a major overhaul of its infrastructure), they are going to have to get over this silly notion that the Chicago Cubs are “holier than thou.” They’re just a baseball team, and a lousy one at that.

BLACK’S BLACK DAY: He was done in by videotape.

An appeals court panel in Chicago rejected the request of former Chicago Sun-Times chief Conrad Black to remain free while his appeals take place. Black will have to report to prison on Monday, or risk being labeled a fugitive from justice.

The court ruled that his conviction on an obstruction of justice charge on claims that he removed boxes of documents from his office in Toronto after a court had said they were not to be touched is so air tight there is no chance it will be overturned. They cited the security video used during Black’s trial that shows him hauling box after box after box out of the office.

So that puts Black in the same category as one-time Chicago Cubs idol Sammy Sosa as someone whose Chicago rep was forever damaged by incriminating video (remember the security camera that caught Sosa leaving a game early at the end of the 2004 season?)

Unlike Sosa, Black now has a 6 ½ year prison term to serve (provided he behaves himself while in prison, he’ll have to serve about 5 ½ years before being eligible for early release).

AND ON A FINAL NOTE: I’m still trying to figure out just what officials with the “Today” show thought they were accomplishing by having former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson on their program.

Peterson, whose third wife is now officially a homicide and whose fourth wife is still missing (it has been four months now), didn’t say anything of interest during his show, and the perception most viewers picked up is that NBC will put anything on the air if they think it will help bring in ratings.

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