Dan Proft: Restored Faith in the Chicago Democrats

I will admit; over the last several weeks my faith in the ability of Chicago Democrats to run Illinois state government had been shaken.

I have always tried to be a "Yes We Can" kind of guy like, say, Tony Rezko? But I had started to give in to the cynics.

I began to believe that maybe Illinois truly was little more than a feudal kleptocracy where absolute primogeniture had replaced popular elections as the pathway to public office. I actually started to think Illinois that the problems with Illinois' political culture might extend beyond Blagojevich. Can you fathom such a thing?

My mind careened from one unhealthy notion to another. Could corruption be driving businesses and jobs from our state? I wonder if the Chicago Public Schools could be performing better.

Is it possible that Todd Stroger is not the best person to be put in charge of $3 billion worth of government?

Faced with a governor slightly less popular than rectal cancer, Chicago Democrats up and down the political food chain who twice supported Blagojevich's election moved with righteous urgency to try and salvage their careers.

It was the kind of inspired, fairy-tale bravery the likes of which I have not seen since Barack Obama renounced Jeremiah Wright as his spiritual North Star.

So rest easy, Illinois. Normalcy is right around the corner. From Zion in the north to Cairo in the south, the Blagojevich curtain that had descended across Illinois is about to be lifted.

With Blagojevich gone, the innovative, low-tax, job-creating, puritanical Chicago Democrats who have so beautifully handled the Roland Burris affair and other matters of state during their long-running tenure are poised to usher in a period of untold prosperity for Illinoisans.

And if you believe any of what I've just said, I've got a reasonably priced U.S. Senate seat to sell you.

Justice Department Briefing on Blagojevich Investigation:
Patrick Fitzgerald, United States attorney general for the Northern District of Illinois [speaking to press]:
Published: December 9, 2008, New York Times

Excerpts from the transcript:

Fitzgerald: "In the governor words -- governor's words, quote, 'Fire all those bleeping people. Get them the bleep out of there. And get us some editorial support', close quote. And the bleeps are not really bleeps."

(snip)

Fitzgerald: "A month or so ago a $1.8 billion tollway project was announced. While that tollway project was being announced, Governor Blagojevich was privately seeking to have a person benefiting from that contract raise $100,000 in contributions, and privately the government (sic) said, 'I could have made a larger announcement but wanted to see how they would perform by the end of the year. If they don't perform, bleep 'em.' That's a quote. And the word 'bleep' was not the word he used."

(snip)

Fitzgerald: "The governor's own words describing the Senate seat, quote, 'It's a bleeping valuable thing -- thing. You just don't give it away for nothing', close quote."

Fitzgerald: "Another quote, 'I've got this thing, and it's bleeping golden. And I'm just not giving it up for bleeping nothing. I'm not going to do it, and I can always use it; I can parachute me there,' quote. Those are his words, not our characterization, other than with regard to the bleep."

Fitzgerald: "The tapes reveal that Governor Blagojevich wanted a number of things in exchange for making the appointment to the Senate seat -- an appointment as secretary of health and human services or an ambassadorship, an appointment to a private foundation, a higher paying job for his wife or campaign contributions."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/politics/09text-illinois.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
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Blago's wife...

"Mrs. Blago, the former Patti Mell, won the hearts of old-school thugs everywhere with her f-word-filled rants captured on FBI wiretaps, some of which were colorfully detailed in the criminal complaint against her hubby..." --Michelle Malkin, December 17, 2008

http://710knus.townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2008/12/17/the_real_housewives_of_crook_county

_____________________________________________________

Roland Burris and Rep. Bobby Rush (speaking)
at a Chicago news conference announcing
Gov. Rod Blagojevich's appointment of
Burris to the U.S. Senate Dec. 30, 2008.
CBS
________________________________________________________

From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
PROFILE: BOBBY RUSH:

* Democratic Member of Congress

* Member of the radical Progressive Caucus

* In 1968, went AWOL from the U.S. Army

* Co-founder of the Illinois branch of the Black Panther Party

* In 1969, served six months in jail for an illegal weapons conviction

* Advocates reparations for African Americans

"Bobby Rush has described his involvement with the Black Panthers as part of his maturation process, as a youthful indiscretion that he abandoned immediately after Hampton's death. He described his role mostly as running the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast for Children program.

But Bobby Rush served six months in jail for a 1969 illegal weapons conviction and, even after his release, in 1971 his comrades were still describing him as the 'Deputy Minister of Defense' for the Black Panther Party in Illinois. In 1992 the socialist magazine In These Times praised fledgling congressional candidate Rush, writing that he 'has continued to support progressive policies and has never disavowed his Panther past...."

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1198
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From the Maoist Internationist Movement:
[1960s/original] Black Panther Party [BPP] Archives
From the article: REVOLUTIONARY HEROES

"On May 1st, May Day [1969], the day of the gigantic Free Huey rally, two of Alioto's top executioners vamped on the brothers from the Brown Community who were attending to their own affairs. These brothers, who are endowed with the revolutionary spirit of the Black Panther Party defended themselves from the racist pig gestapo.

Pig Joseph Brodnik received his just reward with a big hole in the chest. Pig Paul McGoran got his in the mouth which was not quite enough to off him.

The revolutionary brothers escaped the huge swarm of pigs with dogs, mace, tanks and helicopters, proving once again that "the spirit of the people is greater than the man's technology."

To these brothers the revolutionary people of racist America want to say, by your revolutionary deed you are heroes, and that you are always welcome to our camp."

Source: Maoist Internationist Movement
Article: REVOLUTIONARY HEROS (May 11, 1969):
http://web.archive.org/web/20041230150623/http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/index.html

“The bottom line is this, if Blago was not caught on tape or not indicted the dems would defend this guy to the bitter end.”

I think a more nuanced theory might be in order. After all, Bill Clinton was caught on VIDEOTAPE lying in his deposition in the Monica Lewinsky case. In some jurisdictions, such behavior is considered perjury and prosecuted as a felony.

Of course, there are people who to this day concede Clinton lied in his deposition yet nevertheless deny Clinton committed perjury or a felony. http://mediamatters.org/items/200411220006 But then again, there continue to be members in the Flat Earth Society. Some truths apparently are hard to swallow.

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