A Democratic machine in Chicago? Don't be naive

September 6, 2008

ST. PAUL — A Tribune news bulletin of great importance flashed on my electronic slave collar (elitists would call it a BlackBerry) at the Republican National Convention:

Recent columns

• GOP has 2 pillars of reform: But 1 is rotten to the core

  September 5, 2008

  ST. PAUL — John McCain hadn't yet uttered one word Thursday about reform and cutting pork-barrel spending when reform caused one of those awkward moments at the convention hall between two Illinois Republicans on either side of the issue, two men who really can't stand each other.

• Palin's small-town ways will play big across U.S.

  September 3, 2008

  ST. PAUL — Sarah Joan of Arc isn't as catchy as Sarah Barracuda, yet even so, the throng called for her to lead them, an unknown from the edge of nowhere, a woman with no experience in the great city of light.

• Durbin challenger's goal: Win, but keep humanity

  September 3, 2008

  ST. PAUL -- I wanted to call him Dr. Quixote and did, over a cup of coffee, figuring that little-known Republican family doctor Steve Sauerberg was a dreamer for challenging Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin for election in the fall.

• Politics don't get dirtier than smearing pregnant girl

  September 2, 2008

  BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Have American presidential politics become so hateful that a pregnant 17-year-old girl has to have the intimate details of her life exposed to the nation by character assassins?

• GOP's house too divided for Palin to repair alone

  September 1, 2008

  BLOOMINGTON, Minn.—Amanda Marko, a GOP delegate from suburban Cleveland, is the Republican in her family.

• With Palin announcement, Quayle hunt gets under way

  August 30, 2008

  How long did it take for the Democrats to try to pin the Quayle on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin?

• Fleeting nature of all glory unlikely to be lost on Obama

  August 29, 2008

  DENVER — As Barack Obama ascended the Temple of Barackopolis—those gorgeous Ironic Greek columns framing him for millions of television viewers on the stage of I thought of the last time I saw him walking alone.

• Take a break from the hugs, hopium with a good read

  August 28, 2008

  DENVER — If what you want from Sen. Barack Obama's historic Democratic convention speech on Thursday night is to give yourself up to profound emotion and to join others in common passion and release, then guzzle some hopium and enjoy.

• Warmth from the Daleys defies conventional wisdom

  August 27, 2008

  DENVER—I don't know why exactly, but every time I meet the Daley brothers, they're happy to see me.

• Why the GOP has a crush on Hillary

  August 26, 2008

  Just a minute ago, the Republicans wanted to peel Hillary Clinton's skin with a butter knife and a smile and reach for lemon and salt. But now they're throwing their arms around her as if she's the little sister who needs protection from Barack the bully.

• To coin a phrase, Chicago is hardly a change machine

  August 25, 2008

  DENVER—Mayor John Hickenlooper doesn't talk like a Chicago politician, though he'll open the Democratic National Convention here Monday night, to be followed on stage by several young Chicago politicians who are the children of Chicago politicians.

• Wide-eyed idealists meet jaded politicos in Denver

  August 24, 2008

  DENVER — If you were with me, out among the hopium addicts this week, here's what you'd see.

• Cubs fans: Keep your eye on the ball, not on history

  August 22, 2008

  With the Cubs only a handful of games in first place, their poor fans are worried, because it's August and their memories reach back through the wretched mists of time.

• When Daley says shhh, library is quiet on Obama

  August 21, 2008

  Conservative writer Stanley Kurtz—researching an article for the National Review about connections between Barack Obama and former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers—made a big mistake.

• Family ties are what bind Illinois into its sad state

  August 20, 2008

  Once Democratic machine warlord state Sen. Emil Jones (D-Com Ed/Obama) announced his retirement and expressed his desire to install his son into his old job, Chicagoans had typical reactions.

• Faster, stronger, higher and crowded with fakery

  August 17, 2008

  My wife and twin sons were whooping it up in the living room the other night, cheering so loudly I thought Barack and Michelle Obama had arrived with a nice coffee cake to ask me to run for mayor of Chicago.

• FBI didn't need billboard to see this insider cabal

  August 15, 2008

  The FBI has taken an interest in the adventures of Chicago's new dynamic duo, state Sen. Jimmy DeLeo (D-How You Doin?) and his sidekick, convicted stool pigeon Mark "Jimmy's Weakest Link" Richmond.

• Mailbag is full of dopium, 'Pool Boy' and an expletive

  August 14, 2008

  Today, readers get their writes about "Pool Boy," the dangers of Democratic hopium and its Republican predecessor—dopium.

• Governor is no John Wayne and GOP can't shoot straight

  August 13, 2008

  This week, Gov. Rod "The Unreformer" Blagojevich revealed himself to be something of a madman, perhaps even a dangerous madman.

• 'Pool Boy' takes the plunge for Daley, resigns his post

  August 10, 2008

  Before the first Olympic diver splashed down in Beijing, Mayor Richard Daley stretched his mighty hands across the oceans to pull the plug on his beloved Pool Boy back in Chicago.

• Clout keeps power on

  August 8, 2008

  The mayor's favorite pool boy—airport operations boss Dave "Pool Boy" Ochal—is at it again, throwing his vast political clout in the faces of his neighbors after the storms knocked out power this week.

• Federal court puts to rest fairy-tale ideals of Chicago

  August 7, 2008

  The Chicago-as-Camelot myth took another hit in federal court Wednesday, where political Chicago and Outfit Chicago shared some space in the same building.

• Chicago cop in Iowa prison while drunk is on the loose

  August 3, 2008

  Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis and Cook County State's Atty. Dick Devine have asked Iowa Gov. Chet Culver for justice in the case of Chicago cop Mike Mette.

• Favre and bribe talk sound right for Illinois pay-to-play

  August 1, 2008

  There was a time when I foolishly thought that Brett Favre didn't have what it takes to play for our Chicago Bears.

• If City Hall neuters dogs, there'll be riches to be had

  July 31, 2008

  City Hall must have been insane to even think about pulling a Jesse Jackson on every male dog in town.

• Hopium helps you forget several unpleasant facts

  July 30, 2008

  Hi, my name is John. I'm a hopium addict.

• By girl's grave, sister marks death of brutal assassin

  July 27, 2008

  Diane Pappas learned that Chicago isn't Camelot a lifetime ago when a tugboat captain found her sister's murdered body in the Chicago River. Eugenia "Becca" Pappas was only 18.

• Hard-hitting football team is truly a Force for good

  July 25, 2008

  Want to watch some smash-mouth tackle football this weekend as a Chicago team plays for the championship of the world?

• Paying butcher $647,211 in checks is a sucker bet

  July 24, 2008

  A North Shore butcher accused by the feds of being a bookie, who accepted $647,211 in checks for gambling debts, was told by a federal judge Wednesday that he had to pay it all back to the government.

• Media's guilt plays well for Obama and McCain

  July 23, 2008

  The Drudge Report ran a juicy item about the fact that only one reporter showed up to cover Republican John McCain at a campaign stop in New Hampshire the other day.

• Networks love a sweet story even without jelly filling

  July 20, 2008

  Asking whether TV network news shops had liberal bias was a bit like wondering what would happen if you left the hungry little boy alone in the room with the large box of Turkish Delights.

• Mansion's minister has skeletons in his closet

  July 18, 2008

  The famous minister George Michael —the Chicago banker who went online for his collar in what looks like a scam to get out of paying property taxes on his Lake Bluff mansion—sure must like ice cream.

• History could have helped Starbucks foresee revolt

  July 17, 2008

  Starbucks has spent millions marketing its outrageously expensive and elitist coffee beverages—even pushing those foolish lemon bars on innocent people—and now the company is closing 600 stores.

• Weis takes all those bowls and sticks a fork in each one

  July 16, 2008

  The Don't (Mess) With My Rice Bowl Committee convened at Chicago's City Hall, with Chicago aldermen holding Police Supt. Jody Weis up before the media to thwack him and thwack him for daring to make promotions without consulting them.

• Obama backers on the left are doing the wincing now

  July 13, 2008

  When Jesse Jackson's Castrato-gate or the Barack Obama Nuts Controversy or whatever you want to call it erupted last week—as captured by the hot microphones of Fox News—terrible cries of pain went unnoticed.

• Obama-Jackson column: [Insert euphemism here]

  July 11, 2008

  Because I love my readers, today they get their writes on, ahem, an assorted sampler of lightly salted topics, so I can go to lunch at Gene & Georgetti for some in-depth political reporting.

• Jackson's cutting remark may be helpful to Obama

  July 10, 2008

  So what part of Barack Obama will Rev. Al Sharpton want to chop off now?

• Expert: Pufferfish poisoning would be 'terrible' way to go

  July 9, 2008

  Frank Paloucek is probably the only soccer dad in the world who could identify a fish as a murder weapon.

• Mitch Mars a monument to true 'public service'

  June 29, 2008

  Powerful politicians often refer to themselves as "public servants," even as they warn young people against cynicism.

• Butcher may be bit player, but he makes cut for feds

  June 26, 2008

  A North Shore butcher is having the book thrown at him by the feds—literally.

• Don't cry about Obama— it's just the Chicago Way

  June 25, 2008

  If America's liberal newspaper editorial boards were high school girls, they'd be listening to sad songs on the car radio just about now, driving mournfully in the rain, because Sen. Barack Obama has found somebody new.

• Banks' about-face on castle leaves serfs watching backs

  June 22, 2008

  In Evanston, graduates whose parents paid fortunes for degrees from Northwestern University sat damply as the boss of the Chicago Democratic machine received an honorary law degree and gave a commencement speech about his "life's passion for public service."

• Cubs fans stomach a lot as Sox fans wave their flag

  June 20, 2008

  The ridiculous hype surrounding the White Sox-Cubs series has become insanely competitive.

• Of course it's fair that they have guns and you don't

  June 19, 2008

  That Washington, D.C., gun ban that the Supreme Court should toss out any day now because it is unconstitutional is often compared to the handgun ban in Chicago.

• You know your pets really want to get married, right?

  June 18, 2008

  My brother has selected a puppy for his family's pet—a Parson Russell terrier pup he'll call Wrigley (he's a Cubs fan)—but even before all the kids play with it I'm wondering how I'll feel the day Wrigley gets married.

• R. Kelly verdict adds to list of his lawyers' greatest hits

  June 15, 2008

  If the mole is a zit, then you must acquit!

• Rezko's letter should put Obama, governor on alert

  June 13, 2008

  The last thing Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich needed was that letter written by convicted Illinois influence peddler Tony Rezko promising he'd never rat out his pals.

• Truth, justice and chivalry battle over a parking spot

  May 22, 2008

  I can't believe I was foolish enough to get involved in a geezer fight, but I did. The two geezers, one an 82-year-old retired City of Chicago buildings inspector, the other an 80-year old retired electrician, were fighting over a parking space in Niles.

• A bike for Daley, a beating for Strogers

  September 14, 2007

  The mayor of Chicago rides a bike in Paris with a ridiculous smile on his face just as the National Transportation Safety Board slams the CTA for running the worst transit system in America, a system so poorly administered that it couldn't even find a train during a disaster, and what will we be dealing with?

• Why I can't let 'Family Secrets' slide

  August 30, 2007

  There was a break in the courtroom action at the Chicago Outfit trial called Family Secrets, so I took a walk outside the federal building, wondering how to explain my obsession to you.

• 'Fast Eddie' finally gets nailed

  May 10, 2007

  I always figured Fast Eddie Vrdolyak to take up space in the trunk of a Cadillac in Rosemont or Cicero before he'd ever take up space in a federal corruption case, but today I'm wrong about him, again.

• Fearful silence echoes among parents

  April 18, 2007

  If you don't have children, you can't understand how millions of parents are dealing with Cho Seung Hui, who put a bullet into his own head after killing 32 people, most of them students, at Virginia Tech this week.

• News about us is just part of the news

  April 3, 2007

  A.fter a week of a relaxing family vacation, watching the cherry blossoms pop in Washington, D.C., I came back to work to the news that Tribune Co. had been sold and the Cubs are up for sale.

• Pass the vinegar and let the trial begin

  March 14, 2007

  You're probably unaware that hordes of Canadians have descended upon Chicago for Wednesday's opening of the federal fraud trial of Lord Conrad Black, the flamboyant Canadian press baron who once ran the Chicago Sun-Times.

• Daley has canary-yellow constituency

  February 23, 2007

  Chicago politics is bossed by the politically ruthless who understand the obligations of their craft.

• Ryan's light sentence isn't the only joke

  September 7, 2006

  The federal judge had a strong prescription for the virus of political corruption infecting Illinois.

• The verdict is not punishment enough

  September 6, 2006

  The crooked and convicted former governor of Illinois is about to be sentenced to prison. And the young U.S. attorney stands eagerly in the federal courtroom.

• A tortuous path to not blaming Daley

  July 20, 2006

  If there's anything that qualifies as a white paper--one of those lengthy political policy reports--it's the 292-page tome released Wednesday by special prosecutors with Regular Democratic Organization roots.

• Ground shifts on corruption in Illinois

  July 9, 2006

  I won't say that the common understanding of political corruption has been radicalized by the recent guilty verdicts of politicians.

• A taste of what's to come?

  July 7, 2006

  The 60th birthday dinner for President Bush in Chicago--with Mayor Richard Daley as the clout of honor--offered scrumptious delicacies fit for princes to the manor born.

• Wary of trial, politicians stage sideshow

  June 29, 2006

  As a federal jury deliberated Wednesday in the corruption trial of Mayor Richard Daley's underlings, I was a few blocks away, watching the theater of the absurd at City Hall.

• Snicker if you like, but it won't stop feds

  June 28, 2006

  Any doubts as to where the feds are headed with their investigations into political corruption at City Hall should have ended late Tuesday afternoon.

• Defense rails as Sorich falls on sword

  June 27, 2006

  Defense lawyer Thomas Anthony Durkin sure cracked off some hard vowels in his closing argument Monday.

• Diversion a day keeps spotlight away

  June 25, 2006

  The mayor of Chicago has been busy making news that has nothing to do with what will happen in federal court on Monday, when the criminal corruption case against his underlings goes to the jury.

• Readers, give a shout on city jobs clout

  June 21, 2006

  Today you're invited to participate in a time-honored Chicago political tradition.

• `A Dad's Delight' is story for everyone

  June 15, 2006

  Janet and Scott Willis are scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday morning at the Kids Club in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood.

• Tomczak just goes where he's thrown

  June 7, 2006

  Back when he was on the outside, campaigning for mayor, Rich Daley is said to have revved up his political troops by bragging about what he intended to do to Donald Tomczak, the Bridgeport turncoat.

• Quiet guy lifts the lid off hiring machine

  May 26, 2006

  Picture a red beet in a suit perched in the witness box in federal court, and you can see Jack Drumgould.

• Insider's details hurt diversity defense

  May 17, 2006

  In federal court Tuesday, I hoped to hear more about how the City Hall patronage scandal isn't really about how the mayor's guys violated a federal court order and put hundreds of unqualified stooges on the public payroll to protect their white political boss.

• The real point? City Hall hiring, not me

  May 16, 2006

  Whether or not Mayor Richard Daley's political City Hall underlings are convicted of violating federal law in helping Daley amass a giant patronage army, I'll probably have to take legal action.

• Sorich trial jury pool knows who's who

  May 11, 2006

  The federal trial of Mayor Richard Daley's underlings--don't call them minions because that might poison the jury pool--opened Wednesday with great umbrage taken against yours truly, humble scrivener and chronicler of civic truth and beauty.

• For agent on Ryan case, it's a team thing

  April 21, 2006

  If you want to know more about FBI Special Agent Ray Ruebenson Jr., who delayed his retirement to finish investigating corrupt former Gov. George Ryan, you'll have to do something first. You'll have to read these names:

• 2 senators ask feds to probe one of own

  April 20, 2006

  U.S. Senators Richard Durbin and Barack Obama have asked the Bush Justice Department to investigate federal prosecutor Ed McNally, until recently the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, for circumstances surrounding his testimony on behalf of convicted former Republican Gov. George Ryan.

• With mistrial in air, Ryan judge says `no'

  March 29, 2006

  When U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer began talking Tuesday in her courtroom in the corruption trial of former Gov. George Ryan, I couldn't help it.

• Ryan trial haunted by 2 big questions

  March 26, 2006

  After reading the revelations in the Tribune about two folks on George Ryan's federal jury--their apparent rap sheets weren't discovered until investigative reporter Ray Gibson began checking public records the other day--I'm as astounded as you must be.

• Verdict a nail-biter for feds' next targets

  March 12, 2006

  Like it or not, by this time next week, former Gov. George Ryan and his buddy, Larry Warner, may walk free.

• Collins hangs 'red flags' all over Ryan

  March 10, 2006

  It took only about an hour for Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Collins to obliterate two days' worth of high-priced legal defense spinning in the federal case against former Gov. George Ryan.

• Hours of denial won't chase rain clouds

  March 9, 2006

  Dan Webb's white hands poked out of his gray suit like a couple of wading birds pecking along a mud flat at low tide.

• Webb weaves drama and spin for jury

  March 8, 2006

  It's hard to doze with a man shouting about seven years of hell in a quiet room.

• Is it chump change if we're the chumps?

  March 7, 2006

  Could you live on $174 in cash for an entire year?

• Special witness poses a special threat

  February 24, 2006

  A few days ago in federal court, lawyers from Winston & Strawn, the giant law firm run by former Gov. Jim Thompson, were busy representing former Gov. George Ryan in his corruption trial.

• Ryan as Abe: Why not dress the part?

  February 23, 2006

  Maybe George Ryan is being brave by not testifying in his own defense. He certainly has that right. And let's not forget it.

• Why can't Daley even say `corruption'?

  February 8, 2006

  Mayor Richard Daley gave a 45-minute State of the City address but didn't mention the word "corruption" even once. Naturally, as part of our current events quiz for today, this means that:

• Slime rate of state politics drops again

  February 5, 2006

  A reader called to complain about Republican George Ryan's Christmas card defense.

• Bush let himself take blame for Katrina mess

  September 11, 2005

  President George Bush insisted for days that it wasn't nice to play the blame game over Hurricane Katrina.

• Mayor swayed by shiny objects, such as badges

  May 5, 2005

  Mayor Richard Daley is an extremely complex man. He's been Mayor Little Big Man, Mayor Fredo, Mayor Idunno, Mayor Details, Mayor Fedheimers and Mayor Queeg.

• Hull learning nothing fair in Illinois politics

  February 29, 2004

  Blair Hull is the multimillionaire Democrat spending his own cash to campaign for the U.S. Senate in Illinois.

• Small talk ends when GOP boss' name comes up

  January 29, 2004

  Illinois Republicans campaigning to replace outgoing U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) got a bit testy with each other during a Tribune editorial board meeting Wednesday.