When it comes to police, it doesn’t matter what city you’re in or what department you’re talking about. There’s a common attitude at work of wanting to keep quiet about internal matters.
Which is why it doesn’t surprise me at all that police Supt. Jody Weis’ initial attitude toward a court order telling him to turn over lists of police officers who have at least five complaints filed against them is to tell the judge to stuff it.
WEIS IS REFUSING to provide the list, which is being sought by attorneys for a woman who claims her son was abused by police. Attorneys want to know how many police officers have multiple complaints of abuse filed against them so they can try to show a pattern of the Chicago Police Department downplaying (if not outright ignoring) allegations of improper police behavior.
Privately, the news organizations of Chicago have found that the list could contain as many as 2,500 names of police officers, and some of them may have as many as 60 or more complaints against them.
In short, this list has the potential to make the Chicago Police Department look stupid – and cause many people to bring up their memories of the 1968 Democratic Convention and the way police went off on anti-war protesters (behavior that was later labeled by future Gov. Dan Walker as a “police riot”).
By refusing to provide the list, Weis puts himself in contempt of court, since a judge overseeing the lawsuit has said the defense attorneys have a justifiable reason to want to see the information.
SO THE BIG question floating around City Hall and other circles where urban policy are pondered is, “What will happen Monday?”
For Monday is the deadline provided by U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman to either provide the list, or come up with a good enough reason why Weis should not be held in contempt of court.
Somehow, I can envision a police superintendent being stubborn enough to think he should be able to decide for himself what is legally appropriate for himself to turn over to anyone else. Which means I don’t think he will voluntarily cough up a copy of the list.
Nor do I think he’ll try to come up with anything resembling a reason for not turning it over. At least nothing that goes more deep than, “None of your business.”
SO WILL GETTLEMAN have the guts to issue that contempt ruling? Will we get the sight of a Chicago police superintendent being hauled off by federal marshals to a lockup, then off to the Metropolitan Correctional Center located in the South Loop?
In the case of Weis, it would be even more ironic, because he’s not the traditional Chicago cop who likes to take pride in coming out of the city neighborhoods and working his way up through the ranks.
Weis is a former G-man, the FBI. Could we literally have a former federal law enforcement officer being locked up at the MCC with other people facing federal criminal charges – looking out at the South Loop through those thin slits that pass for windows in the cells so that inmates can’t try to climb through them to escape?
The potential image is just too much, and I can’t help but think the backlash Gettleman would face from other people who like to think of themselves as being part of law enforcement or the justice system would be too much.
SO COULD IT be that both Weis and Gettleman will spend these weekend days trying to figure out a way for each of them to save face, so that both can try to “spin” the story to claim they were not the ones who “gave in” to public pressure.
What is sad about this saga is that the idea of providing such information has become such a cause among law enforcement.
It comes from a mentality that exists among many law enforcement types I have encountered throughout the years that they have to take a few shortcuts from the way they technically should do their job, in order to ensure a greater good of protecting the public safety.
If that means an occasional punk gets smacked about, some cops can justify it in their minds. And many more aren’t about to tell on their colleagues.
THAT IS WHAT this is about.
Weis, a guy who already draws mistrust from some Chicago police types because he’s former FBI (rather than some guy who grew up in Beverly or Sauganash and graduated from the Chicago Police Academy), is falling into the attitude of thinking that this list of potential police problem officers is something that is no one else’s business.
If he had willingly coughed up the list when it was requested Wednesday, he would have incurred the wrath of his police colleagues.
In fact, when it comes to taking the attitude of “no one else’s business,” it is a viewpoint that is worked into the actual contracts the city has with its police officers (and which many police departments have as well).
ANY REPORTER-TYPE WHO tries to write stories about incidents involving activity by the police themselves knows exactly how little information can be provided about a police officer.
The idea that these officers have a right to privacy means that someone can literally get in trouble legally by making public information about potential wrong-doing by a cop.
One of the jokes often passed about is that if a police officer ever really wanted to commit murder, he ought to just go ahead and kill the person and make no effort to cover up. Because those union regulations would prevent police from telling anyone about the rogue officer in their midst.
That may be an exaggeration, but it is the same basic mentality that has Weis thinking he did the right thing this week when he risked the wrath of a federal judge by refusing to turn over “the list.”
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jody Weis claims that turning over the list would damage the (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-weis-contemptmar05,0,3021793.story) reputations of some police officers because some of the repeat offenses are misdemeanors.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Does Chicago soccer have the power to give new life to athletic squads?
I stumbled across a happening (trivial, to be sure) in the Chicago Sun-Times that makes me wo
nder if professional soccer in Chicago carries some sort of resuscitation power.
Can being connected to a Chicago soccer team enable one to have a life – even after one ought to be deceased in the athletic sense?
WHAT AM I babbling about, you may ask?
It was an item in the sports section that said the cheerleading squad of the Chicago Shamrox (a professional lacrosse team) would continue to exist, even though the Shamrox went out of business in December, and the National Lacrosse League is on the decline.
Now insofar as the Chicago sporting scene goes, the Shamrox weren’t exactly big players. They existed for two seasons, and many people who consider themselves sports fans may not have even known they existed (they played their matches at the Sears Centre arena in Hoffman Estates).
Most of the attention they received was because of their cheerleading squad (the Hot Rox Dancers). Many sports sections got their kicks from publishing photo
graphs of women in fringes that pass as short skirts and low-cut halter tops who were willing to jiggle their hips a bit.
IN FACT, THAT was probably the biggest motivating factor in the Sun-Times publishing an item saying that another sports team has adopted the Hot Rox Dancers as their own cheerleaders.
That team? The Chicago Fire, our city’s entry in Major League Soccer.
The Hot Rox Dancers will now perform their routines at Fire soccer matches in their nice new stadium on the edge of Chicago (it’s located in the southwest suburb of Bridgeview) not far from Midway Airport. That’s in addition to the non-sports event performances they give in their own right as they travel around the world.
For the record, Cardinal Fitness (the chain of health clubs that is spreading throughout the Chicago area) will sponsor them at Fire soccer matches.
BUT THE IDEA that the Hot Rox Dancers will outlive the Shamrox themselves due to professional soccer struck me as ironic, because it reminded me of the fate of Chicago’s previous professional soccer team.
I would be referring to the Chicago Sting, which in their 14 years of existence won two championships in the now-defunct North American Soccer League. Their title in 1981 was the first championship for a Chicago-based team since the Bears won an NFL title in 1963, and their title of 1984 (won on the same day that Leon Durham let a ground ball go through his legs and the Cubs blew a shot at a National League pennant) was the final one ever awarded by the NASL.
But while the North American Soccer League (including the high and mighty New York Cosmos – the team of international stars such as Pele, Beckenbauer and Chinaglia) disappeared after that year, the Sting actually continued to have a life.
They had previously shifted into a dual existence, playing summers in the NASL and winters in the Major Indoor Soccer League (playing a goofy version of soccer that more closely resembled a life-sized pinball match).
BUT WHEN THE North American Soccer League ceased to exist, the Sting continued to play the indoor soccer game – continuing until that league ceased to exist following the 1987-88 season.
Now I realize there is a difference between an actual team continuing to exist by playing a variant of their sport, and a team’s cheerleaders continuing to perform.
Some people who just can’t handle any sense of irony will probably wish they were reading this commentary in a newspaper so they could wad up the page into a ball and fling it into a trash can, while shouting a choice obscenity or two.
But hearing that the Hot Rox Dancers will live on at soccer matches gave me a chuckle, while also making me remember the old days of the Sting (I still remember watching them roam the playing field of Comiskey Park in the early 1980s, when they were on top of the U.S. soccer world).
SO IF YOU happen to find a reason to show up at Toyota Park this summer to see the Fire, give a thought to the Shamrox when you see their dance squad shimmy and shake themselves in an attempt to get the crowd worked up into a frenzy.
After all, it likely will be the only attention most of you paid to the Shamrox themselves. I will be just as guilty of that sin of omission of thought as any of you. If one thinks the Hot Rox Dancers are too obscure a squad to have a continued life, I think it puts them on a certain unique platform in the history of Chicago sports.
I must admit that the factor of the first Chicago Bears game I ever went to (a pre-season game in 1979 at Soldier Field against the New York Jets) that I most remember was watching the Honey Bears parade around the sidelines.
Would anyone have thought less of the Honey Bears squad had another team adopted them after the Bears prudishly dropped them following the 1985 Super Bowl-bound season?
-30-
nder if professional soccer in Chicago carries some sort of resuscitation power.Can being connected to a Chicago soccer team enable one to have a life – even after one ought to be deceased in the athletic sense?
WHAT AM I babbling about, you may ask?
It was an item in the sports section that said the cheerleading squad of the Chicago Shamrox (a professional lacrosse team) would continue to exist, even though the Shamrox went out of business in December, and the National Lacrosse League is on the decline.
Now insofar as the Chicago sporting scene goes, the Shamrox weren’t exactly big players. They existed for two seasons, and many people who consider themselves sports fans may not have even known they existed (they played their matches at the Sears Centre arena in Hoffman Estates).
Most of the attention they received was because of their cheerleading squad (the Hot Rox Dancers). Many sports sections got their kicks from publishing photo
graphs of women in fringes that pass as short skirts and low-cut halter tops who were willing to jiggle their hips a bit.IN FACT, THAT was probably the biggest motivating factor in the Sun-Times publishing an item saying that another sports team has adopted the Hot Rox Dancers as their own cheerleaders.
That team? The Chicago Fire, our city’s entry in Major League Soccer.
The Hot Rox Dancers will now perform their routines at Fire soccer matches in their nice new stadium on the edge of Chicago (it’s located in the southwest suburb of Bridgeview) not far from Midway Airport. That’s in addition to the non-sports event performances they give in their own right as they travel around the world.
For the record, Cardinal Fitness (the chain of health clubs that is spreading throughout the Chicago area) will sponsor them at Fire soccer matches.
BUT THE IDEA that the Hot Rox Dancers will outlive the Shamrox themselves due to professional soccer struck me as ironic, because it reminded me of the fate of Chicago’s previous professional soccer team.
I would be referring to the Chicago Sting, which in their 14 years of existence won two championships in the now-defunct North American Soccer League. Their title in 1981 was the first championship for a Chicago-based team since the Bears won an NFL title in 1963, and their title of 1984 (won on the same day that Leon Durham let a ground ball go through his legs and the Cubs blew a shot at a National League pennant) was the final one ever awarded by the NASL.
But while the North American Soccer League (including the high and mighty New York Cosmos – the team of international stars such as Pele, Beckenbauer and Chinaglia) disappeared after that year, the Sting actually continued to have a life.
They had previously shifted into a dual existence, playing summers in the NASL and winters in the Major Indoor Soccer League (playing a goofy version of soccer that more closely resembled a life-sized pinball match).
BUT WHEN THE North American Soccer League ceased to exist, the Sting continued to play the indoor soccer game – continuing until that league ceased to exist following the 1987-88 season.
Now I realize there is a difference between an actual team continuing to exist by playing a variant of their sport, and a team’s cheerleaders continuing to perform.
Some people who just can’t handle any sense of irony will probably wish they were reading this commentary in a newspaper so they could wad up the page into a ball and fling it into a trash can, while shouting a choice obscenity or two.
But hearing that the Hot Rox Dancers will live on at soccer matches gave me a chuckle, while also making me remember the old days of the Sting (I still remember watching them roam the playing field of Comiskey Park in the early 1980s, when they were on top of the U.S. soccer world).
SO IF YOU happen to find a reason to show up at Toyota Park this summer to see the Fire, give a thought to the Shamrox when you see their dance squad shimmy and shake themselves in an attempt to get the crowd worked up into a frenzy.
After all, it likely will be the only attention most of you paid to the Shamrox themselves. I will be just as guilty of that sin of omission of thought as any of you. If one thinks the Hot Rox Dancers are too obscure a squad to have a continued life, I think it puts them on a certain unique platform in the history of Chicago sports.
I must admit that the factor of the first Chicago Bears game I ever went to (a pre-season game in 1979 at Soldier Field against the New York Jets) that I most remember was watching the Honey Bears parade around the sidelines.
Would anyone have thought less of the Honey Bears squad had another team adopted them after the Bears prudishly dropped them following the 1985 Super Bowl-bound season?
-30-
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
When it comes to literary standards, will Milorod be a Walker or a Lewinsky?
Will Rod Blagojevich be the second coming of Dan Walker, or Ja
ne Byrne? Or does he have it in him to become the future literary equivalent of Monica Lewinsky?
All three of those people took a crack at writing a book about their political experiences (just like Blagojevich will do later this year) once their days on the government payroll were over, to varying degrees of success.
WHILE HIS PROSE isn’t the cleanest of copy one will ever read, one-time Illinois governor Walker may have come up with one of the best political memoirs when it comes to one of our local government geeks – just because he was relatively straightforward and didn’t seem concerned with burnishing his image.
In the process, he may have done just that with his autobiography, “The Maverick and the Machine.”
When that book came out a few years ago, much of the public attention went to the passages where Walker detailed his life in a federal prison (having to listen and do nothing while another inmate was raped, being singled out for harassment by a warden determined to punish a “corrupt politician”).
But I found the portions of Walker recounting his days in and around Chicago government (“the machine,” a.k.a., the Chicago Democratic organization) and the amount of hostility he encountered as he tried to push for ideals that went against the business interest of establishment political people to be just as intriguing as any story about Walker and his special “governor’s stick” used to pick up trash around the prison grounds.
WALKER WAS EVEN willing to detail instances where he screwed things up. Self-serving pap, this book is not.
In a sense, former Alderman James Laski wrote a similar book. “My fall from grace,
” was written by him during his time in prison, and it almost reads as a textbook into the ways that the City Council operates, putting personal interests ahead of public policy whenever the two conflict.
How little some things change from those days of the late 1960s to the mid-1970s (when Walker reigned) to the 1990s (when Laski was relevant).
It’s just a shame that Laski could never find a real publisher for his book, and had to go with one of those companies that enables people to self-publish books they have written.
THAT HURTS THE ability to distribute copies (although it really doesn’t take many copies sold these days to have a national best seller – 50,000 or so will do) and draw attention to the book.
He may well have produced a book that no one outside of Chicago will have ever heard of, and copies of it now sell in remainder bins for about $5 each (seriously, I saw one on Sunday for that price).
Can Blagojevich reach this level of literacy – writing a book that people with an interest in government will turn to for examples of the way things truly operate?
After listening to Blagojevich tell us about how he was impeached and removed from office by an Illinois General Assembly filled with drunks and adulterers (sadly enough, there are a few members who fit those categories), we might have hope that a book by the former governor would be willing to give up some good details.
IT’S NOT LIKE Blagojevich is bashful (he’s shown us during his national television appearances that he has no shame). If he were willing to sit down and seriously speculate about government operations and the reason they don’t work properly, it could be interesting reading.
In fact, it could turn out to be one of those seminal works that political scientists turn to for years to come. There is the potential for such a book about our local political scenes at City Hall and the Statehouse in Springpatch.
But I don’t know if the guy who used to go around boasting of his love for Elvis and the Chicago Cubs (there’s no accounting for taste) is capable of thinking in such a way. His book could turn out to be more like the tome fronted by former Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco – which told a sordid tale in such a tacky way that Canseco’s image is permanently tainted by the book, even though it appears to be truthful.
But when it comes to political people, I can’t help but wonder if comparison to Jane Byrne is more appr
opriate.
THE FIRST WOMAN to ever get herself elected as mayor of Chicago wrote “My Chicago,” which attempts to tell the story of the history of our home city and the role in which Byrne plays in that greater story.
That book seemed more about trying to turn Byrne into a historic figure to be remembered for the ages, and wound up being filled with a lot of generic passages of Chicago history that I could have found in many other places.
And the nearly 400-page book devoted only about 75 pages to the four years during which Byrne oversaw city government.
Either she should have devoted the book to her own story and focused intensively on her years (1979-83), or she should have reduced the portion about her mayoral stint significantly.
DOES ANYONE BELIEVE that one-fifth of a book about Chicago history should center around Jane Byrne? Or that only one-fifth of a book about Jane Byrne should focus on her mayoral years?
Will Milorod be capable of putting his own story into context? Or is he going to bloat the significance of himself way out of proportion? You take a guess.
Then, there’s always, “Monica’s Story,” which the one-time intern of the Clinton Administration cooperated with, so as to tell the tale of how a young girl was seduced by the power and influence of a president.
She was fairly graphic in the salacious details that many tacky people wanted to know. And that book did hit the Best-Seller charts – going straight to Number One in its first week.
BUT I REMEMBER that book almost immediately dropping off the charts (everybody who wanted a copy bought it immediately, and interest just declined). The story, on a certain level, was just too stupid to waste much time on. I remember buying my copy of that book about one month after it came out, and I got it in a remaindered book bin ($5.99, if I remember correctly). I can’t think of many other books that dropped to discount so quickly.
Could it be that when Blagojevich publishes his book (which may be released sometime later this year), we’re going to find out that Milorod has a bit of Monica in him – their books will share the same fate?
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Could October of this year be notable in Chicago for both the release of a book by Rod Blagojevich (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-blagojevich_book_deal03mar03,0,375224.story) AND the failure of the Chicago Cubs for the 64th straight season to make it to a World Series?
ne Byrne? Or does he have it in him to become the future literary equivalent of Monica Lewinsky?All three of those people took a crack at writing a book about their political experiences (just like Blagojevich will do later this year) once their days on the government payroll were over, to varying degrees of success.
WHILE HIS PROSE isn’t the cleanest of copy one will ever read, one-time Illinois governor Walker may have come up with one of the best political memoirs when it comes to one of our local government geeks – just because he was relatively straightforward and didn’t seem concerned with burnishing his image.
In the process, he may have done just that with his autobiography, “The Maverick and the Machine.”
When that book came out a few years ago, much of the public attention went to the passages where Walker detailed his life in a federal prison (having to listen and do nothing while another inmate was raped, being singled out for harassment by a warden determined to punish a “corrupt politician”).
But I found the portions of Walker recounting his days in and around Chicago government (“the machine,” a.k.a., the Chicago Democratic organization) and the amount of hostility he encountered as he tried to push for ideals that went against the business interest of establishment political people to be just as intriguing as any story about Walker and his special “governor’s stick” used to pick up trash around the prison grounds.
WALKER WAS EVEN willing to detail instances where he screwed things up. Self-serving pap, this book is not.
In a sense, former Alderman James Laski wrote a similar book. “My fall from grace,
” was written by him during his time in prison, and it almost reads as a textbook into the ways that the City Council operates, putting personal interests ahead of public policy whenever the two conflict.How little some things change from those days of the late 1960s to the mid-1970s (when Walker reigned) to the 1990s (when Laski was relevant).
It’s just a shame that Laski could never find a real publisher for his book, and had to go with one of those companies that enables people to self-publish books they have written.
THAT HURTS THE ability to distribute copies (although it really doesn’t take many copies sold these days to have a national best seller – 50,000 or so will do) and draw attention to the book.
He may well have produced a book that no one outside of Chicago will have ever heard of, and copies of it now sell in remainder bins for about $5 each (seriously, I saw one on Sunday for that price).
Can Blagojevich reach this level of literacy – writing a book that people with an interest in government will turn to for examples of the way things truly operate?
After listening to Blagojevich tell us about how he was impeached and removed from office by an Illinois General Assembly filled with drunks and adulterers (sadly enough, there are a few members who fit those categories), we might have hope that a book by the former governor would be willing to give up some good details.
IT’S NOT LIKE Blagojevich is bashful (he’s shown us during his national television appearances that he has no shame). If he were willing to sit down and seriously speculate about government operations and the reason they don’t work properly, it could be interesting reading.
In fact, it could turn out to be one of those seminal works that political scientists turn to for years to come. There is the potential for such a book about our local political scenes at City Hall and the Statehouse in Springpatch.
But I don’t know if the guy who used to go around boasting of his love for Elvis and the Chicago Cubs (there’s no accounting for taste) is capable of thinking in such a way. His book could turn out to be more like the tome fronted by former Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco – which told a sordid tale in such a tacky way that Canseco’s image is permanently tainted by the book, even though it appears to be truthful.
But when it comes to political people, I can’t help but wonder if comparison to Jane Byrne is more appr
opriate.THE FIRST WOMAN to ever get herself elected as mayor of Chicago wrote “My Chicago,” which attempts to tell the story of the history of our home city and the role in which Byrne plays in that greater story.
That book seemed more about trying to turn Byrne into a historic figure to be remembered for the ages, and wound up being filled with a lot of generic passages of Chicago history that I could have found in many other places.
And the nearly 400-page book devoted only about 75 pages to the four years during which Byrne oversaw city government.
Either she should have devoted the book to her own story and focused intensively on her years (1979-83), or she should have reduced the portion about her mayoral stint significantly.
DOES ANYONE BELIEVE that one-fifth of a book about Chicago history should center around Jane Byrne? Or that only one-fifth of a book about Jane Byrne should focus on her mayoral years?
Will Milorod be capable of putting his own story into context? Or is he going to bloat the significance of himself way out of proportion? You take a guess.
Then, there’s always, “Monica’s Story,” which the one-time intern of the Clinton Administration cooperated with, so as to tell the tale of how a young girl was seduced by the power and influence of a president.
She was fairly graphic in the salacious details that many tacky people wanted to know. And that book did hit the Best-Seller charts – going straight to Number One in its first week.
BUT I REMEMBER that book almost immediately dropping off the charts (everybody who wanted a copy bought it immediately, and interest just declined). The story, on a certain level, was just too stupid to waste much time on. I remember buying my copy of that book about one month after it came out, and I got it in a remaindered book bin ($5.99, if I remember correctly). I can’t think of many other books that dropped to discount so quickly.
Could it be that when Blagojevich publishes his book (which may be released sometime later this year), we’re going to find out that Milorod has a bit of Monica in him – their books will share the same fate?
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Could October of this year be notable in Chicago for both the release of a book by Rod Blagojevich (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-blagojevich_book_deal03mar03,0,375224.story) AND the failure of the Chicago Cubs for the 64th straight season to make it to a World Series?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
EXTRA: Pulido will confound people
It’s very likely that a month from now, we will officially proclaim the newest member of Congress to be Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., as that is how thoroughly the Chicago portion of the Illinois 5th Congressional District dominates the suburban portion.
Yet the month-long campaign has the potential to be interesting (in a stupid, trivial sort of way) because of the person whom Republicans have chosen to nominate.
IT APPEARS THAT Rosanna Pulido will be the GOP nominee. I’m sure someone is going to try to make an argument that this is evidence of the Republicans being a true “big tent” political party – after all, she’s Latina.
But Pulido is one of those people who would take great offense at being called a Latina, because it dumps her in with a mass of people she considers to be rabble-rousers. She is head of the Illinois Minuteman Project, and she is the one that a reporter-type can turn to if they want a Hispanic person to go on a tirade about “all those illegals” coming up from Mexico.
A lot of people who like to put political types in simple little boxes won’t know what to think of Pulido. She doesn’t fit into their way of viewing electoral politics.
Actually, she’s not all that difficult to figure out. There are Latinos who don’t like being viewed as “minorities,” in large part because they think it means they will forevermore be excluded from the majority such as what has happened with many black people.
IN FACT, THE reason that some people were convinced to the very end that John McCain had a chance to win a significant chunk of the Latino vote in the 2008 presidential election is because they spent too much time listening to people like Pulido – instead of trying to get to the truth about the diverse thought that exists within the fastest growing chunk of the U.S. population.
So how do I – a person with interest in increased political empowerment for Latinos – view Pulido? Despite the fact that she got about one-quarter of the GOP ballots cast while running against five more conventional-looking Republicans, she barely got 1,000 votes.
That puts her at about the same level of actual support as Paul Bryar (whom nobody thinks did well on Tuesday). But she did do better than the just over 700 votes received by Frank Annunzio (son of the long-time Chicago politico of the same name).
In short, she belongs with the fringe candidates. She’s going to get her clock cleaned come April 7. Quigley will dominate her, although she might be able to beat up on whichever “no name” actually prevails in the Green Party primary.
-30-
Yet the month-long campaign has the potential to be interesting (in a stupid, trivial sort of way) because of the person whom Republicans have chosen to nominate.
IT APPEARS THAT Rosanna Pulido will be the GOP nominee. I’m sure someone is going to try to make an argument that this is evidence of the Republicans being a true “big tent” political party – after all, she’s Latina.
But Pulido is one of those people who would take great offense at being called a Latina, because it dumps her in with a mass of people she considers to be rabble-rousers. She is head of the Illinois Minuteman Project, and she is the one that a reporter-type can turn to if they want a Hispanic person to go on a tirade about “all those illegals” coming up from Mexico.
A lot of people who like to put political types in simple little boxes won’t know what to think of Pulido. She doesn’t fit into their way of viewing electoral politics.
Actually, she’s not all that difficult to figure out. There are Latinos who don’t like being viewed as “minorities,” in large part because they think it means they will forevermore be excluded from the majority such as what has happened with many black people.
IN FACT, THE reason that some people were convinced to the very end that John McCain had a chance to win a significant chunk of the Latino vote in the 2008 presidential election is because they spent too much time listening to people like Pulido – instead of trying to get to the truth about the diverse thought that exists within the fastest growing chunk of the U.S. population.
So how do I – a person with interest in increased political empowerment for Latinos – view Pulido? Despite the fact that she got about one-quarter of the GOP ballots cast while running against five more conventional-looking Republicans, she barely got 1,000 votes.
That puts her at about the same level of actual support as Paul Bryar (whom nobody thinks did well on Tuesday). But she did do better than the just over 700 votes received by Frank Annunzio (son of the long-time Chicago politico of the same name).
In short, she belongs with the fringe candidates. She’s going to get her clock cleaned come April 7. Quigley will dominate her, although she might be able to beat up on whichever “no name” actually prevails in the Green Party primary.
-30-
Tuesday’s primary elections will not live up to national political hype
I don’t have a clue who is going to prevail in the special primary elections to be held Tuesday that will allow residents of Northwest Side neighborhoods and surrounding suburbs to start the process of replacing former Rep. Rahm Emanuel.
The Illinois 5th Congressional District has sat vacant for the past two months while Emanuel has served as White House chief of staff. That has caused the nation’s political geeks to focus so much attention on our city to figure out who gets to be Rahm’s successor in Congress.
YET I CAN’T help but wonder if this is a campaign where there will be more people paying attention outside the district, than within it.
Chicago Board of Election Commissioners officials won’t offer predictions about voter turnout, but the Cook County clerk’s office (which will oversee election operations in the small suburban sliver of the district) notes that only about 300 people bothered to use the early voter centers to cast their ballots prior to Election Day.
That doesn’t exactly sound like a campaign that is getting the populace all worked up. It is a far cry from last year’s general election for president, where there was evidence that many people who used the early voter centers did so because they were excited about the chance to vote for (or against) Obama.
For everybody outside these boundaries, Tuesday is just another weekday. Map provided by http://www.nationalatlas.gov/.
There’s a good chance that Tuesday will come and go, and many people living in the Illinois 5th will not even realize that they should have bothered to go to the polling place to cast a ballot.
NOW I’M NOT about to start berating the potential electorate. After all, this is a special election – one that couldn’t even be held in conjunction with the standard primary election day (which for every other elective office up for grabs in the area was Tuesday of last week).
At least the general election for the Illinois 5th will be held on the same day as all the other general elections. Perhaps that could help bolster voter turnout.
Then again, since the winner of Tuesday’s special Democratic primary is the odds-on favorite to win the general election, maybe it won’t – particularly since there truly is so little difference between the dozen Democrats who dream of winning the political lottery (a seat in the House of Representatives) that there shouldn’t be much difficulty in getting the various factions to unite behind Tuesday night’s winner.
But who that winner will be, I don’t know. It truly is going to center on how many (really, how few) people bother to show up at the polling places.
LOW VOTER TURNOUT means that fewer votes will be needed in order to win. And considering that there are so many candidates in each of the three primaries being held Tuesday, that means the percentage needed to win could be potentially low.
We could literally get the sight on Tuesday of a Democratic nominee for Congress who wins with about 15 percent of the total vote.
With that factor, a lot of the conventional wisdom about this campaign deserves to get flushed down the toilet.
How relevant is it that the remains of Chicago’s once-strong Polish community is concentrated in this congressional district? If it is, then no-name Victor Forys (and his strong ethnic-influenced campaign tactics) could very well have a chance.
BUT WHAT IF the women band together? Then we could get state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz on her way from Springfield to Washington.
Want this to become a battle of political regulars? Then state Rep. John Fritchey, Cook County Board member Mike Quigley or Ald. Patrick O’Connor could stand a chance.
Or perhaps there’s a chance that all five of these people could wind up splitting the vote so thoroughly that labor attorney Tom Geoghegan stands a chance of getting a large enough share of the vote to win a Democratic primary.
Or maybe there will be some cosmic fluke (like in 1986 when Aurelia Pucinski and George Sangmeister lost to Janice Hart and Mark Fairchild) of politics that results in someone else having a chance.
IN FACT, ABOUT the only prediction I feel confident making about Tuesday’s elections is that whoever wins the Green Party primary won’t matter in the least come April 7.
Part of the problem in getting people interested enough to care about this election is that it is a “special” election being held on a separate date from other political activity. I’m not surprised that real people feel they have more important things to worry about than every attack ad issued by Feigenholtz or Fritchey or whoever.
In fact, part of the reason I am bothered by the people who are determined to dump Roland Burris and have a special election this year to pick a new U.S. senator from Illinois is that I can see the exact same result occurring.
The “special” nature of the election could confuse people and diminish its interest. I would not want anyone getting the advantage of incumbency because they were able to win a political crapshoot – particularly since the real election for that particular office will be held as soon as next year.
BUT HAVING SOMEONE pick a replacement for Rahm is not an option. Only statewide offices come to the attention of the governor – largely because trying to coordinate special elections for all 102 Illinois counties would be a headache.
So on Tuesday, a few people in neighborhoods such as Lake View, Roscoe Village and Sauganash, along with some select suburbs like Schiller Park and River Grove, will turn out to cast ballots to see who gets to stay in the race to represent the Illinois 5th Congressional District.
The end result will be that in just over a month, there will be a new member of Congress who likely will have the dubious distinction of saying that fewer than 20 percent of the primary voters of his/her district truly cared enough to vote for them.
-30-
The Illinois 5th Congressional District has sat vacant for the past two months while Emanuel has served as White House chief of staff. That has caused the nation’s political geeks to focus so much attention on our city to figure out who gets to be Rahm’s successor in Congress.
YET I CAN’T help but wonder if this is a campaign where there will be more people paying attention outside the district, than within it.
Chicago Board of Election Commissioners officials won’t offer predictions about voter turnout, but the Cook County clerk’s office (which will oversee election operations in the small suburban sliver of the district) notes that only about 300 people bothered to use the early voter centers to cast their ballots prior to Election Day.
That doesn’t exactly sound like a campaign that is getting the populace all worked up. It is a far cry from last year’s general election for president, where there was evidence that many people who used the early voter centers did so because they were excited about the chance to vote for (or against) Obama.
For everybody outside these boundaries, Tuesday is just another weekday. Map provided by http://www.nationalatlas.gov/.There’s a good chance that Tuesday will come and go, and many people living in the Illinois 5th will not even realize that they should have bothered to go to the polling place to cast a ballot.
NOW I’M NOT about to start berating the potential electorate. After all, this is a special election – one that couldn’t even be held in conjunction with the standard primary election day (which for every other elective office up for grabs in the area was Tuesday of last week).
At least the general election for the Illinois 5th will be held on the same day as all the other general elections. Perhaps that could help bolster voter turnout.
Then again, since the winner of Tuesday’s special Democratic primary is the odds-on favorite to win the general election, maybe it won’t – particularly since there truly is so little difference between the dozen Democrats who dream of winning the political lottery (a seat in the House of Representatives) that there shouldn’t be much difficulty in getting the various factions to unite behind Tuesday night’s winner.
But who that winner will be, I don’t know. It truly is going to center on how many (really, how few) people bother to show up at the polling places.
LOW VOTER TURNOUT means that fewer votes will be needed in order to win. And considering that there are so many candidates in each of the three primaries being held Tuesday, that means the percentage needed to win could be potentially low.
We could literally get the sight on Tuesday of a Democratic nominee for Congress who wins with about 15 percent of the total vote.
With that factor, a lot of the conventional wisdom about this campaign deserves to get flushed down the toilet.
How relevant is it that the remains of Chicago’s once-strong Polish community is concentrated in this congressional district? If it is, then no-name Victor Forys (and his strong ethnic-influenced campaign tactics) could very well have a chance.
BUT WHAT IF the women band together? Then we could get state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz on her way from Springfield to Washington.
Want this to become a battle of political regulars? Then state Rep. John Fritchey, Cook County Board member Mike Quigley or Ald. Patrick O’Connor could stand a chance.
Or perhaps there’s a chance that all five of these people could wind up splitting the vote so thoroughly that labor attorney Tom Geoghegan stands a chance of getting a large enough share of the vote to win a Democratic primary.
Or maybe there will be some cosmic fluke (like in 1986 when Aurelia Pucinski and George Sangmeister lost to Janice Hart and Mark Fairchild) of politics that results in someone else having a chance.
IN FACT, ABOUT the only prediction I feel confident making about Tuesday’s elections is that whoever wins the Green Party primary won’t matter in the least come April 7.
Part of the problem in getting people interested enough to care about this election is that it is a “special” election being held on a separate date from other political activity. I’m not surprised that real people feel they have more important things to worry about than every attack ad issued by Feigenholtz or Fritchey or whoever.
In fact, part of the reason I am bothered by the people who are determined to dump Roland Burris and have a special election this year to pick a new U.S. senator from Illinois is that I can see the exact same result occurring.
The “special” nature of the election could confuse people and diminish its interest. I would not want anyone getting the advantage of incumbency because they were able to win a political crapshoot – particularly since the real election for that particular office will be held as soon as next year.
BUT HAVING SOMEONE pick a replacement for Rahm is not an option. Only statewide offices come to the attention of the governor – largely because trying to coordinate special elections for all 102 Illinois counties would be a headache.
So on Tuesday, a few people in neighborhoods such as Lake View, Roscoe Village and Sauganash, along with some select suburbs like Schiller Park and River Grove, will turn out to cast ballots to see who gets to stay in the race to represent the Illinois 5th Congressional District.
The end result will be that in just over a month, there will be a new member of Congress who likely will have the dubious distinction of saying that fewer than 20 percent of the primary voters of his/her district truly cared enough to vote for them.
-30-
Monday, March 2, 2009
Limbaugh tries to give career a “Rush” by going on offensive against Obama
It appears I was slightly off when, on the day after Election Day 2008, I speculated about which political person of the Republican persuasion would try to give his/her career a jolt by becoming the de-facto leader of a conservative movement against the Obama Administration.
In short, I wondered which member of Congress would step up and become the equivalent to what Edward R. Vrdolyak was in the City Council during the mayoral era of Harold Washington.
NOW I’M NOT at all mistaken in thinking that there are people who are grossly offended that anybody like Barack Obama could be chosen by a majority of the U.S. population to be our president. I’m certainly correct in realizing that some people have a visceral reaction to Obama, and some will do whatever they can to try to portray anything he does as a failure.
But it appears I was wrong in figuring out from where the opposition would be led.
Instead of some otherwise obscure member of Congress from the middle of Nowheresville, U.S.A. trying to turn himself into a significant politico, it appears we’re getting an attempt to lead this movement by the blowhards of Right Wing Radio.
Yes, I’m talking about Rush.
LIMBAUGH, THAT IS.
By now, anybody who cares what the one-time aide to the Kansas City Royals baseball team thinks about anything (personally, I wouldn’t even care what he thought about baseball) knows that Limbaugh this weekend spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he made it clear he intends to use his microphone to persuade all those rural residents who hear him on the hundreds of tiny radio stations that carry his program across the country to stir up enough resentment among the potential voters that those people put pressure on their members of Congress to get them to vote “no” on anything that Obama wants to do.
It would appear that Limbaugh is determined to prevent his career in radio from becoming a thing of the past (personally, I can’t remember the last time I listened to one of his broadcasts) by becoming the vocal leader of the Obama opposition.
Now this is a free country. If Rush wants to be a blowhard on the air, he has every right to do so – as long as anyone is willing to pay him for it. If anyone out there seriously finds his drivel entertaining (it certainly isn’t informative), they have every right to listen to him.
BUT I’M EXERCISING my right to ignore his broadcasts, and to use this commentary to criticize his lack of logic. Seriously, most of Limbaugh’s rants amount to telling people who choose to isolate themselves in rural communities that they’re the only people who ought to matter.
It gets old.
And quite frankly, Limbaugh’s weekend rant wasn’t much deeper than that.
It boiled down to the trite (and selfish) rhetoric that says poor people are being hurt by liberal social policies that try to help them in life, although what the conservatives usually object to is that anybody is bothering to pay attention to people they would prefer to think of as the riff-raff of our society.
PROVIDING ASSISTANCE TO a single mother with young children is somehow bad in that it discourages men from being a part of the lives of those children. In reality, it is a policy that recognizes reality – many of those fathers are gone, and the mothers still need help to cope with their children.
But help is bad, according to Rush. And voting for Obama, in the mind of Limbaugh, merely means that the silver-tongued orator has managed to pull a con job on this country so that he can impose “liberal” policies among all of us.
Some non-conservative pundits are making much of the fact that Limbaugh has come right out and used the words, “I want Barack Obama to fail.” In fact, we’re now subjected to broadcast advertising spots that quote Limbaugh, although the audio has been edited so tightly that I want to know what else was said immediately before and after it.
For me, none of these sentiments is surprising.
IT IS THE same rhetoric that we have heard from the social conservative faction of the Republican Party (as opposed to the business-oriented wing that is also conservative on social issues, but not so preachy about it) for years.
It was the faction that gave us two terms of George W. Bush, and probably thinks it is some sort of plot that Bush could not have a successor of his own choosing as president.
These are the same kind of people who held protests in Chicago and in other cities across the United States to show opposition to the Obama Administration’s success in getting a stimulus package through Congress (even if it took heavy Democratic partisanship to pass it).
These protests took on aspects of a mock “Boston Tea Party,” the 1773 protest against British taxation policies that is seen as a major uprising by English colonies that later became the original United States. They want to portray themselves as the equivalent of the original revolutionaries.
WHY CAN’T THESE people realize that the real act of speaking out against what had become U.S. policy came last November when a majority of voters picked Obama? If anything, they’re the equivalent of the backers of George III.
If we, the people of this country, truly supported such Limbaugh-esque ideas, we’d have President McCain to kick around these days.
By stirring up trash talk against Obama, he hopes to bolster his career. Because Limbaugh is at a point where he’s been around for so long (I first heard him during the days of the original President Bush) that people just automatically assume his best days are behind him.
If he could become the face of the Obama opposition, that would make him a significant figure. Keep in mind that not all significant figures are positive influences on our society.
IN FACT, IT could go a long way toward creating a legacy for Limbaugh that would be seen by historians as having some significance.
Because the way things stack up now, Limbaugh as a broadcaster has a lot more in common with Father Charles Coughlin’s racist rants than it ever would with the middle America homespun viewpoint of the late Paul Harvey, whose contributions to broadcasting (which definitely weren’t liberal) will be remembered long after Limbaugh departs the public scene.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Figure out for yourself how nonsensical the rantings of Rush will be (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/01/transcript-rush-limbaughs-address-cpac/) when it comes to Barack Obama.
I’d like to think that political people on Capitol Hill would have enough sense to ignore the (http://chicagoargus.blogspot.com/2008/11/if-obama-is-harold-then-whos-national.html) loopy logic that comes from the lips of Limbaugh.
The American Conservative Union held a relatively uneventful conference last week in Washington (http://www.cpac.org/) until Rush Limbaugh opened his mouth.
In short, I wondered which member of Congress would step up and become the equivalent to what Edward R. Vrdolyak was in the City Council during the mayoral era of Harold Washington.
NOW I’M NOT at all mistaken in thinking that there are people who are grossly offended that anybody like Barack Obama could be chosen by a majority of the U.S. population to be our president. I’m certainly correct in realizing that some people have a visceral reaction to Obama, and some will do whatever they can to try to portray anything he does as a failure.
But it appears I was wrong in figuring out from where the opposition would be led.
Instead of some otherwise obscure member of Congress from the middle of Nowheresville, U.S.A. trying to turn himself into a significant politico, it appears we’re getting an attempt to lead this movement by the blowhards of Right Wing Radio.
Yes, I’m talking about Rush.
LIMBAUGH, THAT IS.
By now, anybody who cares what the one-time aide to the Kansas City Royals baseball team thinks about anything (personally, I wouldn’t even care what he thought about baseball) knows that Limbaugh this weekend spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he made it clear he intends to use his microphone to persuade all those rural residents who hear him on the hundreds of tiny radio stations that carry his program across the country to stir up enough resentment among the potential voters that those people put pressure on their members of Congress to get them to vote “no” on anything that Obama wants to do.
It would appear that Limbaugh is determined to prevent his career in radio from becoming a thing of the past (personally, I can’t remember the last time I listened to one of his broadcasts) by becoming the vocal leader of the Obama opposition.
Now this is a free country. If Rush wants to be a blowhard on the air, he has every right to do so – as long as anyone is willing to pay him for it. If anyone out there seriously finds his drivel entertaining (it certainly isn’t informative), they have every right to listen to him.
BUT I’M EXERCISING my right to ignore his broadcasts, and to use this commentary to criticize his lack of logic. Seriously, most of Limbaugh’s rants amount to telling people who choose to isolate themselves in rural communities that they’re the only people who ought to matter.
It gets old.
And quite frankly, Limbaugh’s weekend rant wasn’t much deeper than that.
It boiled down to the trite (and selfish) rhetoric that says poor people are being hurt by liberal social policies that try to help them in life, although what the conservatives usually object to is that anybody is bothering to pay attention to people they would prefer to think of as the riff-raff of our society.
PROVIDING ASSISTANCE TO a single mother with young children is somehow bad in that it discourages men from being a part of the lives of those children. In reality, it is a policy that recognizes reality – many of those fathers are gone, and the mothers still need help to cope with their children.
But help is bad, according to Rush. And voting for Obama, in the mind of Limbaugh, merely means that the silver-tongued orator has managed to pull a con job on this country so that he can impose “liberal” policies among all of us.
Some non-conservative pundits are making much of the fact that Limbaugh has come right out and used the words, “I want Barack Obama to fail.” In fact, we’re now subjected to broadcast advertising spots that quote Limbaugh, although the audio has been edited so tightly that I want to know what else was said immediately before and after it.
For me, none of these sentiments is surprising.
IT IS THE same rhetoric that we have heard from the social conservative faction of the Republican Party (as opposed to the business-oriented wing that is also conservative on social issues, but not so preachy about it) for years.
It was the faction that gave us two terms of George W. Bush, and probably thinks it is some sort of plot that Bush could not have a successor of his own choosing as president.
These are the same kind of people who held protests in Chicago and in other cities across the United States to show opposition to the Obama Administration’s success in getting a stimulus package through Congress (even if it took heavy Democratic partisanship to pass it).
These protests took on aspects of a mock “Boston Tea Party,” the 1773 protest against British taxation policies that is seen as a major uprising by English colonies that later became the original United States. They want to portray themselves as the equivalent of the original revolutionaries.
WHY CAN’T THESE people realize that the real act of speaking out against what had become U.S. policy came last November when a majority of voters picked Obama? If anything, they’re the equivalent of the backers of George III.
If we, the people of this country, truly supported such Limbaugh-esque ideas, we’d have President McCain to kick around these days.
By stirring up trash talk against Obama, he hopes to bolster his career. Because Limbaugh is at a point where he’s been around for so long (I first heard him during the days of the original President Bush) that people just automatically assume his best days are behind him.
If he could become the face of the Obama opposition, that would make him a significant figure. Keep in mind that not all significant figures are positive influences on our society.
IN FACT, IT could go a long way toward creating a legacy for Limbaugh that would be seen by historians as having some significance.
Because the way things stack up now, Limbaugh as a broadcaster has a lot more in common with Father Charles Coughlin’s racist rants than it ever would with the middle America homespun viewpoint of the late Paul Harvey, whose contributions to broadcasting (which definitely weren’t liberal) will be remembered long after Limbaugh departs the public scene.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Figure out for yourself how nonsensical the rantings of Rush will be (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/01/transcript-rush-limbaughs-address-cpac/) when it comes to Barack Obama.
I’d like to think that political people on Capitol Hill would have enough sense to ignore the (http://chicagoargus.blogspot.com/2008/11/if-obama-is-harold-then-whos-national.html) loopy logic that comes from the lips of Limbaugh.
The American Conservative Union held a relatively uneventful conference last week in Washington (http://www.cpac.org/) until Rush Limbaugh opened his mouth.
Is Hairston an honorary Mexican?
For those of us Chicago baseball fans who can remember back more than a decade, Jerry Hairston comes to mind whe
n we think about the guy who got to play whenever Harold Baines needed a rest, or when the White Sox were in dire need of a pinch hitter.
For those people who pay any attention to professional baseball in Latin America, Hairston was also memorable because of the way he included the Mexican League in his professional career – a four-year stint with the Mexico City Red Devils, in between time with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the White Sox.
BUT NOW, HAIRSTON is reinforcing his Mexican baseball credentials. He’s the father of two members of the Mexican national team that will take the field for the glory of “los Tri-colores” during the World Baseball Classic.
Jerry Jr. (who spent one year with the Cubs) and Scott both get to play for Equipo Mexico because their mother was a Mexican citizen.
So the fact that White Sox pitcher Matt Thornton is a part of Team U.S.A., as is Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly, isn’t the only Chicago angle to the baseball tournament taking place during the next couple of weeks.
And for those who want to know more about Los Hermanos Hairston, check out the Chicago Argus’ sister weblog, The South Chicagoan (http://southchicagoan.blogspot.com/).
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: What exactly constitutes a Mexican (http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090125&content_id=3770858&vkey=wbc&team=) these days?
Mexico’s professional baseball league fills the gap (http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hairsje01.shtml) in the senior Hairston’s career.
n we think about the guy who got to play whenever Harold Baines needed a rest, or when the White Sox were in dire need of a pinch hitter.For those people who pay any attention to professional baseball in Latin America, Hairston was also memorable because of the way he included the Mexican League in his professional career – a four-year stint with the Mexico City Red Devils, in between time with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the White Sox.
BUT NOW, HAIRSTON is reinforcing his Mexican baseball credentials. He’s the father of two members of the Mexican national team that will take the field for the glory of “los Tri-colores” during the World Baseball Classic.
Jerry Jr. (who spent one year with the Cubs) and Scott both get to play for Equipo Mexico because their mother was a Mexican citizen.
So the fact that White Sox pitcher Matt Thornton is a part of Team U.S.A., as is Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly, isn’t the only Chicago angle to the baseball tournament taking place during the next couple of weeks.
And for those who want to know more about Los Hermanos Hairston, check out the Chicago Argus’ sister weblog, The South Chicagoan (http://southchicagoan.blogspot.com/).
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: What exactly constitutes a Mexican (http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090125&content_id=3770858&vkey=wbc&team=) these days?
Mexico’s professional baseball league fills the gap (http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hairsje01.shtml) in the senior Hairston’s career.
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