Free Republic

For decades, Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan dominated the state’s political system, corrupting it to his own ends. What should we make of his ouster? The Chicago machine turned out some of the most notorious names in American public corruption, including Anton Cermak, Richard J. Daley, and Ed Kelly. The machine also turned out Mike Madigan, who ruled over Illinois politics for 50 years, 36 of which he spent calling the shots as House speaker. Most people thought Madigan would only leave office in handcuffs or a casket. Most people were wrong. For the first time since 1970, “the Velvet...

<p>CHICAGO (AP) - A member of Chicago's first political family running for mayor is suggesting that an expressway on the city's South Side be renamed after former President Barack Obama and the family of the man it's named after now isn't happy.</p>

UPI) -- Former U.S. Rep Dan Rostenkowski, who rose to be chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and went to prison in disgrace, died Wednesday. He was 82. Rostenkowski died at his summer home in Powers Lake, Wis., after a long battle with cancer, the Chicago Tribune reported. A onetime Washington political insider and power broker, Rostenkowski represented his Chicago 5th Congressional District in Congress for 36 years, rising to head the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee that rewrote the 1986 U.S. tax code. The son of 32nd Ward Democratic Alderman Joseph Rostenkowski, Daniel was first elected...

The city of Chicago is one of the few major metropolitan areas which runs away from its past at every opportunity. Yet, indeed, the very construction of the city led to the term "underworld." And with rampant corruption controlled by infamous individuals like "Big Jim" Colosimo, Al Capone, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca, Murray "The Camel" Humphrey and Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, Chicago can hardly bury its past--no pun intended. Since the turn of the 20th century, what Carl Sandburg referred to as the "City of Big Shoulders" was perhaps the center of organized crime in the United States. Though New...

On Anderson's Cooper 360 they did a major investigative look at the Ayers/Obama connection. They even interviewed Stanley Kurtz. Bottom line: Just a guy in my neighborhood? Served on one board together? CNN Says bulls**t! They worked closely with each other and worked together on TWO boards -- both Annenberg and the Woods Foundation. They also talked about Ayers little tea party to launch Obama and found Obama hadn't been entirely honest about "just stopping by..." It was an event they planned and hosted TOGETHER. Sarah Palin needs to come out tomorrow and ride this just like she did the...

Back in the early eighties, in an interview with David Horowitz and Peter Collier, Bill Ayers remembered his reaction upon learning that he would not be prosecuted by the government for his bombing spree as a member of the Weather Underground. “Guilty as hell, free as a bird—America is a great country,” he exulted. Ayers is now a university professor, but he must have been exulting all over again after reading Saturday’s front-page story in the New York Times. The article explored the putative relationship between Ayers and Barack Obama during the time they worked together on the Chicago Annenberg...

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...

"We shall reach greater and greater platitudes of achievement." -- Richard J. Daley (Mayor of Chicago, 1955-76) "This is the worst disaster in California since I was elected." -- Pat Brown (Governor of California, 1959-66) "She's a wonderful, wonderful person and we're looking to a happy and wonderful night -- ah, life." -- Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts Senator) on his then-fiancee, Victoria Reggie