Free Republic

Pundits glued to their Potomac seats, applying their usual Beltway explanations for everything that happens in America, would have it that House Speaker Dennis Hastert bollixed up the House page scandal because he is an unredeemed Republican partisan. Or that he doesn't care enough about congressmen hounding boys. Or that his conservatism made him do it.Blind partisanship, moral failings, hypocrisy, gay bashing or any of those other explanations that don't come close to the reality that Hastert was simply doing politics as it is practiced here, in Illinois.Hastert knows no other way, having been bred, born and raised in the...

ABC’s Chris Cuomo took a quick shot at Wal-Mart in a brief news read on the September 12 “Good Morning America.” The news desk anchor informed his audience that “a so-called living wage measure” vetoed by the mayor would have required “mega-stores, like Wal-Mart, that make more than a billion dollars in sales” to pay employees “at least $10-an-hour.” Cuomo noted that “retailers had warned they’d be forced to move outside the city.” A quick read like that paints the picture of a greedy company picking up its marbles to play elsewhere for spite. But there’s more to the story...

President Bush traveled to Chicago on Thursday night to celebrate his 60th birthday with Mayor Richard Daley, a bipartisan meal in which both men had one thing in common to chew over: the work of federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Reporters were only briefly allowed into the dinner at the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant on a day in which Daley's former patronage chief, Robert Sorich, and three others were convicted on federal corruption charges. Daley issued a brief statement and took no questions at a City Hall news conference after the verdict, disappearing behind a door after reminding reporters it was the...

From the time Mayor Richard Daley took office, dozens of city department managers gathered before elections at the plumbers' union hall or other sites to get campaign marching orders from top mayoral aides, a former Daley loyalist testified Monday in the City Hall corruption trial. Donald Tomczak, a longtime Water Department official and veteran political operative, said he then would summon his top deputies to his office in the Jardine Filtration Plant to tell them which candidates would get help from hundreds of blue-collar city water workers. After elections, Daley aide Robert Sorich fielded requests for promotions from the political...

Chicago's City Council has decided to ignore a federal immigration bill now working its way through Congress if it requires city staff to enforce it. In March 1985, then-Mayor Harold Washington signed an executive order forbidding city cooperation in random questioning about a person's citizenship at city buildings and barring review of city files without subpoenas or questioning city job applicants about citizenship. Now, Mayor Richard Daley has taken up the same cause and has issued an executive order, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday. Finance Committee Chairman Edward Burke, the council's resident historian, noted there is a Chicago precedent for...

Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate said in the Democrats' weekly radio address Saturday that "honest leadership will help all Americans." He also said there is "a culture of corruption that is preventing government from dealing with the real needs of our nation." Durbin was directly referring to the Republican Party, which has controlled the legislative branch of the federal government since 2003, and the executive branch since 2001. Of more recent vintage is the Jack Abramoff Scandal: The crooked ex-lobbyist had ties to both parties, but his GOP connections were more extensive, and for Republican politicians on...

CHICAGO, Jan. 5 - Mayor Richard M. Daley was explaining away $48 million in overruns for renovation of a terminal at O'Hare International Airport when a regular at his daily news conferences asked if the mayor would be reciting a similar refrain, five or 10 years hence, for busting the budget in his $15 billion expansion of the airport. I'm coming back in five or 10 years?" Mr. Daley replied. "Thank you!" It used to be that no one (let alone the mayor himself) questioned the longevity of Mr. Daley, the country's longest-serving big-city mayor whose staggering margins in four...

For years now Richard Daley, Mayor of Chicago has enjoyed a growing reputation among the political Leftists in this country. He has been one of the leading local and national proponents of "victim disarmament" (he calls it gun control). Daley's rationale seems to be that if only the honest people would all just turn in their firearms then the gangbangers would not have to worry about shooting them when they committed robbery or mayhem because they would all know that none of the honest people had anything left to defened themselves with. Cuts down on the murder rate, you know....

Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. is making a political power play in his fight to get a new airport for Peotone. Jackson says if Mayor Daley will back the Peotone plan he may not run against Daley in the race for mayor. Congressman Jackson is in the mayor's face every time another City Hall corruption scandal breaks, and Jackson is definitely considering a challenge to Daley in 2007. But Jackson says his top priority is to get a new airport built near south suburban Peotone, and he considers Daley an impediment. So, the congressman is offering the mayor a strategy...

Mayor Richard Daley on Tuesday viewed the controversy over the fate of Terri Schiavo through the eyes of a father who lost a young son to a disabling condition. And though Daley tried not to take sides in the Schiavo case, it became obvious where he stands as he spoke about Kevin Daley, who died in 1981 when he was 33 months old. "I think it gets down to people with disabilities," the mayor said. "I had a son who was very sick with spina bifida. Some people would have said, `Why should he live?'" Kevin "had a struggle," said...

- CHICAGO -- Congressman Jesse Jackson Junior says if a massive voter registration drive worked for Harold Washington in his 1983 run for mayor, it can work in 2006 and beyond for the Democrats. Jackson Jr. and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition will work to register new voters. But Jackson won't say if it is a prelude to a run for mayor of Chicago. Jackson (D-Ill.) stressed that his goal was to help all Democrats. Nonetheless, he announced the registration drive moments after drawing comparisons between today's political landscape and the landscape in 1983, when Harold Washington was first elected mayor of...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) Gov. Rod Blagojevich refused to stop accepting political contributions from state contractors, but said Wednesday that he supports a review of Illinois campaign finance laws. Blagojevich frequently accepts large campaign donations from people who receive state contracts. After Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced last week that he would no longer accept contributions from people doing business with the city, the governor's critics began calling for him to take a similar pledge. Blagojevich rejected the idea during a news conference following his budget address Wednesday. ``We'll continue to follow all the rules,'' Blagojevich said. ``The rules should apply...

CHICAGO (CBS 2) Mayor Daley took new steps Wednesday to try to end the epidemic of embarrassing scandals inside City Hall. He is proposing increased prison time and other penalties for those who try to corrupt city programs. The mayor offered a few more details on changes he wants in the way if City Hall hires private trucks. It’s a program federal prosecutors say was hijacked by crooks. But sill some aldermen disagree with Daley’s proposal. When he pounds the gavel hard enough, Rich Daley almost always gets what he wants from the City Council. But the possibility that the...

The mayoral challenger Richard M. Daley fears most took another baby step toward City Hall on Friday. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) came out swinging about the seemingly endless parade of City Hall contracting scandals under Daley and about the deafening silence coming from a City Council Jackson views as under Daley's thumb. What set Jackson off this time, apparently, was James Duff's bizarre attempt to plead guilty for an alleged minority business fraud scheme that deprived legitimate black-, Hispanic-, and women-owned businesses of $100 million in contracts. But that clearly was not the only scandal on Jackson's mind during...

CHICAGO (AP) Mayor Richard Daley's son, prompted by a lifelong desire to serve in the military, will soon report to active duty as an enlisted soldier in the Army's regular airborne infantry. ``It's been in the back of my mind for some time,'' Patrick Daley told the Chicago Sun-Times in Tuesday's editions. ``I left West Point during my freshman year when I was 18 years old and always remembered their motto, 'Duty, Honor and Country.' But I was so young and not really old enough to understand what it really meant. But I know now.'' Daley, 29, graduated with honors...

CHICAGO -- Another city Department of Buildings inspector has resigned over questionable answers on his resume, a week after Commissioner Stan Kaderbek took personal responsibility for the hiring of two other inspectors who quit when questions were raised about their qualifications David Mareno, 49, resigned Tuesday when he could not verify previous work experience stated on his resume, buildings department spokeswoman Breelyn Peete said. News reports said Mareno claimed to have worked two years at a place where he actually had worked only two weeks. Kaderbek admitted at a City Hall news conference on Friday that it was embarrassing his...

CHICAGO (CBS 2) Chicago's building commissioner apologizes for what he calls embarrassing hires. Now the two young former building inspectors could face fines. Both 23-year-old Kevin Sexton and 19-year-old Andy Ryan are sons of high-ranking officials in the carpenter's union. They quit this week after questions were raised about their qualifications. The hiring of Ryan sparked public outcry, and the city is vowing to send a message to other potential hires: that lying on job applications will not be tolerated. Sources say Building Commissioner Stan Kaderbek’s job is on the line. Kaderbek can't afford any more such "embarrassments," not after...

Daley Declines To Answer Questions About Carol Marin's Column. City officials responded Wednesday to a Sun-Times column by NBC5 contributor Carol Marin about the 19-year-old son of a top Carpenters Union official being hired as a building inspector. Asked about the employment of Andy Ryan, son of Local 13 Secretary-Treasurer Tom Ryan, Daley said he was unaware Andy Ryan had been hired and referred questions to Buildings Commissioner Stan Kaderbek. "He's the man," Daley said. "He can answer it, that's his job." Marin reported that Andy Ryan's hiring was questioned because the city requires building inspectors to complete an apprenticeship...

CHICAGO (CBS 2) He's done it again. The outspoken Republican running for U.S. Senate is making news with his remarks. This time he's calling Mayor Daley a "troll." Since moving here last month, Alan Keyes has said little about Illinois issues. But his provocative name-calling got attention, including claims that opponent Barack Obama has a slave-holder mentality and has the same disregard for human life as a terrorist. Today's target: the mayor and his political machinery. “We have a future but we're not going be allowed to get to that future because a troll is sitting under the bridge saying...

CHICAGO Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has applauded Republicans for holding their convention in overwhelmingly Democrat New York City. Daley yesterday also criticized protesters lining the streets outside the convention. Daley is a Democrat. But he says people are ``sick and tired'' of the ``hatred'' in American politics and fringe groups with a political agenda. He applauded Arizona Senator John McCain for using his convention speech Monday to try to restore civility to the presidential debate. Daley also thanked former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for recognizing contributions of Chicago Police in the days after the September Eleventh terrorist attacks.