EXTRA: A Cullerton, but not THE Cullerton, gets indicted by the feds

I have no doubt that some people are wetting their pants with glee at the word that a Cullerton, one of the most prominent of political families in Chicago history, got busted by the feds.

CULLERTON -- The federally-indicted one

Sure enough, officials announced that state Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, faces a criminal indictment on some 41 criminal counts. The kind of people who are eager to see a Chicago politico get busted because it fits into their own ideological hang-ups are the ones all excited.

THERE’S JUST ONE problem. The Cullerton who’s the big name these days is John, who serves as president of the Illinois Senate. He’s also the one who’s a direct descendant of the many Cullertons who have been prominent on the Chicago political scene – both within City Hall and Cook County government.

Tom is actually a distant cousin to John, and from a different branch of the Cullerton family tree.

Anybody who thinks they FINALLY nailed a Cullerton ought to relax This isn’t the major deal you might want to fantasize it is.

Just to give you a clue, Tom is actually a DuPage County resident, and once served as mayor of suburban Villa Park. Not exactly a City Hall denizen!

HE’S NOW A part of the DuPage legislative delegation – which is a fact I’m sure infuriates the long-time DuPage residents. The ones who remember back when DuPage County was the base of the Illinois Republican Party and when DuPage was one of the most Republican of counties that could be found anywhere in the United States.

Now, a Cullerton (which in Chicago political circles is a name almost as prominent as “Daley” itself) has a seat in DuPage. Which, I’m sure, is a prominent motivation for locals to want to tag Tom with some wrongdoing.

Mess him up, and maybe dump him do they can replace him with a good ol’ fashioned GOPer (the kind of Republican who reveres the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the days before the Party of Lincoln sold its soul out to the ego of Donald Trump).

I’m not saying that’s the only reason Tom Cullerton got himself indicted. But you can’t underestimate the significance of that element.

CULLERTON -- The prominent one

NOW WHAT ACTUALLY is Cullerton (Tom, not John, although I don’t doubt there are those who will openly encourage any confusion about who’s who within the Cullerton clan) to have done wrong.

It seems from March 2013 to February 2016, Cullerton received a salary as a Teamsters union official, along with bonuses, and allowances to cover the cost of his cellphones and automobiles. He also received health insurance and pension benefits for his “work” with the labor union.

Which prosecutors contend was minimal. He didn’t really do work for the union – although he took their money (more than $252,000). Which has prosecutors insisting it’s criminal, and worthy of embezzlement charges.

It seems the fact that Cullerton took a pass on health insurance benefits he was entitled to as a state legislator (accepting the union’s health plan instead) was not enough to keep him in the clear legally.

HE’S NOW GOING to have to face criminal charges, and likely will be added to the “hit” parade of politicos who got themselves busted. The political prominence of his moniker will add to the impact.

What would feds do for Daley descendant?

Although it should be noted that Cullerton’s indictment came just days after the guilty plea of Teamsters boss John Coli, who supposedly demanded payoffs from a film studio. In exchange for legal considerations, it seems Coli is now talking about union business – including his ties to Tom Cullerton, whom he allegedly set up with the no-work job to begin with.

Could Cullerton be the fish Coli tosses up to prosecutors who figure they get a bigger case if they can bust a “Cullerton,” even if it’s not one of the really big-name Cullertons whose own activities may be even worse?

It makes me wonder how much the federal prosecutorial types would give if they could build up a case against someone with the “Daley” name – no matter how small-fry the actual individual is?

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Everybody smile. Look happy, & don’t drive the knife too far into his back

I’m still trying to figure out what is the most hilarious part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s appearance with Gov. Pat Quinn and union leaders on Friday at McCormick Place.

EMANUEL: Keeping them closer



Could it be the fact that Emanuel managed to “play nice” with at least one set of organized labor leaders, just a day after the state of Illinois dumped all over his school reform plans by siding with the Chicago Teachers Union?

OR IS IT the fact that we had Emanuel and Quinn standing side by side, pretending to be pleased with each other even though the governor himself seems to have dumped all over Emanuel’s desires to get a casino in Chicago – sooner, rather than later.

Watching the famed “Rahm-bo” having to be nice in public with people whom he’d probably rather dump in a ditch did nothing more than remind me of that old “The Godfather” line – “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

Should the Teamsters and carpenters unions, along with the governor himself, be watching their backs these days, wondering if/when Emanuel will come up with the equivalent of cement shoes for them to wear?

It’s just my guess, but I’d bet that Emanuel these days is most upset with the Chicago Teachers Union – a body that he has spent the past couple of months demonizing because they won’t just willingly go along with his desires for a longer school day.

THOSE TEACHERS HAVE the nerve to think they should be compensated for any extra time they do on the job, and that Emanuel should have negotiated any change with tem than thinking he could just impose it automatically.

At least that’s the way Emanuel (and all those ideologues who like to dump on organized labor any chance they can get) want to view the issue. The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board took a different, and perhaps more reasonable, viewpoint.

QUINN: Watching his back?



They voted 5-0 on Thursday to seek an injunction, which would prevent Emanuel from implementing such a change (adding 90 minutes to each school day, to be exact) any time this school year.

Which means Emanuel will have to sit down and talk to people like Karen Lewis of the Chicago Teachers Union. After having spent the past couple of months being dumped upon, those teachers are likely to up their demands in exchange for supporting any changes in the school day.

SO HOW SINCERE was Emanuel on Friday in offering up support to the unions that represent the employees who work at the McCormick Place convention center? I wish I could have been close enough to hear what he was muttering under his breath – or through his clenched teeth and he smiled and boasted of the significance of the agreement that was reached concerning the convention center’s work rules.

Admittedly, there have been those who argue that the rules are so strict (trained union electricians required to plug in displays to a wall socket?!!) that they drive up costs of Chicago conventions and cause the shift to places such as Las Vegas, Nev., or Orlando, Fla.

Ignoring the fact that many convention-goers don’t really want to explore the cities they visit, and just want a simple attraction near their hotel. Perhaps a nearby casino could fill that bill.

Except that Quinn did his business, so to speak, all over that desire by saying he’s prepared to use his veto power to kill off the bill, which had speculation about possibly as many as three bills being introduced in coming days to try to impose some sort of expanded gambling opportunities across Illinois.

EMANUEL HAS ALWAYS wanted this goal – which is one that Richard M. Daley also wanted during his two-plus decades as mayor but could never achieve. But Quinn thinks the General Assembly got carried away with creating gambling opportunities, particularly with all those slot machines at places like race tracks and airports.

That is what caused Quinn to actually show some backbone and stand up to the casino backers, who just have such a different way of viewing the issue that there probably is no way to ever close the gap.

As one of those legislators who backs the casino proposal told me this week, Quinn is viewing the issue the “wrong” way. He sees it for all the potential for problems that can arise from gambling, instead of seeing it for the benefits that it can bring.

Those benefits being the portion of the gross receipts that Illinois and the municipalities that host such casinos can charge them as a tax. And at a time when many governments (including Illinois state and Chicago city) are struggling to meet their expenses, that is just too much of a consideration to ignore.

WHICH TO MY mindset sounds too much like saying that having morals is only acceptable when times are going good. Times of struggle can’t afford anything like morality.

It also means Quinn may have scored some moral bonus points on this one issue. Yet I can’t help but wonder what the political payback will be for Quinn, and how long it will be before Emanuel starts thinking about how “cold” his “revenge” should be.

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Labor unions an intriguing part of immigration reform debate these days

Immigration reform was the topic of interest at rallies and protests taking place across the United States this weekend, including one held on Chicago’s West Side.

That rally managed to draw a crowd of just over 1,000 people, including many political types eager for voter support going up as high as Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. His appearance at that rally, where he said that immigration reform must pass Congress “this year,” was the primary reason the Chicago rally was even acknowledged in national news reports – most of which focused their time on the Las Vegas rally where immigration proponents were trying to tout the re-election chances of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

BUT FOR ME, the intriguing part of the Chicago rally for immigration reform wasn’t who showed up – it was largely the usual (and expected) suspects. It was where the rally was held.

It was at Teamster City, 1645 W. Jackson Blvd., which is the primary facility for the Teamsters labor union in the Chicago area.

Not that it’s uncommon for political protests and rallies to be held there. But the fact that this particular event was held there means we have the Teamsters on the side of the immigrants and their proponents on this issue.

Which, to be honest, means we have most labor unions on the side of the immigrants on this issue.

I FIND THAT aspect to be interesting because most of the people who are opposed to immigration reform (or think that immigration “reform” should be defined as an increase in deportations) try to claim that their opposition has little to nothing to do with ethnic hangups.

Instead, they argue they are concerned about these non-citizens coming to our country at a time when we’re in an economic downtown and taking jobs from U.S. citizens.

Now some of these people manage to unmask their racial and ethnic hangups when bringing up this point when they say the low-level jobs now being done by these undocumented workers are jobs that could easily go to African-American people on welfare

Seriously, I have heard it. In their perfect world, black people wash dishes and do other menial jobs.

BUT BACK TO the point. It really has nothing to do with anyone taking away jobs from anybody else.

Because if it did, these labor union types would be the most outspoken opponents of immigration reform. We’d be seeing and hearing them in great numbers engaging in trash talk about the issue.

Instead, we’re seeing the unions realizing that these people are in this country to work, and that stabilizing their immigration status makes it less likely that companies would be able to hire them out of a sense that their uncertain status in this country makes them more likely to put up with abuse at the hands of an employer.

I’m not exaggerating. Anybody who doubts this ought to look at the organized labor rhetoric that occurred some two decades ago (and which we still hear traces of today) when the North American Free Trade Agreement was put into place.

THE UNIONS WERE more than willing to spew the official party line that thinking of Canada, Mexico and the United States as one economic unit would undermine the labor protections they had fought so hard to obtain throughout the years. Which played along with the nativist rhetoric that our country should not want to think of itself as an economic partner (or any type of partner, for that matter) with Mexico.

So I find it encouraging to learn that the unions are on the side of the immigrants,seeing them as mere workers who are trying to earn a living.

Now I realize that for some people, the fact that organized labor is now on the side of immigration reform will be a turnoff. Of course, most of those people likely are ideologically inclined to oppose immigration reform, regardless of who aligns in its favor.

But I like the idea that the ranks of organized labor, which includes many people whose families’ ethnic origins don’t go back that far, is willing to take a stand on this issue.

FOR THE BIGGEST problem faced by the immigration reform proponents is that the perception being spread by the nativist opposition is that this is an issue that no one other than a Latino has any real interest in.

Even though many immigration rallies wind up including many people speaking in an Irish brogue or in some eastern European dialect, too many people want to ignore this issue on the grounds that it is purely Latino in composition.

Which is why I was glad to see someone like Durbin (who often brags about his family’s Lithuanian origins) be willing to take a stance, instead of relying on Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., to do all the talking and political heavy lifting on this issue.

That may well be what persuades some GOP-types in Congress (some seem to think that veteran Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., is a potential swing vote) to consider the issue seriously. Which could be the key to actually achieving a vote in Congress during 2010.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Richard Durbin and Luis Gutierrez are becoming national leaders in the political debate (http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/04/11/2010-04-11_immig_reform_cant_wait_till_next_year.html) over immigration reform.