Schmidt won’t go; will GOP push her?

In some ways, the behavior of state Sen. Suzi Schmidt, R-Lake Villa, doesn’t surprise me in the least. Anyone who has the desire to hold elective office has to have a certain amount of ego and a sense that their presence matters.

SCHMIDT: She won't go!

So the fact that Schmidt – who became more than just another anonymous freshman state legislator when it became known she tried to use her influence to discourage Lake County sheriff’s department officials from seriously investigating her husband’s claims that she was abusing him – is now saying she has no intentions of resigning her post is to be expected.

IN FACT, I suspect that Schmidt probably thinks she’s making a tough, principled, ethical stand by refusing to give in to people who she wants to think are trying to turn her personal life into an issue against her.

Which means she has the ability to live her life in a fantasy world of her own making – just like many other government officials.

So I’m not writing this commentary out of any sense that Schmidt needs to be criticized. I suspect if she ever reads this, she’ll be quick to trash me.

My concern in this whole affair is Schmidt’s Republican colleagues – who are now in a position of having to defend someone who (deep down) they wish would wither away into political nothingness.

THE DISCLOSURES ABOUT Schmidt came up last month. Lake County sheriff’s police, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, made public the content of the calls Schmidt made to police dispatchers on three occasions in recent months when police had to respond to the Schmidt residence.

The one call that amused people was one from her husband who said his wife had locked him out of their house on Christmas Day, which means it was winter and he didn’t have a jacket on. He probably was cold.

The call that offended people was Schmidt herself calling the dispatchers and telling them they shouldn’t bother to respond to any calls at her house made by her husband. She also made mention of the fact that, for the 10 years leading up to this year, Schmidt was the chairman of the Lake County Board.

The far north suburbs’ answer to Toni Preckwinkle.

EXCEPT THAT I can’t envision Preckwinkle ever telling Cook County sheriff’s police they should ignore 9-1-1 emergency calls. Or trying to flash her title as a way of intimidating police into ignoring complaints.

Now as it turns out, police haven’t charged anybody with anything in connection with any of these calls to the Schmidt home. These domestic disputes didn’t rise to the level of crimes.

But when the calls came out and the initial public reaction wasn’t offense that the information became public, Schmidt began getting pressure to resign her post.

After all, she had only been a legislator since January. Had Schmidt just left, it is likely that she would have been forgotten so quickly on the Statehouse Scene that there would have been no lingering ill-will toward her.

MAYBE SHE COULD have gone back to the county scene, where (if she really was as important a person as she believes she was) she could have won some sort of government post – unless she were to decide that a future life would be better spent outside of electoral politics.

Privately, GOP leadership said they were prepared to give Schmidt the weekend to decide for herself what to do (which really meant that she should realize she should just walk away).

But it just ain’t gonna happen that way.

For Schmidt on Wednesday made it known that not only is she not resigning, she also plans to seek re-election. She’s gambling on the fact that she represents an area where the Republican Party is solid, and that there likely isn’t any other GOPer with the desire to be an anonymous state senator.

LAST WEEK, STATE Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, called the revelations about Schmidt, “extremely troubling,” and said that public officials, “are held to a higher standard.”

Now, Radogno is defending Schmidt, saying she, “has acknowledged that her actions were wrong and has asked for the forgiveness of her constituents.”

This could be a case where Republican leadership is publicly saying nice things to avoid a brawl, while privately will do everything they can to undermine her re-election chances.

Then again, maybe it isn’t.

WHICH MEANS WE’LL really have to wait until late this year to see if anybody decides to challenge Schmidt for the Republican nomination for her far north suburban state Senate seat.

That’s when we’ll learn whether or not Radogno and Schmidt’s Republican defenders these days have any political sincerity, or if they’re just engaging in the typical trash-talk of a campaign season – defending their own, regardless of how bad they behave.

Which, to me, is more offensive than anything Schmidt is alleged to have done.

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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): He sounds so naïve, Rahm does on taxes

A part of me wants to chuckle at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s rhetoric about wanting to cut the city’s share of the sales tax.

EMANUEL: Todd II?

He thinks he’s about to become a populist hero who slashed taxes to benefit the people by doing the exact opposite of Todd Stroger – who during his time as Cook County Board president actually raised the county’s share of the tax to help raise money to cover all the services they provide.

SOME PEOPLE ARE determined to never forgive Stroger for that move. It will dangle from around his neck forevermore and WILL BE his political legacy. So Emanuel thinks he can get the exact opposite legacy for suggesting that the city share of the sales tax be reduced by about 0.25 percent.

If his talk were that simple, perhaps it would work. Some people are so eager to hear the words “tax cut” that they don’t pay attention to the specifics. Which in this case would mean a lot more tax increases than decreases.

For Emanuel wants to alter the list of items and services that actually get taxed.

There are certain things that people actually pay less of a tax on, and a few others for which the sales tax does not apply. Take a look at your grocery receipt sometime to figure out the different items and what gets taxed at what rate. Just think of all the services that can now be taxed.

YOU JUST KNOW that cutting the overall sales tax rate (which is higher in Chicago than in other parts of the state) will be ignored if certain items now get taxed at a higher rate.

STROGER: Learn from his lesson



He’ll be Rahm the Tax-Hiker, rather than the mad Tax-Slasher. If he seriously goes forth with this rhetoric (the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday that he’s likely to do so), he’s going to find out how quickly he becomes even more despised than Stroger among Chicago taxpayers.

There is one potential plus in this whole mess. This is an issue that ultimately has to be decided by the Illinois General Assembly. Emanuel can’t do this on his own. So will Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, save Rahm from himself? Or will they give him what he wants, along with the rope to hang himself in the process?

What other items are of interest on the shores of the southwestern tip of Lake Michigan?

SOMEBODY NEEDS TO LEARN THE LESSONS OF HEIPLE: State Sen. Suzi Schmidt, R-Lake Villa, is new to the Legislature. So she doesn’t have the memory of watching then-Illinois Supreme Court Justice James Heiple have to explain why he thought he was exempt from speeding laws.



Heiple, as I recall from his testimony, responded to being pulled over by a traffic cop by flashing his court credentials, then got all huffy when the cop indicated he didn’t care that Heiple was a judge.

Schmidt now gives us a moment of arrogance to rival that, as the Lake County sheriff’s department this week made public the recordings of calls she made to 911, telling the police up front she was the former Lake County Board chairman, and that the police should ignore any calls for help that her husband might make. Perhaps Heiple and Schmidt would make the perfect couple when it comes to ego. Although I find it amusing that she identified herself by her old political post, rather than her current one. She figures nobody would care what a state senator thought?

Insofar as the actual contents of what are at least three calls the Lake County sheriff has had to respond to at the Schmidt residence since December, all I’ll say is that they remind me too much of an old Saturday Night Live sketch that parodied programs such as COPS – one in which police had to respond to a call at the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Ark., because “Bill” just got beat up by spouse “Hillary” after she caught him messing around with other women.

CHICAGO FOLLOWS OZZIE TO MIAMI???: Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen already has people thinking they might like to be connected to the National League team because of his presence. What is shocking is how many of them are Chicago Cubs.

Reports indicate that hard-hitting infielder Aramis Ramirez and hot-tempered pitcher Carlos Zambrano might want to become Marlins. There even are reports that if Cubs manager Mike Quade does get dumped, he could wind up as one of Guillen’s coaches – because Ozzie admires the job he did with such an awful ballclub.

That could mean more Cubs following Guillen to Florida than family members, since wife Ibis and sons reportedly have said they want to stay in Chicago.

I just worry that bringing so many Cubs brings a funk to the Marlins. After all, the old ex-Cub Factor (first publicized by the late columnist Mike Royko) says that the presence of three or more ex-Cubs brings defeat in the World Series.

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