Uncategorized

Fine Moments in Baseball Inbreeding

ArchPundit January 22, 2009 No Comments

It’s like Illinois politics:

“They want Ricketts, and it’s always been Ricketts,” a source said.

While the others might have bid a higher price for the team, the source said the Ricketts offer had more conservative financing, an important factor when credit is extremely tight.

Also, Ricketts lives in the Chicago suburbs and represents what it essentially a family bid. Baseball owners, who must approve any Cubs sale, are known to favor tight-knit groups of owners with local ties.

Ricketts has an advantage because he hired the law firm Foley & Lardner to assist him in the ownership quest. A Foley partner is Robert DuPuy, who is president of Major League Baseball.

Giannoulias Considers Senate Bid

ArchPundit January 22, 2009 No Comments

Not very surprising and rumbling has been growing since the Burris debacle:

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is holding conversations with leading Illinois Democrats in preparation for a possible candidacy, according to a Democratic operative familiar with his decision-making process.

“He’s been talking to a lot of Democrats in Illinois who believe that this seat is gone is if Burris is the nominee. If it’s Mark Kirk or a rich Republican, we’ve got to hold this seat. That’s enough to encourage him to take a very serious look,” said the operative.

At 32, Giannoulias has been on the fast track in Illinois politics since leaving his job as a bank vice president to run for state treasurer in 2006. Inspired by Obama’s Senate campaign, he ran against the Democratic candidate backed by the party establishment and, aided by Obama’s endorsement, prevailed.

He considers Obama to be his political mentor and was a frequent participant at Obama’s pickup basketball games during the presidential primary. (He played professional basketball in Greece.)

A Giannoulias candidacy would put Obama in a difficult position. Would he endorse the incumbent, the only African-American in the Senate? Would he support his close friend? Or would he stay out of the race completely?

“He’s not looking for permission or smoke signals from the president,” the operative said. “But if the president felt strongly that he not run, that opinion would get heard.”

He’s probably the strongest candidate against Burris for a variety of reasons including good fundraising skills, good relations in the black community, and close to the President (damn that sounds good–first time I’ve said that on here).   If people paid attention, most of the pressure for Burris since he is African-American was from a small group of largely older African-American political operatives and the national press.

Standing up against Roland Burris hasn’t hurt any Illinois politician.

If Anyone Thinks Burris Should Be Strengthened for 2010…

ArchPundit January 22, 2009 No Comments

They need their head examined.  Burris should be targeted for defeat by Democrats for 2010:

WASHINGTON–Newly appointed Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) is getting assignments from the Democratic leaders that will give him credentials in areas where he is short on experience– in national security and military affairs. This was done looking towards 2010, when Burris would have to run to keep the seat. Though Burris was seated after a fight–Senate Democratic leaders at first resisted an appointee of the tainted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich–those leaders have a vested interest in making sure Burris is strong enough to keep the seat in Democratic hands. Burris was named to the Armed Services, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Veterans Affairs committees.

I don’t doubt that Sweet has sources saying exactly this–that’s the problem.  The Senate Democrats don’t have to allow him to caucus with them, but clearly that might require something looking like a backbone.  Anyone who would take an appointment from Rod Blagojevich (and that means Granberg too) should be bounced as soon as possible.  We shouldn’t be strengthening Burris, but putting him on loser committees and ignoring all of his bills.  I’d love to hear what Roland Burris thinks about Indian Affairs (not a loser committee, but to an Illinois Senator with no signficant American Indian population or reservation it’s a loser).

A Sham

ArchPundit January 22, 2009 No Comments

And the Governor is an idiot:

“The impeachment trial is a sham,” he said. Blagojevich said he was being denied due process because he is unable to subpoena witnesses.

For instance, he said he wants to call Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, to testify on his behalf. He noted that Emanuel in a television interview “made it clear nothing inappropriate” was said in his conversations with Blagojevich about naming someone to Obama’s former Senate seat.

Impeachment is not a criminal trial and so due process is irrelevant. It is a legislative function by the legislative branch.  This is on purpose because the power of impeachment isn’t to convict someone of a crime, but to remove them from office which does not require a crime be committed.  While criminal behavior may underly an impeachment trial there are many reasons for impeachment that are not necessarily criminal.

Tin Foil Hat Strangling Kass’ Blood Supply to His Brain

ArchPundit January 22, 2009 No Comments

New member of the all knowing Combine:

Ray LaHood.

Yes, Kass is apparently serious.  Ray LaHood is a now a dastardly corrupt guy looking to cash in on government service.

I cannot really give you a good reason LaHood is going to be Secretary of Transportation–there’s nothing about him that makes him a great choice, but also nothing that really demonstrates he’s a bad choice–his transportation policy views don’t appear to be terribly strong, but he’s not corrupt.

Does he look a lot like Eddie Munster?  Yes he does.  Is he corrupt? No he is not.

Rod Is Not Going to Go To Federal Court to Block Impeachment Trial

ArchPundit January 22, 2009 No Comments

There’s news on what he’ll be doing which is like a gift from God, but it’s only behind the Subscriber wall over at Capitol Fax.

As Rich also points out, the Governor has missed every deadline the Senate set for his response so he announced to the press he’d like to call witnesses.  But he didn’t submit that information to the Senate.

He’s not really getting this idea that press conferences aren’t going to save him.  Stomping his feet and ignoring the Lege isn’t very useful when they control everything.

Rod Impeached a Second Time

ArchPundit January 14, 2009 No Comments

117-1.  Deborah Mell voted no.

I don’t know–it feels so good maybe we could have them do this weekly until he’s gone?

The Fine Whine of the Chicago Tribune

ArchPundit January 13, 2009 No Comments

Back to the Recall Hobby Horse.

• Every time we encounter one of “The Blagojevich 26,” the Illinois state senators who didn’t vote to let you decide whether to add a recall amendment to the state constitution, we’ll think of Rod Blagojevich. (Twenty-five of “The Blagojevich 26” are Democrats. The leader who put them up to this cheap trick? Departing Senate President Emil Jones. That’s right, he too co-chaired the Blagojevich campaign in 2006.)

Petition gathering could have only started if it had been passed in November and we wouldn’t be getting rid of him until April.  Even as slow as impeachment is going–recall would have been slower.

The real problem is that no one wanted to face up to the need for impeachment earlier.  While that wasn’t going to work with Jones as Senate President, it was the only relatively quick solution to the problem.

The Best Thing About the Next Governor

ArchPundit January 12, 2009 No Comments

Pat Collins nails it:

In Other Great News

ArchPundit January 12, 2009 No Comments

Eddie Jackson of the East Saint Louis City Council is now a Member of the House.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
December 16, 2005 Friday
FIRST EDITIONTapes indicate bribery plan by police chief
BYLINE: By Michael Shaw ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
SECTION: METRO; Pg. C12
LENGTH: 404 words
DATELINE: EAST ST. LOUIS

Former East St. Louis Police chief Ron Matthews helped arrange a $3,000 bribe to a city council member, according to taped conversations presented Thursday at Matthews’ trial.

Matthews, 56, faces charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.

On Thursday, the third day of the trial in federal court in East St. Louis, the jury heard secretly recorded conversations that alleged efforts by Matthews and others to influence the hiring of the police department’s internal affairs officer.

Prosecutors allege that the effort was intended to hire someone who would protect an auxiliary police officer with a criminal record.

The man doing the recording was Matthews’ then-deputy chief and friend, Rudy McIntosh, who was an FBI mole.

In the recordings, officials discuss an officer named Mario Fennoy whom they say agreed to pay a city council member $3,000 in exchange for assurances that he would be selected as internal affairs officer.

At one point Matthews speculates whether Fennoy can handle the task of stalling a federal investigation into the auxiliary officer.

“Can he come up to gear fast enough to do that (expletive)?” Matthews asks McIntosh.

Prosecutor Hal Goldsmith has said that officials eventually backed off the effort to install Fennoy. The council member, Eddie Jackson, returned the money, Goldsmith said.

Neither Fennoy nor Jackson could be reached for comment Thursday.

He gives refunds. Great customer service.