GOt it!
From:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2459887/posts
Obama and the MSM Define Bipartisan the Chicago Way: It’s ‘the Combine’
Big Journalism ^ | 2-25-10 | Archy Cary
Posted on 02/26/2010 8:46:54 AM PST by STARWISE
Think the Chicago Way political machine is all about corrupt Democrat politicians and their cronies? Think again. It’s bipartisan. While Democrats have run the Machine out of Chicago for decades, a supporting cast of Republicans has long participated in Machine enterprises.
Chicago Tribune reporter John Kass uses the term, “the Combine” to refer to the combination of Illinois Republicans working with Democrats to make hay for themselves regardless of who’s driving the tractor. As Republican power-broker Bill Cellini once said,
When we’re in [Republicans], we’re in. And when you’re in [Democrats], we’re in.
This month, the University of Illinois released a study entitled “Curing Corruption in Illinois: Anti-Corruption Report Number 3.” Here are some of its findings:
Since 1972 there have been three governors before Governor Blagojevich, state legislators, two congressmen, 19 Cook County judges, 30 aldermen, and other statewide officials convicted of corruption. Altogether there have been 1,000 public officials and businessmen convicted of public corruption since 1970…Corruption in Illinois seems endemic in both political parties. (p.3)
Here’s now corruption in both political parties, the Combine, works.
William F. Cellini, long-time GOP state power-broker seconded Gerald Ford’s nomination for President at the 1976 Republican National Convention. For four decades, regardless of which party ran the Illinois state government, Cellini did well, while attracting little attention.
That relative obscurity ended in October 2008 when Cellini was indicted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office for conspiracy and extortion. The indictment, read here, describes how pay-to-play works in Illinois politics. Here’s an excerpt from Count 2 (of 4) in the indictment:
As part of the conspiracy, CELLINI, [Stuart] Levine, [“Tony”] Rezko, and Co-Conspirator A [identified by the Chicago Tribune as former Gov. Rod Blagojevich Chief of Staff Alonzo “Lon” Monk who is cooperating with the Feds] agreed that they would use their influence and Levine’s position [as a Trustee] at TRS [Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois with $30 billion in assets] to prevent [John] Rosenberg’s firm, Capri Capital, from receiving a planned $220 million allocation of TRS funds unless Rosenberg and Capri Capital agreed to raise or donate a substantial about of funds for the benefit of Public Official A [Blagojevich].
When Rosenberg threatened to expose the plan, CELLINI, Levine, Rezko, and Co-Conspirator A [Monk] acted together to prevent Rosenberg from telling law enforcement about the extortion plan. As a result of Rosenberg’s threat, CELLINI, Levine, Rezko, and Co-Conspirator A agreed that Capri Capital would receive the $220 million allocation, but that Capri Capital and Rosenberg would receive no further funds from the State of Illinois. (pp. 14-15)
Think it couldn’t get any more embarrassing for the Illinois GOP?
Alonzo “Lon” Monk, ex-Chief of Staff to Blagojevich, signed a Plea Agreement in the case against Blago. One section discusses the “Pension Obligation Bond (POB) Deal:”
One of the ways in which Blagojevich, Rezko, [Christopher who committed suicide] Kelly, and Defendant [Monk] tried to obtain money for themselves from their control over the State of Illinois government related to the re-financing of $10 billion in Pension Obligation Bonds (“POB”) by the State of Illinois in 2003…
Defendant understood that the lead firm would make the most money from the POB sale. Initially, Defendant understood that Kelly and Rezko were pushing for Investment Firm A to be chosen either because Investment Firm A would make a contribution to Blagojevich or because Defendant, Blagojevich, Rezko, and Kelly would make money if Investment Firm A was chosen…[The $10 billion in bonds was subsequently issued by the State in one day.]
After the POB issuance, Rezko and Kelly told Defendant in additional conversations about the amount of money that Defendant, Blagojevich, Rezko, and Kelly would make from the POB deal. Defendant learned from those conversations that Individual A, who Defendant understood either had received or was going to receive money from Investment Firm A for acting as a consultant on the POB deal, was going to give Rezko $500,000 that would be held in a separate account.
Defendant understood that the $500,000 payment was for the help that Rezko had provided to Investment Firm A and Individual A relating to the POB deal, and that the money would later be split between Defendant, Blagojevich, Rezko, and Kelly.” (pp. 10-12)
The Chicago Tribune identified “Individual A” as Bob Kjellander (pronounced Shell-an-der), a high-profile Illinois Republican and former Treasurer of the Republican National Committee.
Kjellander’s friend, Cellini, goes on trial next November. Kjellander has not been indicted.
Obama would like to govern in the bipartisan Combine style of Illinois politics. The MSM, with their criticism of uncooperative Congressional Republicans, clearly shares Obama’s wish to spread the Combine nationwide.
Looks like Alex may be in even more trouble...;~) Wonder who will bail him out....Looks like someone is connecting the dots.
Fridays are getting tense in the Chicago campaign office of Alexi Giannoulias, the Democrat seeking the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama. That’s the day regulators announce which troubled banks they’ll close. Broadway Bank in Chicago, owned by Giannoulias’s family, must attract at least $75 million in capital by late April to meet terms of a consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. prompted by losses on commercial real-estate loans. Even if successful, the family could lose control before November’s election, dealing a blow to Democrats and an Obama friend.
* * *
Some of the Broadway loans that have generated controversy involve Michael Giorango, a convicted bookmaker and prostitution-ring promoter. It has also made loans to convicted Illinois influence peddler Antoin “Tony” Rezko and a family accused of having connections to organized crime.
GOt it...THey are so intertwined
John Rogers is divorced from Desiree —— they had one child. He is now remarried.
In 1994, Time featured John Rogers as one of its 50 leaders under 40. On February 23, 2008, Rogers, owner of Ariel Capital Management, and one of Obama’s chief fundraiser, became the first African-American winner of a Woodrow Wilson Award for his service to the Princeton alumni community, the Chicago community, the African American community and the financial community.
(Ex-WH czar, commie Van Jones, just got a one-year joint appointment as a distinguished visiting fellow at Princeton’s Center for African American Studies and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and Int Affairs, where he will teach a seminar on environmental and economic policy).
Rogers is co-chairman of Jesse Jackson’s annual Wall Street Project minority conference (AKA The Annual Shakedown), chairman of the Chicago Urban League, a member of four corporate boards and was a leading campaigner for Princeton basketball legend and United States Senator Bill Bradley’s 2000 United States presidential campaign.
Three of the boards he serves on are Fortune 500 companies: McDonald’s, Aon Corporation, and Exelon Corporation.
(Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, helped create Exelon. when Emanuel was at the investment bank Wasserstein Perella (now Dresdner Kleinwort). In his 2-year career there Emanuel earned $16.2 million, according to congressional disclosures. His biggest deal was the Exelon merger. David Axelrod was Exelon’s PR man. Emanuel e-mailed Exelon’s John Rowe on the eve of the House vote on global warming legislation and asked that he reach out to some uncommitted Democrats. “We are proud to be the President’s utility,” says Elizabeth Moler, Exelon’s chief lobbyist. “It’s nice for John to be able to go to the White House and they know his name.”
Rogers is a trustee of the University of Chicago. He has served numerous civic, educational and arts organizations as a director or trustee, including the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and the Chicago Symphony.
At Princeton, he was a trustee of the University from 1990 to 1994 and more recently has served as a member of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni (ABPA) and the Princeton Varsity Club board of directors, as well as the Alumni Schools Committee. He has been an advocate for greater diversity in upper-level corporate positions.
In the early 1990s, Rogers served as a fundraising leader in Project Vote voter registration efforts led by President Barack Obama (aided by ACORN).
(There was criticism of the financial ties and close cooperation between President Obama’s campaign and ACORN and its sister organizations Citizens Services Inc. and Project Vote. The groups came under fire during the campaign after probes into possible voter fraud in a series of presidential battleground states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Mexico and Nevada. ACORN and its affiliates are currently the target of at least 14 lawsuits related to voter fraud in the 2008 election and a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act complaint filed by former ACORN members.)
Rogers was part of the inner circle of the Barack Obama presidential campaign. He is a long-time Obama associate who serves as the co-chair of Obama’s Illinois finance committee and who has been a major Democrat fundraiser.
He served along with Bill Daley, Pat Ryan, Penny Pritzker and Julianna Smoot on Barack Obama’s 2009 presidential inauguration committee.