By Steve Rhodes
From the Kelly Files:
* “He lost contact with those he considered his closest friends – either they were cooperating against him or they feared he was doing the same to them,” the Sun-Times reports.
That’s the funny thing about loyalty in machine politics; it’s the ultimate one-way street. And it bears a striking resemblance to loyalty in another organization that demands it fiercely but is comprised of almost wholly untrustworthy folks: the Mob.
(More on that comparison here.)
* “Kelly for years had battled alcohol and gambling addictions. His lawyer Michael Monico had said the drinking led to the gambling.”
* On Geraldo Live, Rod Blagojevich blamed federal prosecutors for causing Kelly’s death by indicting him three times and pressuring him to “tell lies.” Geraldo asked Blagojevich if he was referring to Patrick Fitzgerald. The ever politic Blagojevich, taken aback, paused, and then named former prosecutor Patrick Collins as the culprit.
It’s not as if Kelly was indicted three times in the same case, though. He was indicted for his role in a kickback contract scheme at O’Hare airport, for tax evasion, and for this role in the Blagojevich scandals.
* Rod Blagojevich, class act.
Bears Down
“It wasn’t quite as simple as saying the receivers sucked, because Devin Hester, Earl Bennett and Johnny Knox all had their highlights,” our very own Jim Coffman writes in SportsMonday. “But I cannot remember a Bears game in at least the last decade in which mangled routes led to more than an interception or two.
“And three of the four Jay Cutler picks on Sunday could be directly attributed to receivers (or tight end Desmond Clark) not being where they were supposed to be.”
*
Brian Urlacher is reportedly out for the year with a dislocated wrist.
Helpless
“I know I get a big pension,” Dawn Clark Netsch says. “What am I supposed to do? Refuse it?”
Yes!
*
“I’m probably not the only labor guy taking advantage of that state law,” says Chicago Federation of Labor chief Dennis Gannon.
And somehow that makes it okay that his taxpayer-funded pension is based on his private union job and not his stint as a steamroller operator for the city.
*
Values and principles mean nothing if you just mouth them instead of act in service to them. That inherently means sacrifice will be involved. So be it. It doesn’t wash to sit back and say “Gee, somebody ought to change this rotten system that is rewarding me so nicely!”
Didn’t someone recently say we should be the change we want to see?
*
“It’s unfortunate that people focus on a pension rather than why kids in urban areas aren’t receiving the education they should,” said Reginald Weaver, a former Harvey high school teacher whose taxpayer-funded pension is based on his presidency of the private National Education Association.
Maybe one reason why kids in urban areas don’t receive the education they should is that our spending priorities are so screwed up.
Pat Quinn, Party Man
Desertion to the enemy complete.
Horse Hockey
“Preckwinkle is using her support for the Olympics as a Trojan horse to snare Mayor Daley’s backing for her County Board bid,” Laura Washington writes, “but that’s for another column.”
Write that column!
Not Business As Usual
A handful of former University of Illinois officials say clout-based admissions were not considered acceptable until the current administration.
Oasis
“The transient, exhilarating suburban mirage will fade me back
unto my fugitive, Humboldt Park garage.”
– Oasis, in Chicagoetry
Stimulated Job Claims
“On Thursday, the president’s Council of Economic Advisers released its first quarterly report on the economic impact of the stimulus,” ProPublica reports. “The next day’s headlines seized on a single number in the report: one million, the council’s estimate of how many jobs the stimulus had created or saved. But how solid is that number?
“According to the report itself, not very.”
Walk Like A Man
John Shimkus: Dead Man Walking?
Cubs 2010!
A look ahead to this date next year.
Reality TV Revelations
Surprise! Things not as they appear to be!
–
The Beachwood Tip Line: Packing.
Posted on September 14, 2009