By Steve Rhodes
Though nobody is really talking about it, my understanding is that Republicans (and Greens?) will also have a primary to nominate a candidate in the race to replace Jesse Jackson Jr.
Of course, nobody is talking about it because the chance of a Republican winning the seat are so slight in such an overwhelmingly Democratic district as to be ignorable, though I wonder what would happen if a wealthy African American Republican businessperson jumped in.
Anyway, I bring it up because Bobby Rush said the other day that he was worried a Tea Party candidate could slip in by edging out a diffuse Democratic field – therefore party leaders ought to settle on a candidate long before voters do and push everyone else out.
I also saw a comment somewhere – can’t remember where – speculating that Republicans would run in the Democratic primary. I suppose a Tom Swiss strategy could come into play, but really?
Anyway, we’ve got the putative field covered in the updated Political Odds.
Rahm Plays Possum
“Now that Congressman Jackson has retired, the people of the 2nd District on the South Side of the city of Chicago and in the south suburbs will have choices,” Emanuel said. “And those choices are for them to make.”
Because Rahm wouldn’t think of trying to make up voters’ minds for them.
Requiem For Junior
“The media has covered the resignation as a personal fall from grace, but Jackson’s resignation will be felt widely in progressive circles,” Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel writes for the Washington Post.
“He is a rare leader who could both inspire a crowd and explore an idea. He is a principled but original progressive, one who has read widely in U.S. history. He probed deeply into the interplay of race, division and democracy in our past and present but could make an expert’s knowledge clear to the ordinary citizen.
“As an independent progressive leader in Congress, Jackson – the oldest son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson – has had the frustration of fighting on the right side of losing policy battles.”
I have to agree – with a reminder that Junior did not always agree with his father; he’s hardly a carbon copy.
Mayor Rahmney
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel had a message Monday for CTA riders upset about upcoming fare hikes: they’re not really fare increases, public transit remains a bargain and commuters can ‘make that choice’ about whether to drive or take buses and trains,” the Tribune reports.
Hell, why not just take a limo or use a car service?
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“‘Fares stayed the same. Basic fares stayed the same, which you cannot say about gas prices,’ said Emanuel in his first public comments since the CTA announced a 2013 budget proposal last week.”
You mean Obama’s gas prices?
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“While it’s true the standard payment for a single CTA trip will remain $2.25, the mayor’s transit agency plans a 16 percent increase to the cost of a 30-day pass and higher jumps for one-day, three-day and seven-day passes. About 55 percent of CTA commuters use some kind of pass.”
So the pass fares are really the “standard” fares.
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“Now you, as a commuter, will pick. You can either drive to work or you can take public transportation, and the standard fare will stay the same,” Emanuel said.
And just in case you didn’t get his point the first two times:
“‘Public transportation is different from driving to work. You will make that choice,’ Emanuel said when asked about the hike to the 30-day pass that in particular will hit working Chicagoans who in many cases can least afford it.”
Memo to Rahm: The CTA isn’t just a yuppie perk; for some people it is their car.
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It’s not just what Rahm Emanuel says, it’s how he says it – with that triumphant smirk as if he’s bested everyone in the room with the right answer or something.
Note also how patronizing and evasive he is toward reporters – and how he believes the if he repeats something often enough it will be regarded as true no matter the facts.
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Rahm’s contemptuous, lecturing tone toward his inferiors disappears, however, when he goes behind closed doors to whip up more corporate welfare for his friends.
To Rahm, relatively small increases in things like CTA fares and water bills must seem, well, relatively small. To those of us under enormous financial stress, those increased costs add up and chip away at our fragile economic health. It’s not as if fare increases happen in a vacuum; soon there will be red-light tickets to add into the equation, along with the parking meter rates and electricity bills and why has my gas bill skyrocketed when I rarely use the gas?
Then bills that don’t get paid or get paid late incur fees, sometimes from Rahm’s banking pals, who also get their share of our tax bills to pad their outrageous compensation packages by pretending to be job creators even as they require their slimmed-down workforces to pay more of their rising health insurance costs while gilding their golden parachutes for safe landing at their next nest. It’s all so redistributionist.
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And then you’re late for work because we never truly invest in public transportation, public schools or anything public – we just do the bare minimum needed for political cover and our civic leaders pat themselves on the back while passing the costs on to those least able to bear them.
If only the CTA was a stadium on wheels.
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Rahm personally reduced student fares by 10 cents in anticipation of his re-election campaign. What’s next, free rides for seniors?
That’s Todd!
“Former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is blaming an accounting error for the sudden disappearance of $500,000 from his campaign filings this year without an accompanying explanation of where the money went,” the Sun-Times reports.
A) Stroger is so inept his explanation is plausible.
B) What accounts for the missing credit to DNAinfo Chicago for breaking the story?
The Year In Bloodshot Records
Twisted, troubled, wicked and beery.
Goodbye, Boss
One Man, One City, Two Seasons!
Rob Deer Is Here
With his Viz-U-Bat.
The Chicago Toy & Game Fair
Super-Sized!
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Beery.
Posted on November 27, 2012