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What are Democrats in Illinois Thinking?

By Pat Racimora on February 18, 2010 at 3:00 PM in Current Affairs

The political goings on in Chicago baffle most of us, and the Democrats’ choice to run for Obama’s old Senate seat is no exception. Twists and dark intrigue make Scott Brown’s 1982 nude centerfold in Cosmo look like a G-rated Hallmark card.

Americans are not enthralled by bankers these days, and banking is Alexi Giannouslias’ legacy before being elected as Illinois State Treasurer. Even Obama has opined that we don’t need another banker in the Senate (referring at that point to Republican Scott Brown who prevailed in Massachusetts). There are questions about Giannouslias’ relationship to his father’s troubled Broadway Bank, and Tony Rezko, President Obama’s partner in purchasing real estate and now a convicted felon doing time, is again in the muddy middle of it.

His opponents’ campaign was fast to air the Giannouslias’ family’s dirty laundry.

On July 27, 2009, the Chicago Tribune reported: “Before his election [to State Treasurer], Giannoulias faced scrutiny over his family bank’s loans to convicted felons with alleged mob ties. Giannoulias oversaw the loans at the bank.”

The Sun-Times reported that Giannoulias loaned $12 million to a convicted bookmaker and pimp and loaned another $15 million to a convicted mob money launderer. More recently, Chicago and national media reported that the FDIC ordered the Giannoulias family to raise millions in capital for the bank. According to news reports, the Giannoulias family had taken millions out of the bank just before real-estate backed investments collapsed.

Last week, David Hoffman told the Chicago Sun-Times: “Broadway Bank acted in a very different fashion than just about every other community bank in Illinois . It is simply not true that many other community banks were handing out loans in a high-risk way to Tony Rezko and convicted mobsters.” Hoffman told the Associated Press: “The reason that this Broadway Bank story and revelation is of such significance now is because it goes to the heart of matters of job performance and character.”

And this guy was then elected State Treasurer? And our President, no less, endorsed him for that job. So it will be interesting to see if Obama will now come out and actively promote his basketball buddy against his opponent, moderate Republican Mark Kirk, a Navy Commander who has served in Kosovo and Afghanistan and is currently in his 5th term as a member of the US House of Representatives.

In the meantime, the Republicans had fun with this devastating ad.

This race will be one to watch, probably best with popcorn.

  • timmy

    This is another Obamaman and he’s going down !!!

  • Not Likely

    I suspect he’s thinking that your paranoid delusions about Rezko tunred out to be a lot of nonsense. That’s how people tend to think when they still have a grip on reality.

  • No Longer Banned in Beantown

    I love that! Especially the Jersey accent.

    You gotta problem wit dat?

  • Observant

    Good Article!

  • foxyladi14

    just what we don’t need..

  • karen for Clinton

    Ha, maybe you didn’t follow the trial very closely, but he is serving time, lots of time.  Delusions?  We said he was a crook and he is.  We said obama got a sweetheart real estate deal and he did, not only on the house but on the mtge.

    Guess you’re a new bot around here and didn’t read Pritzger and other investigations.  There were so many and they were backed up with facts by the Chicago Newspapers and other accounts.  Very detailed and vast information on the true history of obama, if you’d bothered to look at it before you voted. 

  • oowawa

    “So it will be interesting to see if Obama will now come out and actively promote his basketball buddy”

    HaHaha–Yep, that’ll be a good one!  Time for a little campaign swim party in the Chicago Cesspool.

  • oowawa

    Indeed, NLBIB–maybe the most devastating political ad I’ve ever seen.  Michael “Jaws” Giorango?  ROFLMAO!  Yep, I sure hope Thee One goes home to give His buddy a little endorsement . . .

  • ksclematis

    Guess it hasn’t changed in the last 60 years! 
    Great realistic post, Pat…..

  • Ani

    So I guess you missed the part where he was convicted on 16 of 24 counts and is now in prison.

  • candymarl

    Ani, Ani, Ani! Must I explain this to you again?  Just because Rezko was convicted and is now in prison doesn’t mean he was convicted and is now in prison. This is Obama World. Neither of these things happened. 

    This is the New Truth in Obama World. Really. Trust me.

  • Peggy Sue

    Hey, what’s a few convictions among friends???  As for Giannouslias’ character references.  Well, I’m sure he’ll tell the voters that the family business is referred to [behind their backs, of course]:

    The Bank of the Mob!

    Okay, we have a real winner here. Thumbs up!  But hey, he’s played basketball with the President.  Makes it all the nasty stuff go away.

    I’m from Jersey.  I understand [wink, wink]. We all gotta do what we gotta do.

    And what does Mr. Giannouslias need to do?  He better get down on his knees and pray to the Blessed Virgin that John Kass goes on a lo-o-ong, lo-o-ng vacation.

    Cannot believe the Dems seriously ran with this man.  

  • sowsear

    Karen. Hope I didn’t confuse you.
    Evelyn Pringle wrote the series on Retzko’s involvement in Chicago politics. It was Penny Pritzker of the Hyatt Hotel Chain, backer of Obama in 2008, and sub-prime mortgage queen, who was Obama’s choice for Commerce Sec. She withdrew rather than have her fiancial entanglements scrutinized.
    I got these two people’s names confused last time I posted about Retzko.Obama. I corrected my error but some may not have seen the correction.

  • getfitnow

    I may be wrong, but I believe this guy has stepped down.

  • sowsear

    Karen. Hope I didn’t confuse you. 
    Evelyn Pringle wrote the series on Retzko’s involvement in Chicago politics. It was Penny Pritzker of the Hyatt Hotel Chain, backer of Obama in 2008, and sub-prime mortgage queen, who was Obama’s choice for Commerce Sec. She withdrew rather than have her financial entanglements scrutinized. 
    I got these two people’s names confused last time I posted about Retzko.Obama. I corrected my error but some may not have seen the correction.
    Today, 5:05:17 PM– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate

  • sowsear

    In Chicago they make things happen.

  • sowsear
  • Tricia

    Not as of 2 hours ago:

    “Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign staff spent the majority of yesterday afternoon leaking the results of an internal poll to reporters which showed Giannoulias leading Mark Kirk 49-45%. They also were quick to tout the fact that their polling numbers showed Giannoulias leading Kirk 57-33% among voters that describe themselves as moderates.” 

    YIKES!  What ARE these people thinking?

  • jiminycricket

    Nothing new here.  Obama was part of all that Chicago sleeze…that’s how he managed to get on.  

    As for Scott Brown…I watched him this afternoon in a Cavuto interview and he is one sharp cookie.  Not a shrinking violet, by any means, and very well-informed about everything…and not shamed to admit when he needs to get up to speed on something.  I believe he could give Mr. Obama one heck of a run in 2012 if he wanted to.  After all…he has more experience than Obama had when he ran for president….that’s fer sure!

  • Peggy Sue

    I wish that were true, getfitnow.  But as of today, he’s still in the race, claiming a 4 pt lead.

    Which means anything’s possible in America!!

  • Clara

    No, he’s still the Democratic candidate and still covered with slime.  I learned about him and the family business back during the primary when Evelyn Pringle did her magnificent series.  Why didn’t anyone listen?

  • Solara 9

    Pringle is an amazing investigatve reporter.  Her stories in 2007 about Chicago politicians and their association with shady characters were amazing, and so well documented.  Her writing about Rezko was especally enlightening.  I will never understand why the Kool-Aid drinkers didn’t seen to care about his close association to our now Leader.

  • Solara 9

    LOL!!!

  • Tricia

    Clara–that’s exactly what I want to know!

  • Peggy Sue

    I listened, Clara.  I read every word of that series, even contacted Pringle and said:  You have to get this out to a wider audience.

    She wrote back.  She sent that series everywhere.  To every news outlet, every cable and radio show.  And remember: that series was documented and referenced six ways to Sunday. She ended her note back to me:

    They know.  They don’t care.

    Chilling!

  • Ani

    Candymarl, thanks for setting me straight.  I don’t know what came over me. :)

  • oowawa

    “Convicted and now in prison” sounds so harsh.  How about “Tony was evaluated to be innocence deficient, and so his spatial options have been temporarily minimized.”

  • oowawa

    Gotta love that toddlin’ town!  I hear they do things they don’t do on Broadway . . .

  • Stan Davis

    In the nine months I lived in Chicago in 1982-83, I got to vote to re-elect Mayor Jane Byrne; however, she was defeated by fellow Democrat Harold Washington.  That’s about the extent of my knowledge of Chicago/Illinois politics, except for the host of ex-politicians who have done or are now doing time in the slammer.

    Stan Davis
    Lakewood, CO

  • Pat Racimora

    I communicared also with her, Peggy Sue.  In fact she told me that she put one of my toons on her refrigerator, which I considered a honor.  I did do a story on her work.  It was infuriating, though, that the MSM ignored everything.  I wonder what she is doing now.  I worry that the best investigative reporters got disgusted and have moved on.

    I recall her articles were very long because they were so well documented.  That is a general problem today–no one wants to read anymore.  They want info in a sound bite.  Obama was able to capitalize on that weakness–we got lots of happy sound bites!

  • Clara

    I wonder if she’d get any attention now?  I read much of her work but not everything.  I’d like to go back now and re-read, then send to so-called journalists to ask them why they didn’t care.

  • Swell528

    Looks like the following websites are in some kind of trouble

    Uppity Woman, RBO, Freedom Fairy, Dead Enders, McNorman’s, TC, Cinie, Hillbuzz, Bitter Politics, John Smart, The Widdershins, Bad Habit (Nunly)

  • Tricia

    Swell528…How do you know?  What kind of trouble?

  • Swell528

    You cant get into them.  Puma Pac is up, people over there saying they cant get in either.  Anybody else having trouble?

  • sowsear

    Corsi and Freddoso had the goods on them too, but most ,didn’t want to see it and the MSM did nothing to get the message out, as we know so well.
    I still do not understand how the information that Retzko gave the investigators never touched The One.  I suppose they may be sitting on information.

  • Tricia

    You are right–how very strange…what’s going on?????

  • Swell528

    The Children of the Corn Obots attacking again, I imagine.

  • sowsear

    She also was under fire.

  • sowsear
  • Peggy Sue

    It’s funny, Pat.  I’ve frequently described Pringle’s series as “exhaustive and exhausting.”  I think it ran in six or seven parts.  And it was a complicated web of associations, links, ties, deliberately done so that any relationship or deal or money exchange could be blurred around the edges.  It was/is very savvy.  It was very smart.  It was totally compromised and corrupted. And it involved Dems and Republicans alike: the Illinois Combine.

    It really sickened me to read the whole thing.  And once I did read it [and additional materials], I knew there was no way I could ever vote for Barack Obama.  If I remember correctly, Pringle was a firm, traditional Democrat, too.  And she came reluctantly to the same conclusion I did.  No way would I vote the Chicago Way.

    I don’t know what she’s doing now. I really should Google her and see if she has any work out there.  I’m very grateful to her for all the endless hours she must have taken in that research. And I’m glad I told her that in my message [good researchers/writers frequently do not get the credit they deserve].

    I still follow John Kass off and on.  Chicago is his beat.  I hope he bites Giannouslias in the rear end.  There’s no way this man should be running for high office.

    But then, what else is new?

  • sowsear

    I wonder what they were talking about that they became targets today.

  • sowsear

    I just linked to John Smart, Hillbuzz, and Widdershins with no trouble,

  • Pat Racimora

    I just emailed Uppity and she responded that she thinks it is a denial of service attack on all Word Press dot com sites.  (NQ is dot net). Global.  Wow…not a good thing. 

  • Doc99
  • Swell528

    Michelle Malin’s site is up.  Is she .com or .org?

  • Swell528

    *Malkin

  • sowsear

     just linked to John Smart, Hillbuzz, and Widdershins with no trouble,
    Today, 6:30:10 PM– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate

  • Swell528

    Uppity is back, too.  Thanks everyone.

  • Stan Davis

    It’s hard to tell with so many cryptic IDs here, but I have the feeling that the preponderance of commenters here are women.  If so, I find it interesting.  Anybody want to venture an explanation?  If it’s true, where are the men?  I see some I recognize, but not very many.

    As for me, I’ve always preferred the company of women to that of men.  No…not for THAT reason.  They say more interesting things than lots of men.  When my fiancée/first wife and I were attending lots of weddings among our college friends right after graduating, I tried to sneak away from the Stag Parties and find the Hen Parties.

    It may have something to do with the fact that I’m the son of a first-born female, the younger brother of a first-born female, and a husband first of a first-born female and then of an only-child female.

    We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

    Stan Davis
    Lakewood, CO

  • sowsear

    Arrested before Christmas….why the delay? and where are they now?

  • Solara 9

    If I had to guess I would say one third male, two thirds female, but I know who some of the players are and you defnitely cannot tell for sure from their IDs! 

  • oowawa

    Well, Stan, I’m a Man–I’m spellin M–A–N, and macho to the bone, as you can tell from my avatar . . .

  • sowsear

    You need a cryptic id, Stan.

  • sowsear

    Yeah, I like pink!

  • sowsear

    oowawa,
    You look so cute in pink.

  • PizzaDriver

    heh heh.

  • don x

    Never thought I would say this, but the way things are going with the Democrats, I could almost become a Republican!   Well, almost.

  • PizzaDriver

    wow.

  • oowawa

    Thank You, sowsear, my skivvies are of a similar roseate hue . . .

  • PizzaDriver

    well Stan, this site is a big Hillary supporting site, and apparently that attracts more women than men.  however, we are also very INDEPENDENT; so we do not prejudge people based on race, gender, ethnicity, age, etc., etc., or political party, for that matter.  welcome to NQ!

  • sowsear

    Who put the skivvies in with the red towels?

  • sowsear

    I wonder about the numbers. Larry should attract more men, I would think?

  • karen for Clinton

    No you didn’t confuse me, I got it wrong on my own, it was a long time since I’ve read it and Pringle and Pritzger got misfiled in my memory bank.

    Her details were astounding and it was quite a lot of information to swallow.

    Thanks for correcting me. :)

  • EllenD

    I was amused that they used the GODFATHER typeface, especially usefully evocative because his name also starts with a “G”.

  • EllenD

    YIKES!  What ARE these people thinking?

    Or drinking?
    Or smoking?

  • Anonymous

    How about Zebraman, sowsear?  After all, I did officiate basketball for six years.

    Stan

  • Ferd Berfle

    What are Democrats in Illinois Thinking?

    The question is moot. They do not think.

  • Mark

    Democrats don’t think, that is why they are Democrats.

  • Cindy

    Ferd Berfle– so good to read you again.
    Welcome back.

  • Cindy

    should be called “demonicrats”

  • Cindy

    Pat–As always, you put alot of work into this post. thank you….also, you have elicited some of the more hilarious and cogent comments I’ve read here at the Quarter! And great cartoon, too!

  • TeakWoodKite

    Not likely, being ignorant of the facts is one thing. Be proud of it is something else entirely.

  • TeakWoodKite

    Pat, get tune and if I recall he was appointed to his current position?

    Just like BO. You think Penny is fronting him?

  • oowawa

    sowsear, are you implying that Larry is unattractive to women?

  • leslie

    oowawa ~
    It has been a year (last Sunday) since TehOne has been “home” (Chicago).
    i’m hoping it’s another 3 years before we see him here again.

  • sowsear

    Do basketball officials still wear stripes?
    I know wrestling officials have changed to gray shirts.

  • Peggy Sue

    I’m a wioman, Stan. Despite my tag name, I’ve had my gender questioned.  Strange, I haven’t taken an internal toll of men vs.  women.  Yet, I suspect you’re right.  The voices I run across in the course of my online experience do tilt female.

    Why is that?

    I have no idea.  I could make something up.  But, I won’t try :) .

  • Peggy Sue

    I’m glad you said  “almost,” Don.  Have you read the Mt Vernon Statement? 

    It’s a vague, chilly reminder of what Republican means.  Read it. 
    .
    Then go to Cannonfire’s site.  Pop up a brief section of Jessie Jackson’s speech.  You’ll see it there.  1988, I think

    Brings it all back.  About why we were/are Dems.  About what the real Democratic Party has meant to me, to you and so many others.

    Pop it up.  Get a tad of deja vu.  And then tell me the Republican party ever had anything to compare.

    I dare you :-D .

  • don x

    Hey Peggy Sue,  Not to worry!  Republicans, especially right-wingers,  freak me out, but so do Illinois democrats and the possibility that Giannoulias might actually get elected.

  • Stan Davis

    Well, in 1978-83 when I officiated, the high school refs in Oklahoma still wore stripes.

    I have to say that I loved it.  Put me in a close game late in the game, and I saw everything in slow motion.  I only had to get a police escort out of town once.

    Stan

  • ~~JustMe~~

    Maybe she is stitting on all the material you know one day it will be a best seller…. and with a bit of luck no money going the Chicago way!

  • ~~JustMe~~

    From Uppitys  http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com/

    Today WorPress.com was down for approximately 110 minutes, our worst downtime in four years. The outage affected 10.2 million blogs, including our VIPs, and appears to have deprived those blogs of about 5.5 million pageviews.

  • ~~JustMe~~

    As for me, I’ve always preferred the company of women to that of men.  No…not for THAT reason.  They say more interesting things than lots of men.  When my fiancée/first wife and I were attending lots of weddings among our college friends right after graduating, I tried to sneak away from the Stag Parties and find the Hen Parties.

    We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

    LOL find that so funny!

  • creeper

    Female here, though I’m often mistaken for a “he” by other commenters.  Just goes to show you you can’t always tell a person’s gender by their writing.

  • Anonymous

    Gee, I’m so sorry us’n right wingers freak out the holier-than-thou sanctimonious you.  The whole effffing Democratic Party does it for me – no execptions, and that includes your 2 faced HRC, so jouyous, jubilant to cast her vote for a man they knew thumbed his nose at the Constitution and is driving the country into Oblivion.  Democrats – so pitiful.

  • Mitch Dworkin

    This is an excellent article Tricia but I think that this issue could only be the tip of the iceberg for Obama and other Democrats this year:

    1) I agree with David Gergen about how much trouble that Obama and many Democrats are facing right now in the big picture of things:

    http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/15/acd.01.html

    ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES

    John McCain Facing Reelection Challenge; Professor Charged in University Murders

    Aired February 15, 2010 – 22:00   ET

    ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: “If you’re sitting in the White House, this (Evan Bayh) has got to be cause for big concern.

    DAVID GERGEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it is cause for concern. Certainly, in that this is one more seat that is now very much in play this fall. And it’s — there is a growing possibility that goes beyond mathematics now that the Republicans could actually pull off a huge upset and take back the Senate. Still think it’s unlikely. Still got to gain ten seats.

    But this — Indiana — Charlie Cook, who is sort of the guru of thinking about these races, has moved Indiana, as a result of today, from leaning Democratic to leaning Republican. So that’s a concern for President Obama…”

    2) I think Hilary Rosen is right that Democrats “have the responsibility to show that we can govern, and so far that, you know, people are still feeling like that test is out there” but she is very wrong when she said “but Republicans have a lot of shots to take this year, but they also have to have a message, and I think that right now their message is, you know, don’t do anything. That’s not going to be satisfying to the American people, either. So unless they come to the table and try to act more productively, I don’t think that message will succeed:”

    http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/16/sitroom.01.html

    THE SITUATION ROOM

    U.S. Influence Declining in Iraq; Major Blow for Taliban

    Aired February 16, 2010 – 17:00   ET

    WOLF BLITZER, HOST: “Hilary, is this a wake-up call for everyone in Washington or just the Democrats?

    HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: “but, look, this has been a very tough Congress and Democrats have the responsibility to show that we can govern, and so far that, you know, people are still feeling like that test is out there…

    BLITZER: What does he do with that $13 million, Hilary?

    ROSEN: but Republicans have a lot of shots to take this year, but they also have to have a message, and I think that right now their message is, you know, don’t do anything. That’s not going to be satisfying to the American people, either. So unless they come to the table and try to act more productively, I don’t think that message will succeed…”

    3) I agree with Tom Foreman that Republicans can still “benefit by default, but it’s not going to be because the public likes them” which means that they do NOT have to have a message of their own to win back Congress in November.  A good example of this is that Many Democrats ran mostly on “I am not for George Bush while my opponent is” in 2006 and 2008 and that worked basically on a default basis which is the main point that Tom Foreman made:

    http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/16/ec.01.html

    CAMPBELL BROWN

    Interview With Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank; Anti- Incumbent Fever Sweeping the Nation

    Aired February 16, 2010 – 20:00   ET

    TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: “Most importantly, Campbell, what we’re seeing in this poll is that, unlike ’94, when people saw some opportunity to move a different direction, the anger at both parties is so pronounced right now, you may have someone benefit by default, but it’s not going to be because the public likes them — Campbell…”

    So “the political goings on in Chicago” are just the tip of the iceberg of problems that Obama and Democrats could have in my opinion.

    Mitch Dworkin
    Dallas, Texas
    http://mitchdworkin.com/
    Objective Political Research & Analysis

  • bamaLV

    my dog had more experience than obama but you didnt see him running  around the world barking about how smart he is.

  • Solara 9

    Yikes Mitch–you are right.  LOTS of problems.  I wish we had a party I could feel comfortable in.

  • Linda Mac

    As surely as the sun wil rise tomorrow, sooner or later, the Rezko connection will be made to Obama.  I was astonished that the MSM was so stricken by the glow around Obama that they had no interest in his 17-year relationship with his good friend, Rezko.  But sooner or later, the truth will be known.  It would have been funny if it weren’t so bad for the country that those who had been able to clearly see how idiotic it was for the right-wing-nuts to worship Bush would react the very same way to Obama. 

  • Solara 9

    Obama was a “Perfect Storm.”

  • newyorkie

    After being a Dem for 44 Years I have become a Republican.  I don’t want the Govt controlling my life or my Healthcare.  I believe in the Constitution and Capitalism and I don’t believe in Govt. spending money we don’t have on more boondoggles.  I don’t believe that teachers have the right to propagandise children on the greatness of Obama or the perils of Global Warming.  I don’t want to be told what to eat, what car to drive or how long I can live. 

    I am shocked and saddened by what has happened to the Democratic Party.  I will not apologize for loving my country, or The American Dream and I pray the Republicans will take Congress in November and stop Obama from turning us into a banana republic.

  • ~~JustMe~~

    WASHINGTON – Concerns about New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s health pose yet another challenge for Democrats struggling to retain control of the Senate.
    Lautenberg’s announcement Friday that he’s suffering from stomach lymphoma and will receive treatment over the next few months could complicate matters for Democrats as they seek to muster enough votes to overcome Republican delaying tactics over jobs, health care and more.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100220/ap_on_go_co/us_lautenberg_senate_democrats_2

  • Solara 9

    newyorkie–what do you think of Michael Bloomberg for President (running on some third party ticket)?