- Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff. As veteran Chicago Tribune political reporter John Kass put it best upon hearing of Emanuel's appointment: "It took only 36 hours for President-elect Barack Obama to take the off ramp from the Change We Can Believe In Highway and slam his foot on the gas in the express lanes of the Chicago Way." Mayor Daley's former Water Department boss, Donald Tomczak, is sitting in a federal prison convicted of bribery. In another trial of Mayor Daley's political patronage bosses, Tomczak testified on behalf of the government how he was ordered to put city workers out on the political stump for Emanuel during his inaugural 2002 run for Congress.
- David Axelrod as Senior White House Advisor. Once upon a time, Axelrod was one of the good guys working as a well-intentioned reporter for the Hyde Park Herald. He later sold out and crossed over to making bigger bucks and more money as the mouthpiece for Mayor Richard Daley and his corrupt political organization. His public relations firm earned a reputation for its success at astroturfing, another word for the act of manufacturing grassroots support for businesses and political candidates.
- Valerie Jarrett as Senior White House Advisor. She formerly served as Mayor Daley's Chief Deputy Mayor and headed up the Chicago Transit Authority. She has also made a lot of money in the management of subsidized government housing for the City of Chicago as the CEO of the Habitat Company where she helped steer business to Obama political cronies like Tony Rezko and Allison Davis. According to the Boston Globe, one of the housing complexes Jarrett's company managed in Obama's former state senate district was considered "uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage...In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale -- a score so bad the buildings now face demolition."
- Eric Holder as Attorney General. Holder is best known as the former Clinton Administration Deputy Attorney General who approved a last-minute pardon of Marc Rich, the worst tax cheat in American history. Most people aren't aware of his ties to the corrupt Chicago organization. Gov. Rod Blagoyevich, who is enmeshed in a federal corruption investigation of a pay-to-play scandal within his administration, paid Holder $300,000 a few years back to determine whether a casino company headed by a man who had violated Illinois' gambling laws should be allowed to build a new casino in Rosemont. Holder's work was pretty much a wasted effort after he got into a jurisdictional war with the state's Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, the daughter of Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. So a guy who accepted $300,000 from the corrupt Illinois governor will be in charge of administering justice and supervising the work of the U.S. Attorney in Chicago working over-time to root out political corruption.
- Greg Craig as White House Counsel. Why not? Craig served as former President Bill Clinton's chief impeachment counsel. Craig also represented the Cuban government in their efforts to return Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba after he washed ashore in Florida with other Cuban asylum seekers. And Craig represented John Hinckley, the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan and William Kennedy Smith when he was accused of rape. Nothing like covering all your bases.
Yeah, John Kass had it right. "Change We Can Believe In" is really just a euphemism for the "Chicago Way." Move over East Chicago, Indiana. Welcome the new and improved East Chicago.
4 comments:
Emanual Rahm: a convicted criminal says he was ordered to have government employees campaign for Rahm. Of course, if Rahm had ordered it that would be big news. But it didn’t happen that way. I’m sure Fox News wished otherwise.
David Axelrod: a political genius who fits in your definition of “sell out”, i.e. someone who is successful in getting Democrats elected. How shocking, but of course Karl Rove is a hero. “Your winnings, sir.” “Oh, thank you.” Casablanca, 1943.
Eric Holder: He was hired to do a job by the Illinois Governor. There’s no evidence at all that he did anything immoral, illegal, or corrupt. Furthermore, in the link you provided it goes into detail how Eric Holder prosecuted Congressman Rostenkowski, a corrupt Chicago Democrat. Nice smear; too bad for you people actually go to the trouble of reading what you provide.
Valerie Jarrett: She “steered” business to bad people. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence or proof provided, but it is nice example of the “Poison Pen” approach favored by Stalinists. Hey, two can play at that. Oh, and the company she worked for had a building condemned. And Valerie is guilty….of what? Pitiful. Your Rahm example had much more heft in the innuendo.
Greg Craig: a lawyer with bad clients. So therefore, he is bad. This is a border line imbecilic reading of what lawyers do. Go back and read up on Edward Bennett Williams’ career for a better understanding of how lawyers act as an advocate for the guilty and innocent alike in our adversarial judicial system.
Of all of these, the only one with anything to it is the Rahm case, which should be thoroughly investigated. Better luck next time. And give me Chicago over Texas any time. At least they might know how to occupy a defeated country (see Iraq 2003) or even help out when a hurricane hits New Orleans. What an incompetent administration that’s leaving the White House…..good riddance.
Hey, there was plenty more I could have added about this sorry, corrupt lot. For example, this item from Rahm's Wikipedia entry:
"Emanuel is known for his "take-no-prisoners attitude" that has earned him the nickname "Rahm-bo." Emanuel is said to have "mailed a rotten fish to a former coworker after the two parted ways." On the night after the 1996 election, "Emanuel was so angry at the president's enemies that he stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign, grabbed a steak knife and began rattling off a list of betrayers, shouting 'Dead! ... Dead! ... Dead!' and plunging the knife into the table after every name."
He's a scary guy, all right. Kind of like the Godfather. Almost as bad as Cheney.
"A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 75 percent of Americans think Obama will be a good, even great president, far more than the 53 percent who voted for him." Newsweek, 11/22/2008
But hey, why give a guy a decent chance, right? Let's just dump on him all we can before he's even in office.
After all, even worse then if he fails is if he's successful.
And if his people are incompetent, then one question: how competent was the current administration? Seriously, idealogy aside, can this bunch really be worse? What, leave 1 war unwon (Afganistan), 1 horribly managed occupation (Iraq), kinky prisoner torture pics, 3 terrorist attacks,a hurricane ignored until too late, and a financial meltdown, all before leaving office? That's quite a record to top.
Let me break it to you gently: it is inevitable that history will record the Obama administration to be better run than the Bush one. As for the much-ballyhooed Rahm, if he's so terrible, than you should be happy. After all, won't he just torpedo the Obama administration?
I have a sneaking suspicion that all the palaver about the transition will be forgotten soon enough - probably the inaugaration speech (the vast majority of the American people will approve of it) and the first Obama State of the Union address will do it.
Don't take responsibility for NOLA. It was a Democrat mayor and a Democrat governor whose incompetence led to the complete debacle there. I'm so sick and tired of hearing pathetic finger-pointers like you refuse to place blame where it belongs. If Mayor Ballard screwed up emergency relief after a tornado in Indianapolis, you wouldn't be pointing the finger at the president. You would be laying 100% of the blame on the Republican mayor. Let me ask you how many terrorist attacks have taken place on American soil since 9/11? Has Bush's War on Terrorism been a total failure as you would lead us to believe. And, of course, President Clinton and guys like Barney Frank and Rahm Emanuel had nothing to do with the sub-prime mortgage meltdown either. There is nothing more sickening than blind partisans like you who lay all the blame on the other party. When my party is wrong, I say so and I'm not afraid to do so. People like you are incapable of seeing fault among members of your own party.
Post a Comment