Obama Museum/Library advances, or merely the beginning of legal brawls?

A federal judge at the Dirksen Federal Building issued a quick ruling with regards to the fate of the proposed Obama Presidential Center – one intended to let officials begin actual construction in Jackson Park as quickly as they can get themselves readied.

Will the plans for Obama memorial move forward now?

Although I already can envision the many people who will take offense at the idea that a judge didn’t reject the Obama facility as something despicable and shameful, and are bound to bog down the process with many more legal appeals.

WHO’S TO SAY when actual construction will begin on the South Side to build what supporters argue will be an attraction bringing global tourism to a part of Chicago many wouldn’t bother paying attention to.

That is, unless they want to check out the Museum of Science and Industry nearby, while refusing to venture much further away out of fear what they would perceive as a hostile neighborhood.

Yes, I think there are many distortions of fact related to the project, also tied into the nitwit thoughts of ideologues who want to think they can diminish the historic significance and reputation of the Barack Obama presidency.

For all I know, they dream of the day when the Donald Trump presidency makes plans for its own memorial museum and library. Maybe they’ll dream of building it nearby in Chicago, with their structure towering high over the Obama building.

MY POINT IS it’s hard to take seriously much of the criticism that is being spewed about this project, and it is encouraging that U.S. District Judge John Blakey felt compelled to dismiss the lawsuit challenging the Obama facility after hearing only about one hour of legal arguments.

He easily could have taken the case under advisement, and spent several weeks pondering what he wanted to do. Before then issuing an obtuse legal opinion that likely would wind up confusing many of those who attempted to peruse it.

Instead, he instantly said he was dismissing the lawsuit against the Obama facility, and would issue an explanatory legal opinion at a later time.

OBAMA: Paying tribute to his memory?

Which means the critics already are saying they’re going to appeal. But they have to wait until they see the legal reasoning for the ruling before they can say on what grounds they think Judge Blakey is being a nincompoop.

OR WHATEVER LEGALISTIC term they choose to use to imply that Blakey is wrong!

Now I know there are people who object to the use of Jackson Park – which theoretically is one of the prime pieces of parkland on the Lake Michigan lakefront in Chicago. They think that letting a private entity like the Obama Foundation use public land borders on criminal – if not immoral.

Then again, there are others who object to anything celebrating the Obama memory because they want to believe that HE bordered on criminal AND immoral.

I know one self-proclaimed Sout’ Sider who argues against Jackson Park, and says that Washington Park to the north of it (the site where former Mayor Richard M. Daley once talked of erecting an Olympic Stadium – IF he had been able to attract the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago) would make more sense.

ALTHOUGH I WONDER if many people who don’t specifically live in the South Shore or Hyde Park neighborhoods could tell the difference between the two parks. They may well view the two as one continuous piece of parkland on the lakefront – located in neighborhoods they’ve never actually ventured into.

I almost feel like Judge Blakey chose to dismiss on the grounds that the people most critical didn’t have a true stake in the project. Or else they’re the ones who live around the park and want to think of it purely as their neighborhood playlot.

Keep all those outsiders away from their homes, instead of them realizing they live in a place that has great potential to be a showcase for Chicago. One from which they could financially benefit – if they played their cards right, so to speak!

So now we move on to the appeal process. With people perhaps looking for a judge who’d be inclined to overturn Blakey’s ruling just because it favors the Obama reputation. Meaning the Obama reputation will continue to divide us into those of us with a tad bit of sense, and those ideologically-inclined to want to shriek “no” every chance they get!

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EXTRA: Can we move on from Hastert?

I hope the general public, or at least the segment of our society that was obsessed with knowing all the sordid details of what it was that one-time Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert did, is satisfied.

How long 'til portrait viewed sympathetically

For on the day this week that Hastert had to appear before a judge (being permitted to sit in his wheelchair even though he tried to stand himself up at the crucial moment), it seems we finally got to know what it was the one-time high school wrestling coach “did” with his boys all those decades ago.

IT SEEMS HE’S a groper. He likes to touch them. He probably justified it in his mind as harmless fun. Just being one of the guys.

But one of them died carrying what he considered to be a shameful secret, and others also felt like they were abused. Which ultimately is the key to understanding such cases.

Hastert may not have intended as such, but it is what he caused.

Which is why the judge in U.S. District Court rejected his statement that he “mistreated” his athletes, and wound up referring to Hastert as a “serial child molester.”

WHICH IS A moment I’m sure made Hastert wince inside. I’m sure he realizes the lede of his obituary is no longer “one-time House Speaker” but instead the words that Judge James Durkin spoke.

It was curious that it all came out this week. Because for the more than a year that this case has been pending, prosecutors have resisted getting into the details of what it was that Hastert did back at Yorkville High School.

For Denny, who in the years after his service in Congress became a lobbyist and finally accumulated some wealth, was using it to pay off at least one person from the past to keep their mouths shut. In fact, one person claims Hastert reneged on the agreement, and now wants their money.

The charges to which Hastert pleaded guilty to and were sentenced for this week were financial violations – he withdrew so much money from his bank accounts and did not report it to the federal government, as is required.

IT’S A LAW meant to go after organized-crime types who deal so much in cash. As a fictional example, remember that episode of “The Sopranos” where we learn Tony has bundles of cash hidden in the bird feed, with the amounts just below the dollar figure that would have to be reported.

There was the sense that the U.S. attorney’s office people who prosecute financial crimes were so eager for their case to not get emotional or sloppy that they were willing to downplay what the money was for.

I’m sure there were many people who were disgusted with the legal proceedings until this week, when the case, according to a Crain’s Chicago Business headline, “live(d) down to all expectations.”

Personally, I wasn’t obsessed with knowing every sordid detail because that’s not what he got the 15-month sentence. I try not to get my kicks from other people’s unseemly moments.

BESIDES, I HAVE covered too many capital crimes proceedings where everybody claims that only execution will ease the pain and suffering. Only to realize it doesn’t. The suffering will be the same for the "victims" regardless of what happened to Hastert. It certainly doesn't matter what that wrestling Hall of Fame does with Denny's memory of his athletic days.

He got the prison sentence that will keep him locked away for just over a year (presuming he behaves himself and doesn’t become a prison disciplinary case). It was even said that federal prisons are equipped to handle older inmates with medical conditions that Hastert’s attorneys tried using to justify a sentence of purely probation.

So now Hastert goes away, so to speak. He does his time. With any luck, he lives out his sentence even though, as Judge Durkin said, his “good name is gone.”

Because it’s a sex-related crime instead of merely financially-related, does this mean the collection of political bribe-takers, shake-down artists and other corrupt politicos we have here in Illinois will think they can look down upon Denny?

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EDITOR'S NOTE: I deliberately held off a day before trying to write anything about the Hastert predicament; for fear I'd write hysterics I'd later regret. Besides, both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz acted like goofs on Wednesday, making it possible to take a pass on Denny.

Will one-time speaker Hastert survive long enough to be sentenced in fed ct?

Remember the scene from the two-decade-old film “Casino” where, when the organized crime leaders wind up in legal trouble and have to appear in court, they wind up showing up with assorted canes and wheelchairs – and one even came with an oxygen tank so he could allegedly breathe.

HASTERT: Proceedings continue

The implication being that these men came up with ailments so as to appeal to the sympathy of the court that could theoretically have sent them way to prison for lengthy stints.

NOW I’M SURE some people are going to be grossly offended at my bringing this up upon learning that one-time House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert’s attorneys are now saying he nearly died from assorted ailments back in November.

It was that claim, and the need to have Hastert’s cooperation in preparing his defense, that got his attorneys to ask for a delay in his sentencing.

For the record, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin on Thursday rescheduled the sentencing hearing for Hastert to April 8. Although news accounts of Thursday’s court hearing indicate federal prosecutors are concerned the sentencing may be delayed too long.

Now I don’t know first-hand the extent to how ill the 74-year-old Hastert was back in November, or is now. But you just know that for every person now offended with me for bringing this up, there probably are two or three who are having the same exact thought.

IS THE HASTERT case going to drag out into a legal circus far worse than the mere facts of the case usually would warrant – just because of whom Denny is or what it is he is alleged to have really done?

Considering that Hastert supposedly is facing the prospect of up to six months in a federal corrections facility if he ultimately pleads guilty, could this case have long been settled if not for maneuvering that is dragging it out longer and longer than it ought to be?

This desire for a delay only adds to the circus atmosphere, and the expense to the judicial system brought about by the U.S. attorney’s desire to “put away” one of the few Illinois politicos ever to reach the rank of speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

This is a case that already has many people upset, particularly because the perception is out there that Hastert will someday be able to plead guilty to financial infractions whereas many people want “the dirt” about whether he did something sexual with a teenage boy back when Denny was a high school wrestling coach!

PROSECUTORS SAY THAT Hastert made significant payoffs of his own money to one of his former students decades after the two were involved in each others lives. In short, after Hastert wasn’t a political person and actually had significant money to spend as part of his post-political, lobbyist life.

Because some of those payments involved withdrawals from bank accounts in large amounts – violating federal laws requiring such withdrawals to be reported immediately to the government – Hastert is alleged to have committed a crime.

But that’s all he’s facing. Prosecutors say the allegations about Hastert and the boy are too old to investigate, and aren’t really relevant to the financial crime that intrigues them.

I’ve written previously that the people who are interested in this case solely as a sex crime are going to be frustrated. They’re not going to get the titillation they desire.

BUT THE LONGER that the Hastert camp drags this out, the more outrage there ultimately will be felt by whatever outcome this court case brings about.

I almost wish Hastert would just enter his “guilty” plea and serve his sentence, so that we can all move on.

Besides, then he could do his time and try to go the Dan Rostenkowski route of a political elder statesman with a touch of taint to his story – and could wind up getting a presidential pardon someday down the road if the GOP actually manages to regain the White House come November.

And was more fortunate than that one character from "Casino," the one who died of a heart attack on-the-spot upon being told by FBI agents he faced federal indictment and that it was his own records that would provide significant evidence against he and his crime colleagues.

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‘Junior’ may be home again by week’s end. But will it be D.C., or So. Shore?

Sometime Thursday, federal inmate Jesse Jackson, Jr., will be released from the prison camp near Montgomery, Ala., where he has been held since last spring; and I’m sure his thoughts and prayers are focused on how quickly he can return to home.

Technically, Jackson remains in federal custody through Sept. 20, although his release to a halfway house in the District of Columbia is part of the process by which all federal inmates become re-accustomed to life outside of prison walls.

AND YES, I realize that Jackson was being held in a camp that was part of an air force base, but the imagery remains.

But the trick is going to be to decide whether Jackson can be determined to be such a non-threat to the society at large that it would be a waste of time to have him actually stay at the halfway house.

It’s a very real possibility.

Remember back when former Gov. George Ryan was released from the work camp that was attached to the federal prison near Terre Haute, Ind.? He reported to a halfway house on the West Side, and it was found within six hours that he didn’t need to be there.

HE WOUND UP spending that first night of “freedom” really free at his home near Kankakee. It’s very possible that depending on how late in the day you actually read this commentary, Jackson himself could be on his way home.

The only question being, “Which home?” The house he has in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington? Or the house in the South Shore neighborhood that gave him the address that enabled him to be a part of the Illinois congressional delegation for all those years?

Will Jesse, Jr., return to his South Side roots? Or find that a change of scenery is best for him to be capable of building a new life for himself. He did just turn 50 a couple of weeks ago, and is still capable of doing something significant to build his reputation.

Even though I’m sure there are certain ideologue crackpots who will only be satisfied if Jackson were to become a destitute bum. Of course, then they’d rant about him existing off the public welfare rolls.

SOME PEOPLE ARE just determined to be miserable to deal with! Like the ones who, I’m sure, are now ranting that Jackson should not be free anytime soon – even though his “criminal” offense wound up being the use of campaign funds to purchase assorted memorabilia to decorate the office.

Which makes me wonder about the ongoing mess that soon-to-be former Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., faces. He being the guy who spent significant sums to re-decorate his own Capitol Hill space – is there something about interior decorating that attracts the suspicion of “the feds” to warrant indictment, conviction and incarceration?

It will be intriguing to see how the new Jackson comes to be.

While he had a political career of some significance with big dreams that fell short (“Mayor Jackson?”) of becoming reality, I don’t doubt he could come back to achieve some goals that could wind up topping his political significance.

OF COURSE, HE has to get through this ordeal first. Regardless of where he calls “home,” he’s likely to have to wear one of those funky ankle bracelets during the summer months so as to further demean him.

Then, sometime in mid-October, spouse Sandi (the former alderman who got busted for signing the income tax returns that allegedly tried legitimizing Jackson’s actions) will have to do her few months in prison – followed up by her own stint in a halfway house/home confinement.

When the Jacksons are finally (sometime late in 2016) finally able to get on with their lives, there is another benefit. Perhaps then we’ll be able to get over our public obsession over this case.

All of us will be a lot better off when that day comes.

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Ho, ho and ho? Feds say Christmas party cash was really a bribe!

Did grandma ever combine this ...

There have been some fairly creative attempts to disguise the intent of a cash payment that federal prosecutors think was really a bribe. But using the Christmas holiday?

That may be a new one, and it seems to be the situation related to Curtis Thompson, who was a chief of staff to 21^st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins, Jr.

FOR THOMPSON IS the guy who got indicted on Friday (and was allowed to remain free while charges are pending in U.S. District Court without having to post bond) as the latest corruption case out of City Hall.

... with so much of this?

For the record, the amount is $7,500. That’s how much Thompson supposedly got in exchange for his professional services. Which means it falls within the trend of so many corruption cases – where the actual amount of the payoff is downright petty.

It’s not like $7,500 is anything Thompson could have lived off of for the rest of his life if he had somehow decided to skip the country and go into hiding.

According to the complaint filed in federal court, the person who was willing to make the government payoff was supposed to disguise the money (75 $100 bills tucked into a Christmas card) as donations to Brookins’ holiday toy drive and to pay for the alderman’s annual Christmas party.

THE PERSON MAKING the payoff (who in reality was an undercover informant working with the FBI) said he wanted to operate a 7-Eleven convenience store in the alderman’s home neighborhood, and he also needed certain city permits that would allow him to sell alcoholic beverages.

BROOKINS: Has a job opening for chief of staff

Supposedly, the bribe was to get the chief of staff to persuade Brookins to write an official Letter of Support on behalf of the would-be convenience store operator that would help speed along the bureaucratic process of issuing the required permits.

For what it’s worth, officials say that the businessman/informant actually attended the alderman’s Christmas party back on Dec. 19, which is when the very precious Christmas holiday card was delivered to the chief of staff.

That would make it more memorable than any political holiday party I ever have attended. The best thing I ever got was one year at a Christmas party at the Executive Mansion in Springfield, where then-Gov. Jim Edgar gave everybody silver holiday ornaments designed to look like the Old State Capitol building (the one that Abraham Lincoln would have known as the Statehouse, and where his body was on display just before being buried at the nearby Oak Ridge Cemetery).

I CAN FIND this latest case amusing because of the holiday connection.

Because it strikes me that if this had been something deeper-reaching, Friday would have been the day that Alderman Howard Brookins himself would have been hauled in front of a federal judge – and we’d be adding to the count of aldermen who have faced indictment throughout the years.

One can literally put together an entire City Council, with leftover politicos, from the ranks of those who have been indictment throughout the decades.

Instead, Brookins was only referred to as “Alderman A” in the indictment.

HE’S NOT CHARGED with anything. And he’s claiming he had no idea that when he wrote a letter on behalf of a would-be convenience store owner that somebody else was being enriched by his actions.

Which I’m sure is what would most offend certain types of people – someone else getting rich off their own efforts.

And perhaps knowing that if something does go wrong (which it did in this case because someone got caught), the blame will be spread around far greater than just the one guy.

The one who accepted a holiday card that most of us could never even dream of seeing.

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A serious allegation? Or just a way of trying to legitimize campaign sleaze?

I recall a day I once spent on the job for the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago when I was trying to confirm a sordid tale about Oprah Winfrey – one in which I came up with nothing!

RUTHERFORD: Facing a firestorm!

Not a single fact. Nothing confirmable. I didn’t get the story!

THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES a couple of weeks later came up with a gossipy blurb about it in one of their columns. And by day’s end, that had crumbled into falsehood.

I remember Winfrey feeling compelled to go on her television program live to address the rumor and deny it – while not giving any credence to the story.

I have been thinking about that incident for the past week; ever since Republican gubernatorial hopeful Dan Rutherford held that press conference on Jan. 31 along with former federal agents to try to defend himself from what he expected would be allegations made against him. The moment felt, to me at least, very Oprah-esque.

The stories being told now about Rutherford are sordid enough that some people want to believe it will be the end of the political campaign for the man from Chenoa who rose through the ranks of Illinois government from state legislator up to Illinois treasurer.

WHO NOW WANTS to make the big move up to governor!

For the past week, we have had stories published and broadcast about allegations with no details offered up. With reporter-types who knew the name of the person making the allegations, but choosing not to reveal it.

At least not until Monday. Which is the day that Ed Michalowski filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago against Rutherford. He says that while working for the state treasurer’s office, he was sexually harassed. He also claims he was pressured into doing political work on state government time. But most people are going to focus on the former accusation.

WINFREY: Will Dan be as successful?

Michalowski loses any claim to anonymity because his name is now on the lawsuit. It’s a matter of public record.

ALTHOUGH THE FACT that it is now out there, in a sense, does not make me feel there is any more legitimacy to the allegations.

I’ll state right now that I don’t know Michalowski or anything about him. And I certainly have no clue as to whether or not there is any legitimacy to his claims – which are that he experienced the harassment once at Rutherford’s home, once at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., and once at a tavern in Springfield.

Before we knew what he was talking about, Rutherford denied the allegations. He claimed more than a week ago that any trash talk being spewed now was politically motivated.

The sad thing is that my gut feeling makes me suspicious – of the people who are making the accusations. Particularly some of the attorneys who have been talking in recent weeks about the case!

FOR IN THE two-plus decades that I have followed the activity of state government, I have heard rumor and innuendo concerning Rutherford that would be consistent with these latest tales.

Is this lawsuit now just something on a piece of paper that is meant to give legitimacy to such trash talk? As in now that this case is out there, they can start spreading the other nonsense tales that they have spewed for years?

All in hopes that it could drive the Rutherford campaign out of the mix for governor? Which makes me wonder if the real villain becomes whichever Republican candidate stands to benefit the most IF Rutherford were to wind up dropping out of the campaign?

I’m not about to get into tales I heard about Rutherford years ago – other than to say they were always more resembling of whispers that were told anonymously by people who couldn’t necessarily get their stories straight.

QUINN: The ultimate winner?

WHICH MAY WELL be where this whole saga is now headed! Just one nasty mess that will take down everybody in its path.

Which also has me thinking that the ultimate beneficiary of this may well be the Pat Quinn campaign – since whomever winds up winning the Republican nomination is going to be beaten up, bruised and bloodied so badly that they may not be able to give it their best effort in trying to Dump Pat come November.

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What a blowout, all because of apathy

You may have heard about it by now – the indicted and expelled state Rep. Derrick Smith is an overwhelming favorite to return to the Statehouse in Springfield.

SMITH: Will he do a Schwarzenegger 'I'll be back'?



Then again, you may not have. Because it seems the fact that Smith has an overwhelming lead in a recent poll is most likely the result of apathy. Nobody cares!

NO MATTER HOW much the pundit-types try to get you all worked up about the thought of a sitting legislator facing criminal charges, you seem to have more important things in your life to worry about.

Which may well be the reason why Smith winds up getting re-elected to the General Assembly and his old Illinois House seat in the Nov. 6 elections.

I’m sure some of the pundit types are going to claim that this is an embarrassment – a stain on the political reputations of Illinois and Chicago. They’re going to claim that something is seriously wrong that “the people” could willingly pick such a person – even though they have an alternative in that election.

I’m not going to make that argument.

IF ANYTHING, I’M going to say that the only stain is on the reputation of the Illinois House itself. For they were the ones who acted this spring and summer with great, self-righteous indignation to put Smith through hearings and ultimately orchestrate a public vote in which they overwhelmingly decided to expel him from the state Legislature.

Yet they couldn’t do anything about the fact that he had already managed to win the Democratic nomination for the Illinois House 10^th District seat (which represents the Near West Side of the city).

He remains on the ballot, and there is something of an effort resembling a third-party campaign by Lance Tyson (a one-time aide to former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger) that is meant to challenge him.

Although the Capitol Fax newsletter recently reported how the only official who seems to be giving Tyson any kind of support is Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White (who lives in that legislative district).

OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS seem to not really care who manages to win this particular election.

Which would explain the poll taken by the We Ask America group. Tyson only has 9 percent support, compared to 48 percent backing for Smith.

Admittedly, that is a huge group of undecideds. Perhaps they will unite against Smith and enable Tyson to gain a term in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Although I’d say it is more likely they could care less, and the people who do bother to vote in that particular legislative district will just go knee-jerk Democrat. Meaning Smith gets their vote despite the fact that he faces a criminal indictment in U.S. District Court that says he used his legislative seat to solicit cash bribes.

IT’S NOT THAT people approve of bribery; which is what the conservative ideologues will try to claim. Although I’d argue they’re just bitter about the fact that their preferred political party is so weak in the city that they couldn’t even get a token challenger to Smith on the ballot.

Perhaps what we’re tired of is self-righteous political rhetoric. Which is what we got our fill of during the whole expulsion process. Just about everybody felt the need to either denounce Smith, or claim they really weren’t that close to him to begin with.

If it turns out that Smith manages to get himself re-elected for a few more months, perhaps that blow to the Legislature’s ego is appropriate punishment. Perhaps they shouldn’t be trying to treat Smith as some sort of historic exemption – particularly when one considers the number of political people who have faced criminal indictment and remained in office until the very end.

That end, of course, being the day that they are found “guilty” and have to resign their post. In all likelihood, Smith will wither away eventually. It will be in a way, however, that will deny other officials a chance to score some cheap rhetorical points for themselves.

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