Posted on 05/10/2005 4:33:54 PM PDT by smoothsailing
May 10, 2005
Emanuel's own ethics storm
by David Keene
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) is about to learn what it's like when people who live in glass houses begin throwing stones at their neighbors.
As a former Clinton White House aide and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Emanuel believes Democrats can win back the Congress by throwing as much mud as they can dig up at their Republican opponents. He is a bare-knuckle politician who relishes the hand-to-hand political combat so many of his colleagues abhor.
The constant attacks on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) are part of his strategy, and Emanuel has no intention of stopping with DeLay. He believes he and his compatriots in and out of Congress can, with a little help from the media, convince voters that Republicans are congenitally crooked abusers of power who ought to be sent packing.
The problem he's faced, however, is that neither he nor his friends have been able to come up with a smoking gun in DeLay's case and that most of those he has recruited to wage the ethics war come to the battle with problems of their own.
DeLay's Democratic counterpart, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), for example, has at the very least been involved in a couple episodes identical to those included in Emanuel's indictment of DeLay and has, in addition, actually had to pay a fine for her involvement in an illegal fundraising scheme.
Moreover, other Democrats on the House ethics committee have similar problems and may themselves end up facing charges similar to those Emanuel uses to condemn the Republican leader. And last week, developments in Illinois put Emanuel himself in what must be an uncomfortable position, for the man clearly has "some 'splainin to do."
Chicago hasn't changed much over the years. Mayor Richard Daley may be smoother than his dad, but the machine Daley inherited from him works pretty much as it did in the good old days. Anyone who doubts that need only glance through the indictments being handed down as a result of an ongoing federal investigation of the city's water department.
The department, through a fellow who has run the place ever since young Daley took office, has been operated as a "racketeering enterprise," according to federal investigators. It seems that over the years the folks appointed by hizzoner have been enriching themselves and their friends while running the department as a quasi-political committee only incidentally responsible for delivering water to Chicago's citizens.
Department officials have since the '90s been extorting money from anyone and everyone doing business with them, skimming a little for themselves and channeling the rest to political campaigns viewed with favor by the mayor and his machine. In addition to millions of dollars in cash contributions, it seems that a shadow division of the department was set up to organize city workers and send them out to help certain politicians.
Department officials running this operation would receive word from on high as to which campaigns to help and then swing into action. The deputy head of the department who has been indicted, along with a half-dozen of his cronies, tells prosecutors that, once word came down, he would call his boys together (on city time and in their Water Department offices), devise a campaign plan and fan out to mobilize their employee army.
Last week, investigators revealed the boys from the Water Department were heavily involved in Mr. Clean's 2002 primary. That is important because Emanuel may be sitting in Congress today only because of the illegal contributions and help he received from the Daley machine back then.
Anyone who thinks that's a stretch should ponder the situation young Emanuel was facing back then. He was one of eight Democrats fighting for his party's nomination in a district the Democratic nominee was almost certain to win. It was a bitter primary that he finally won by only 11,058 votes. His major advantages were money and the support of the Daley machine. Still, he was forced to spend nearly $2 million and put hundreds of "volunteer" workers onto the streets of his district.
Emanuel denies any knowledge of all that. One assumes he must have just thought his message was really resonating with water department workers as they streamed in to help.
So the man the Democrats have chosen to fight the ethics war was himself elected only as a result of the machinations of a corrupt machine that he must have known was operating on his behalf, and he, like those he attacks, will be forced over and over again to argue that he just didn't know what was going on around him.
David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, is a managing associate with Carmen Group, a D.C.-based governmental-affairs firm (www.carmengrouplobbying.com).
© 2005 The Hill
Was any reason given?
"Of all the Billy-Jeff butt-boys, the ones I detest the most are: Carville, Begalla and Emanuel."
Don't forget the smarmy, corrupt Lanny Davis. He makes my skin crawl.
Where is IRS? Shouldn't they be going after the skimmed money?
Yeah, good ol' smiling and giggling while sticking a shiv in your back, Lanny. I thought about including him but, unreconstructed left wing POS puke that he is, he is still half a ratchet click below the other three in terms of pure spitting in-your-face belligerence and general mean spiritedness. Other than that, you're absolutely correct--same Rat DNA.
Isn't he also the one who served in the Israeli army, but not for the U.S.?
what would be funny is if Kennedy's brother in law got him on tape too :0)
Sorry, but I can't confirm that bit of information. Really don't know.
Yes. He served as a volunteer at an Israeli Army supply base during the 1991 Gulf War.
It couldn't happen to a nastier, self-important, little *hit than one of Hillary Clinton's elves aka Rahm.
they gotta prove knowledge...nothing in that tank...so far.
You are correct.
He worked for Dresdner Kleinwort.
His only contribution was to get Excelon contacts in the city and have them do a merger wtih another firm...I have forgotten the name...It was all planned. Investment banking..make a few million and then the King Richard will support you for office.
I know. I lost to him in the general election.
Mark Augusti
I am literally speechless(so fortunately I can type!).
That whole situation must have been a nightmare for you.I wish you the best, you are among friends here.
Most folks here are strong supporters of conservative principles.So hang around and enjoy and..WELCOME TO FREE REPUBLIC!!
Please see the addition to this thread at #34 and #35.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel D-Ill., blasted Congress for getting involved in corporate accounting rules while ignoring its real work.
"No wonder Americans are so cynical about what we do around here," Emanuel said during the House debate.
CHICAGO - The names of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and U.S. Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-5) appeared for the first time in federal documents relating to Chicagos Hired Truck Program scandal.
Mayor Daley and the Daley family political bases 11th Ward Democratic organization were recipients of coerced campaign contributions, according to the plea agreement of former city Water Department Director of Finance and Administration Gerald Wesolowski. (attached as .pdf document)
Congressman Emanuel, elected in 2002, was the recipient of Water Department employee campaign volunteers, presumably in his successful primary campaign against State Rep. Nancy Kaszak (D-Chicago).
snip
According to the plea agreement, Water Department employees and other city employees were recruited for political work in violation of the Shakman Decree (1969) which forbids the hiring and firing of non-policy making city employees for political reasons. According to the plea agreement, Donald Tomczak, the former First Deputy Commissioner of Mayor Richard Daleys Water Department, "rewarded certain members of his political organization...with raises, promotions and overtime, in return for their participation in Tomczak directed political activities."
Wesolowski, 46, who was indicted on 15 counts ranging including racketeering, bribery, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice agreed to plead guilty one count of mail fraud and to cooperate in the governments case.
Wesolowski was one of the bagmen for Tomczak, a co-defendant in the indictment. He is the 6th person to plead guilty in Hired Truck probe to date, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
The count to which Wesolowski plead guilty was participation in the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity. At least two illegal acts must be proven. The Feds and the defendant agreed upon mail fraud and bribery in violation of state law.
Companies provide cash, campaign contributions and other things to of value for the benefit of Tomczak, defendant and third parties associated with Tomczak, according to the plea agreement, with defendant knowing that such benefits were provided with the intent to influence and reward Tomczak and defendant in the performance of official acts related to the Hired Truck Program.
The benefits included money, gifts and campaign contributions to political campaigns with which Tomczak and other high-ranking government officials were associated.
Besides soliciting campaign contributions, however, Tomczaks assistants mobilized over 100 individuals--most department employees--to pass out campaign literature on behalf of political campaigns determined by City Officials and communicated to Tomczak.
Once the candidates name had come down from higher-ups, Tomczak would conduct a planning meeting with 5-10 employees, who were political coordinators, on the taxpayers dime.
According to the plea agreement, candidates receiving support via this criminal enterprise were Jeff Tomczak, mayoral candidate Richard Daley, judicial candidate Amy Bertani, United States congressional candidate Rahm Emanuel and others. There is also a reference to an unnamed Candidate A with reference to fund raising.
According the the plea agreement, Wesolowski was...aware that Tomczak authorized raises and/or promotions to one or more tradesmen in return for their work to personally benefit Tomczak.
Truck companies like Cayla and Garfield received regular hired truck work after Wesolowski began receiving cash payments from Michael Harjung, according to the plea agreement. The price is said to have been $75 per truck per week of work, $60,000 in total over a four-year period. This money went to Tomczak, so says the plea agreement.
snip
Co-defendant John Cannatello, identified as a chief operator of GNA, is also fingered as one who paid bribes to get his trucks city work. Wesolowski admits taking bribe money to Tomczaks Chicago home for Cannatello.
Wesolowski also admitted receiving envelopes of cash from co-defendants Roger McMahon and Flenory Barnes. Also on the list of those giving Wesolowski items of value is co-defendant Joseph Ignoffo and several other unidentified truckers.
Besides the Mayor Daley's 11th Ward organization, the plea agreement specifically mentions the 2002 Will County States Attorneys campaign of Donald Tomczaks son Jeff as recipients of coerced campaign contributions.
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