Obama magically unstained by grime of Chicago Way

[NJSecularist]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass_bd11may11,0,4134722.column

Will Barack Obama's presidential candidacy serve his state and city by finally drawing national attention to the sleazy and corrupt politics of Illinois and Chicago?

It is all about context. The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate's politics were born in Chicago. Yet he is presented to the nation as not truly being of this place, as if he floats just above the political corruption here, uninfected, untouched by the stain of it or by any sin of commission or omission. It is all so very mystical.

Perhaps viewing Obama as a Chicago political creature would conflict with the established national media narrative of Obama as a reformer. Actually, there's no "perhaps" about it.

"I think I have done a good job in rising politically in this environment without being entangled in some of the traditional problems of Chicago politics," Obama told reporters and editors at a Tribune editorial board meeting several weeks ago.

Yes, an excellent job. Except for his dalliance with his indicted real estate fairy, Tony Rezko, a relationship Obama considers a mistake, the senator has not played the fly to Mayor Richard Daley's spider. Almost, but not quite.

"I know there are those like John Kass who would like me to decry Chicago politics more frequently, and I'll leave that to his editorial commentary," Obama said.

Not the politics, just the corruption, I said then, wishing silently that he had decried it all, that he'd stood up years ago and pointed to the list of sleazy deals, pointed an angry finger at the Duffs, the white, Outfit-connected drinking buddies of Daley who received $100 million in affirmative action contracts through City Hall.

That's an easy political commercial for the Republicans: Mobbed-up white guys party at the old Como Inn with Daley, and they get $100 million in city affirmative action contracts and Daley doesn't know how it happened and Obama endorses the mayor in the name of reform.

Obama had nothing to do with the Duff deal. But he kept mum. He has endorsed Daley, endorsed Daley's hapless stooge Todd Stroger for president of the Cook County Board. These are not the acts of a reformer, but of a guy who, as we say in Chicago, won't make no waves and won't back no losers.

Obama the reformer is backed by Mayor Richard M. Daley and the Daley boys. He is spoken for by Daley's own spokesman, David Axelrod. He was launched into his U.S. Senate by machine power broker and state Senate President Emil Jones (D-ComEd).

Sen. Obama did give his word of honor that if elected president, he would retain corruption-busting U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, no easy vow, given that Daley is threatened by Fitzgerald, and that the corruption case against Rezko is about to be handed to the jury.

As a candidate, Obama will do what he has to do to win. My argument is not with him—but with the national political media pack that refuses to look closely at what Chicago is. They're fixated on what it was, and they think it's clean now.

And they've spent years crafting, then cleaving to their eager and trembling Obama narrative, a tale of great yearning, almost mythic and ardently adolescent, a tale in which Obama is portrayed as a reformer, a dynamic change agent about to do away with the old thuggish politics.

Obama is for a "new type of politics" - and yet he has extensively benefited from some of the "oldest" and dirtiest politics in America. For Obama to be the leader of a "new politics" type of movement, you would have to ignore the fact that some of the dirtiest and most corrupt politicians in America have helped propel his meteoric rise. In other words, do as I say, not as I do. When is the media going to call him out on his pie in the sky rhetoric when, with just a quick look at his associations and record, you would find that he is just as dirty as any other politician?

"New politics" indeed.

[Bicoastal]

1. Nothing corrupt EVER happens in New York State!

Oh wait...

[NJSecularist]

4. Hillary is not claiming to be the leader of some "new politics" movement.

Yet Obama is, despite the fact that he has benefited politically from plenty of unsavory and corrupt politicians in one of the dirtiest political cities in America.

Quit deflecting.

[NewHampshireDem]

15. Ahh, the beauty of being Hillary

is that as since she stands for nothing, she is accountable for nothing.

Shes' filthy? Well, she never *said* she was clean.

I guess we could all just go around saying 'Well, I take her at her word that she didn't kill Vince Foster. As far as I know, there was nothing shady about Whitewater.' Et cetera. Et cetera. Et cetera.

FWIW, I usually find your posts to be arguments built on the thinnest of sand (like 'Oh, this one outlier poll in WI *proves* Obama can't win the GE! Look at me! Over here!') but this post is absolute filth.

[MojoMojoMojo]

33. Vetted By Ken Starr ,cant be any cleaner.Can Obama withstand Fitzgerald scrutiny?

[murielm99]

38. I've lived in Illinois all my life

and I am involved in grassroots politics. There is nothing untrue or filthy about this OP. You are in denial.

[NewHampshireDem]

61. Well, I guess that means you'll never be able to run for president either

:eyes:

[DerekJ]

31. The "Obama is as bad as Hillary" meme. Stop embarrassing yourself. Not the best way to defend your

candidate you know.

[Mooney]

50. The primary design flaw of the "Obama is as bad as Hillary" meme

is that it's supposed to be an argument FOR Hillary.

[Fredda Weinberg]

11. HRC has kept herself above our machine. No Rezkos here n/t

[RBInMaine]

2. Your candidate has lost. Enough with the desperate smears. Accept the loss and join the WINNER !

[NJSecularist]

7. Desperate smears? Can you prove any of these associations don't exist?

They are not smears. This is the record of Obama's political career. Some of it is not pretty. He has benefited from some of the dirtiest type of politics in America.

[cliffordu]

12. Are you still sleeping with NAZIS?? Can you prove it??

[rodeodance]

52. give it a rest.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Tsk. Tsk. - I'm really sorry for the pain you must be going through.

But don't lower yourself further out of spite.

[RBInMaine]

5. Oh yes. Cute. And Hillary = PAC's, Lobbyists, Norman Hsu, Rose Law Firm, WalMart Board...

[NJSecularist]

8. Quit deflecting. This has nothing to do with Hillary.

Hillary is not claiming to be engaging in a "new type of politics". Obama is. His rhetoric doesn't match his record.

[rodeodance]

54. Be polite and stay focused on the OP.

[datopbanana]

67. lol. pathetic.

[PretzelWarrior]

6. you mean like Whitewater? Rose Law Firm?

Tyson Chicken favors? etc. Don't even go there. Might as well face yourself in the mirror and decide who you would rather have as president-- Barack Obama or John McCan't

[NJSecularist]

9. Again, this has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton.

Hillary is not claiming to be the leader of a "new type of politics". Yet Obama is, and to accept that Obama is part of this "new politics" movement, you would have to ignore his record.

[Liberal Veteran]

16. So your point is that they are both "dirty" but the Clintons are honest about it?

I'm not entirely certain that's a selling point I'd be will to try, but hey, when you got nothing to lose, eh?

[NJSecularist]

26. My point is that Obama's rhetoric is inconsistent with his record.

And Hillary Clinton is not using that rhetoric in her stump speech.

[TheDoorbellRang]

10. Someone from New Jersey looking down his nose at Chicago politics?

Well, that's rich! :rofl:

[NJSecularist]

13. I don't live in Newark. I am not supporting a candidate who is supported by that machine.

What's your point?

Do you have anything substantial to add to this thread or are you just going to deflect?

[TheDoorbellRang]

44. My point is the irony of New Jersey sneering at Chicago politics

Maybe since I'm from Illinois and live near Chicago I'm tired of all the tsk tsking at our city from holier-than-thou types from NEW JERSEY of all places.

Why don't you go read the article in the NYT that covers Obama's history in Chicago politics? Why don't you go explore some of the slimy politickers in the Clintons' back pockets?

These innuendo-ridden hit pieces with Rezko and "sleezy" Chicago politics that don't say anything of substance or to the point are limply pathetic.

[Kool Kitty]

58. There's a lot more dirty politics in New Jersey than just in the city

of Newark, that's for sure.

[Tatiana]

14. As one who lives in Chicago and knows a little something about Chicago politics

If Obama really played by Chicago hardball politics, he would have had Bobby Rush's seat easily. I could do a point-by-point refutation. But why bother?

The OP doesn't care about truth; only smearing Barack Obama.

Have fun with that.

[NJSecularist]

20. Easily? Bobby Rush was a very popular incumbent.

However, he did win his Senate Seat due to Chicago hardball politics.

[Tatiana]

24. Please, I lived in his district. He was OK, nothing spectacular.

And if you want to talk about Chicago politics, Rush did receive the patronage through machinery to keep that seat.

Obama won his Senate seat due to being a decent Dem running in an election at the right time. A good chunk of his support came from outside IL (Kerry), but don't let that stop you from trying to smear Obama with lies.

[NJSecularist]

29. Smearing Obama? His only legitimate opponent was forced out of the race.

Due to a "convenient" unsealing of his divorce records.

And he was left with Alan Keyes to run against. Yes, Alan Keyes.

[Tatiana]

45. Carry on. This is the exact reason why your candidate is losing.

I see threads or live-blogging of Obama events and rallies. I see discussion of his speeches and policy proposals. I see constructive criticism of his health care plan. I see people participating in the democratic process by getting off their asses and getting on the ground to talk to voters.

In general, I see that from one side.

And from another, all I hear is the same echo of complaining and this vitriol spewed out of some false sense of entitlement. You can't win on the issues. Voters didn't fall for the gas tax pander, they don't want mandates to enrich private insurance companies, they desire to dialogue with our enemies in the interest of peace, they want an open government that doesn't keep everything secret, they want a judicial system that punishes instead of rewards government officials and others for breaking the law, they want someone who will tell them the damn truth, nothing but the truth so help us God, goddess, buddha, whatever you want to call it. And they don't think most lobbyists are good people.

That's the truth. That's why Obama has won more states, more pledged delegates, more superdelegates, more Representatives, more Senators, more Governors, more of EVERY DAMN THING THAT REALLY COUNTS.

You want to be in denial? Fine. But when we're at the convention (and I'm sure as hell going to Denver) and the rules committee, with a majority of OBAMA SUPPORTERS, seats the Florida and Michigan delegations with a penalty, she will still be the loser. And you can thank yourself for her loss. Because instead of selling your candidate, instead of getting out and going door to door, instead of DIALOGUING and being honest with your own candidate (cause see, we Obama supporters don't agree with everything his team says or does and WE LET HIM KNOW because HE is accountable to US and he KNOWS THIS), you accept every piece of tripe Mark Penn pushed to you like it was manna.

So keep it up. Keep obsessing over Hillary's opposition, because apparently she has nothing POSITIVE going for her. And while you're doing that, while your candidate is waiting to entertain the superdelegates, Obama's fierce urgency of now will have him going to the House to meet them where they are. Keep posting negative nonsense about Obama, while your candidate is throwing a celebration she can't afford in West Virginia, Obama will be pocketing Oregon, South Dakota, Montana, and PUERTO RICO... thanks to those same white, working-class folk that Hillary says won't vote for him.

Please, keep up the good work. We couldn't have come this far without it.

[NJSecularist]

47. Congratulations on writing a lengthy diatribe that had nothing to do with this thread.

What exactly were you trying to prove in your aforementioned inane blather?

[rodeodance]

71. Many Obama folks have taken the Rovian tactic of changing the subject to new heights.--rudeness also

[highplainsdem]

34. I want to refer anyone who's really interested to this topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5906987

which links to articles in Salon and the NY Times about how Obama lost the 2000 primary where he challenged Bobby Rush, and campaigned so badly he had to transform his image.

The NY Times article also said, explaining how Obama won his Senate seat in 2004, that he "benefited from fortuitous domestic scandals that sidelined two opponents and left him facing a Republican widely seen as unable to win."

[NJSecularist]

43. Thanks for the article. It was very good. n/t

[murielm99]

40. That is not true.

He could never have gotten Bobby Rush's seat.

[Tatiana]

48. I and others were certainly prepared to vote against him.

It was only his last ditch blitz (and Obama's poor political skills at that time) that saved him and won me back over.

[NJSecularist]

56. Last ditch blitz?

Obama lost the 2000 Democratic primary in the Illinois 1st Congressional District by 30 points.

He, at no point, was even close to having a chance to win the primary.

[anigbrowl]

17. Oh piss off NJ - you didn't even understand the article you quoted

Go back and tell it to your GOP controller.

[NJSecularist]

21. I understand fully what was said in the article.

Care to elaborate on your rather baseless assertion?

Or is this just another hit and run post by you?

[anigbrowl]

28. Sure

You're using the stain of 60s Daley politics to characterize all of today's chicago politicians, when even the author doesn't equate current chicago political figures with all of the historical excesses. It's an old trick - anyone who comes from Chicago or NY, mutter dark hints about the mob and union bosses to apint a picture of Al Capone or Tammany Hall or whatever. Seen it, seen through it.

Seen through you as well. You're not as good of an actor as you think, and your 'conversion' narrative is pretty transparent.

[NJSecularist]

32. So Richard M. Daley is a saint?

:crazy: :crazy:

I just find it out that Obama decries the "politics of old" yet he has benefit extensively from those politics.

[highplainsdem]

18. K & R

[AZBlue]

19. Oh, give it up. She lost, he won, move on.

[Tinksrival]

22. Conservative piece of shit rag that endorsed Bush TWICE!!

I love Mayor Daley! He has been a fantastic Mayor. Chicago is Mayor Daley. There are those on the Chicago Tribune editorial board that would like nothing better to take Daley down as payback for Repub Ryan sitting in jail.

I canceled that piece of shit paper years ago.

[NJSecularist]

25. Yet the Obamites have linked to numerous NY Post articles that trash Hillary.

Double standard much?

This writer seems rather neutral in this piece - and I am not denying that the rag leans to the right.

[Tinksrival]

35. Straw man

I haven't posted any articles about Hillary. I thought we were talking about the editorial piece you posted. I have to deal with living in a Republican area and and all right leaning radio and media and the non stop attacks on Democrats. It's vicious. I spent years and years defending Bill and Hillary Clinton with no regret. So take your condescending "Obamites" label and ........Bite me!

[davsand]

23. Are you familiar with Aesop and his fables?

[Emit]

27. You do know that the guy who wrote this is a conservative-leaning writer, no?

How effective is it for Democrats to dis Democrats via conservatoid rants like this, filled with half-truths and innuendos? When are you going to give up trying to get your digs in at Obama and support your party's front runner?

[highplainsdem]

30. "So why the disconnect? Why is Obama allowed to campaign as a reformer"

So why the disconnect? Why is Obama allowed to campaign as a reformer, virtually unchallenged by the media, though he's a product of Chicago politics and has never condemned the wholesale political corruption in his home town the way he condemns those darn Washington lobbyists.

For an answer as to when pundits will ever put Illinois corruption in context, I called on Tom Bevan, executive director of the popular political Web site Real Clear Politics (which directs readers to my column on occasion) and a Chicagoan.

"To a large degree, the media has accepted much of the Obama narrative thus far," Bevan told me. "He's risen so quickly, but his history hasn't been bogged down with an association of Chicago politics and I can't tell you why exactly, except perhaps that some may have bought into the established narrative and can't separate themselves from it."

"And I don't know if the country understands just how corrupt the system is in Illinois. People don't see it. They're flying over us, cruising at 30,000 feet," Bevan said.

Of course, Obama's condemnation of lobbyists deserves a closer look, too:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=613&Itemid=1

[mac2]

37. We found out after living here 16 years.

[enid602]

41. Why is Obama allowed to campaign as a reformer"

Because they're waiting for the Democratic primary to be over.

[mac2]

36. They don't believe anyone about his politics...

guess they will find out the hard way.

[highplainsdem]

72. The MSM and GOP have given him a pass so far.

But you'd have to be naive to think they won't bring this up in the GE. It shatters the myth that Obama is a new kind of politician. That's the narrative now, but the details in his background don't support it.

I posted links to some other stories in my other replies here. A story in the London Times that went into his relationship with Illinois senate president Emil Jones (whom Obama asked to make him a US Senator, and who arranged the "bill-jacking" of legislation other state senators had been working on earlier to give Obama more media attention and credit, as fast as possible) said the Clinton campaign was aware of this background but leery of bringing it up for fear of alienating blacks (and of course anything they said would have been used as another excuse to call them racist). And the Clintons expected the MSM to eventually go after Obama's background, scrutinizing it carefully. (This is also why they were warning of October surprises and emphasizing that Hillary has already been vetted.)

But of course, as Bartcop pointed out, the MSM's main target has been Hillary, and they wanted Obama to be the nominee.

That London Times story

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3602710.ece

included a quote from an activist who knows much more about Obama's background than his fans do, and she warned that if they think he's superman, their hearts are going to be broken.

This AP story at CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/31/politics/main3983147.shtml

mentions the bill-jacking.

Another story I saw said more than twenty bills were "bill-jacked" to turn Obama into a political star. All very calculated.

[scheming daemons]

39. The pro-McCain forums are thataway, NJS -------->

Anti-Obama posts are nothing more than pro-McCain posts now. I think you'd be more welcome on other sites - at least the NJS from this week, anyway.

[Forkboy]

42. Say hi to the gang at Hillaryis44 for us!

:hi:

[totodeinhere]

46. Why do you continue to tear down our nominee?

Shouldn't you be concentrating on McCain now that Obama has clinched the nomination?

[jefferson_dem]

49. Admit it...

You never were an Obama supporter. Charlatan.

[iamthebandfanman]

51. I wish hillary supporters made as many posts

about real issues as they did trivial ones.

she mite have been winning by now if so.

its unfortunate they are campaigning like republicans.

[davidpdx]

53. Another Obama is corrupt and can't win thread

And welcome to my ignore list. I hope your tombstone comes as quickly as your mouth runs.

[xchrom]

55. recommend

[GetTheRightVote]

57. I love Obama but there are still item from the Chicago deal that might be in question

only the future will tell how much if harms him then...

[NeedleCast]

59. In the Words of The Rock

IT DOESN'T MATTER!

Obama wins.

[mikelgb]

60. Barack the Magic....

is that what you are getting at?

[highplainsdem]

62. More on Obama's Chicago-politics background:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obama-ballot,1,57567.story

Obama knows his way around a ballot

Some say his ability to play political hardball goes back to his first campaign

By David Jackson and Ray Long | Tribune staff reporters
6:48 PM CDT, April 3, 2007

The day after New Year's 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot.

Fresh from his work as a civil rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate saying he wanted to empower disenfranchised citizens.

But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer.

A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.

-snip-

Much more -- this is a four-page article.

[NewHampshireDem]

63. Hooray for year-old hit pieces from a RW newspaper

You must be so, so proud!

[anonymous171]

64. If he's this corrupt (which he isn't) he can win the GE easily. Just pay everyone off.

Worked for the GOP all these years.

[highplainsdem]

65. More on his run for the US Senate:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3602710.ece

This London Times article is partly about how Obama had gone to see Emil Jones, Democratic leader of the Illinois state senate, to tell him, "You have the power to elect a US Senator" -- Obama himself, of course -- and what happened after that.

From The Sunday Times
March 23, 2008

Barack Obama: toxic mentors start to corrode pristine campaign

Tony Allen-Mills in New York


-snip-

The Clinton camp is treading carefully, aware that overt attacks on Obama might alienate black voters. Yet the New York senator’s aides are quietly pleased by what they regard as an overdue scrutiny of Obama’s past. They believe he will come to be seen not as some Messiah but as an unusually gifted political hack who has made compromises with dodgy associates, just like most other American politicians.

That intensifying scrutiny may soon lead to Jones’s Illinois door, and to further uncomfortable insights into the unflattering political realities that accompanied Obama’s climb from obscurity.

At one point during Obama’s 2003 Senate campaign, Jones set out to woo two African-American politicians miffed by Obama’s presumption and ambition. One of them, Rickey “Hollywood” Hendon, a state senator, had scoffed that Obama was so ambitious he would run for “king of the world” if the position were vacant.

When Jones secured the two men’s support, Obama asked his mentor how he had pulled it off. “I made them an offer,” Jones said in mock-mafioso style. “And you don’t want to know.”

-snip-

Cynthia Canary, an activist against corruption who is fighting to have the laws passed, says Obama had little choice as an Illinois politician but to deal with an ethically dubious regime. “You hold your nose and work through the system,” she said.

Yet she also thinks America is being done a disservice by those who portray Obama as somehow above the uglier wheeler-dealing of politics. “He’s a pragmatic politician, and in the end if you think that he’s superman, your heart is going to get broken.”

Now, that very last sentence -- He’s a pragmatic politician, and in the end if you think that he’s superman, your heart is going to get broken. -- is why I think it's still important to bring up Obama's flaws and his background. Because all too many of his supporters here seem completely unaware of them, and you don't want to be blindsided when the media goes after these stories.

We had year after year of the media targeting the Clintons. But they've given Obama a pass on much of what they could have covered. They did highlight his relationship with Reverend Wright, and the London Times article mentions that. But I don't recall seeing Emil Jones mentioned on the cable news networks.

You can bet the media have this info. It took me very little time to find it while doing some quick googling, after seeing NJ's post here. I was curious about that background.

One article on Obama and Emil Jones that I found, which I have not have time to verify from other sources yet, said that Jones, while building up Obama's reputation, had him given credit for dozens of pieces of legislation that other state senators had been working on for years.

Just found a AP news story, at CBS News, which I'd missed at the time.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/31/politics/main3983147_page2.shtml

Obama's Political "Godfather" In Illinois

Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., An Old-School Politician, Called "Indispensable To Barack's Career"

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., March 31, 2008

(AP)

-snip-

Obama had the personality and intelligence to succeed, Jones said, but he needed a major political figure in his corner - someone who could get unions, county chairmen and potential donors to consider the new guy with the strange name instead of quickly endorsing another candidate.

"He needed someone who could give him credibility," Jones said.

An Obama victory would give Jones some of the credibility that other politicians had gained by showing they could put people in office. "President Jones said something to me like, 'Hey, if they can do it, I can do it,"' Hendon recalled.

As Senate president, Jones assigned Obama to handle major, headline-grabbing legislation.

-snip-

That story doesn't say how many pieces of legislation, so it doesn't verify the other story saying that Obama was given most of the credit for dozens of pieces of legislation other legislators had worked on first.

But it does quote fellow state senator Donne Trotter, who "laughingly" accuses Emil Jones of "bill-jacking" -- taking bills other senators were working on and giving them to Obama. So that sort of confirms what the other story said.

Anyway, what emerges is a picture of an incredibly ambitious man whose early political rise was through old-school politics.

And the London Times article is especially illuminating in what it says about the Clinton campaign having held back on what they knew, for fear of alienating black voters.

I've seen messages here about how Obama didn't attack Hillary Clinton as much as he could have.

She could have gone into detail about his political background in Illinois, but she didn't.

The media probably will, though, especially after the convention. And the GOP probably will.

And it will not do his supporters any good to try to pretend that background doesn't exist and his political career has nothing to do with old-school politics.

[PM7nj]

66. Don't ever try to run for president...

I guess neither of us can ever run for president. We both live in this corrupt state.

[earth mom]

68. Wow, the denial on this thread is something else.

:crazy:

K & R & Bookmarked!

[Egnever]

74. bookmarked for what?

you plan on using this stuff later ?

[earth mom]

77. What's it to you?

:eyes:

[Name removed]

69. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[madrchsod]

70. soon we will not be blessed by

your delusional rantings about the big bad scary man from the big bad scary city of chicago...

[Egnever]

73. So the ethics reform he worked on there wasnt fighting to end corruption?

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[highplainsdem]

75. Link: "Obama, Emil Jones and Earmarks" (meet the new pol, same as the old pol)

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/3/23/224059/069

More on the relationship between Obama and Emil Jones, the Illinois senate president whom Obama directly asked to make him a US Senator.

-snip-

Jones had served in the Illinois Legislature for three decades. He represented a district on the Chicago South Side not far from Obama's. He became Obama's ­kingmaker. Several months before Obama announced his U.S. Senate bid, Jones called his old friend Cliff Kelley, a former Chicago alderman who now hosts the city's most popular black call-in radio ­program. I called Kelley last week and he recollected the private conversation as follows:

"He said, 'Cliff, I'm gonna make me a U.S. Senator.'"

"Oh, you are? Who might that be?"

"Barack Obama."

Jones appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills.

-snip-

So how has Obama repaid Jones? Last June, to prove his commitment to government transparency, Obama released a comprehensive list of his earmark requests for fiscal year 2008. It comprised more than $300 million in pet projects for Illinois, including tens of millions for Jones's Senate district.

Shortly after Jones became Senate president, I remember asking his view on pork-barrel spending. I'll never forget what he said:"Some call it pork; I call it steak."

TalkLeft points out this is "the same politics as usual" that Obama now condemns. This deal with Jones, with what TalkLeft calls "earmarks as payback."

[Peace Patriot]

76. The Pukes have their political "machines." So do we. So what?

Anybody gets too dirty, they risk prosecution--except for Pukes that cheat their way into the White House and steal on a really big scale--and drain all our public coffers unto the 7th generation, into their own and their global corporate predator pals' pockets.

That is the "mob" we need to be worried about. The unprosecutable ones (even by Patrick Fitzgerald).

Yeah, you heard me right. I don't give a goddamn fuck if Obama has the Chicago "machine" behind him, whatever they may have done to spread some wealth around Democratic circles. Or the Clinton's either, as to that kind of "machine" politics. We've suffered a fascist coup in this country. Men of unbounded evil have slaughtered 1.2 million innocent people to get their oil. They've maimed, starved, displaced and tortured millions more. They have shredded our Constitution, destroyed our economy, and corrupted our government possibly beyond repair. They are spying on everyone, blackmailing many, and still have control of the Dept. of Justice, not to mention the U.S. military. We are now in massive debt to two of the most undemocratic governments on earth--Saudi Arabia, and China. And all this with the complicity of DLC Democrats like Hillary Clinton. That is Clinton's offense. She actively cooperated with this fascist coup.

At least the Chicago "machine" is into home-based economic development. The Clinton's sent our manufacturing capability and zillions of our jobs to China and India and Mexico. And now they want to compound that outrage with a "free trade" deal with Colombia, which has one of the worst human rights records on the planet. Talk about lies and hypocrisy. Hillary "free trade" Clinton says she opposes the Colombian "free trade" deal, but hires Mark Penn, the paid agent of this foreign government, as her chief campaign adviser!

I don't think Obama will remedy much of the horror that we have seen. At best he will implement some decency in the federal government, but--if what we can glean from his statements is a reflection of his true intentions--no very serious reform. Maybe a general intention to promote peace and cooperation in the world, rather than massive war crimes and theft. We'll see how that works out--and what minefields the Bush Cartel has laid out for him.

What's important to our country's future is the massive citizen activism that Obama has inspired--and/or that has gathered to his campaign (for lack of any place else to go, and largely because he's the last one standing who opposed the Iraq War). This is very, very important--that a people-driven campaign was able to oust the pro-war frontrunner, the one who, at the beginning, had all the advantages. This is a collective effort. This is real. This is what democracy looks like. An activated citizenry is THE essential ingredient of reform. And the activated citizenry that has been galvanized by the Obama campaign, and is seizing control of the Democratic Party machinery, on behalf of the whopping, epochal 60-70% antiwar majority in the country, and away from the pro-war, pro-corporate powermongers, is the best thing that has happened in this country in a long, long time--completely apart from the strengths, weaknesses, background, hypocrisy or "dirty laundry" of either candidate.

"Dirty laundry," in this putrid cauldron of corruption that our political establishment has become, is to be expected, and, if it isn't there, it will be manufactured. The really important issue is not whether sliming and "swift-boating" can succeed with the voters. Sliming and "swift-boating" aren't real--they are not something that people really care about. (You think people who are losing their jobs, their homes, are in debt up to their ears, and soon won't be able to put food on the table, care a goddamn about the Chicago "machine"?) Corporate "talking point" slimes are merely the phony narratives for stolen elections.

The really important thing is whether or not the Bushite corporations who own and control the "trade secret," proprietary code by which all our votes are now 'counted' (except those in caucuses, interestingly), will steal it for McBush. Obama supporters and their amazing grass roots effort makes that less likely. The code controllers don't want to lose that easy election theft capability to a revolt of the people against their machines. They need to preserve that power. More likely, they will let Obama win, but shave his mandate, and also do some shaping of Congress to prevent any serious reform effort. Then the global corporate predators have a range of options for destroying Obama, if they need to, and, say, installing Hitler II down the line--or, possibly, they've looted us so thoroughly, they'll forget about us for a while, and let us play at democracy, while they go loot South America, or Asia. They have sufficient independent power now--apart from any national constrictions (such as our theoretical power to pull the corporate charters of badass corporations)--that they can pick and choose among lootable countries. (They've ignored South America while they've been looting us and Iraq, and democracy--real democracy--has developed there in the interim; so trying to destroy all that might well be one of their next projects. Lots of oil there, currently being used to benefit the poor.)

What will this newly activated citizenry do, once the corporates decide what they are going to do? If they steal it for McBush, then we need to focus intensely on getting rid of the voting machines, in every local/state jurisdiction. It's a must-do in any case. But it will be a crisis, in that scenario. Where should peoples' energies be directed? If they let Obama win, but shave his mandate and give him a difficult Congress, there are multiple tasks that need to be done, including shoring him up, and fighting for particular, crucial things--like the bustup of corporate news monopolies (and of course getting rid of the voting machines). If they let him win big (a real vote), then we have other worries--including pressuring Obama to keep his word on reform, and on the war, and also pursuing some things he hasn't mentioned, like investigation and prosecution of Bush Junta criminals. In general, we need to strengthen our democratic institutions, our grass roots networks and organization, our economy and our resolve, to fend off on-going or future fascist/corporate assaults.

Obama's connections to the Chicago "machine" is just so colossally unimportant, compared to what the Bushites and complicit Democrats have done, and the real story of his campaign--the massive grass roots revolution that has taken it up--is of such overriding importance, as to raise suspicions about anyone who wants to draw our attention to this trivial matter as a reason not to support this people-driven campaign. And I can even imagine a scenario of corporate operatives lurking, say, in the Justice Dept., ready to strike at Obama, with this "Chicago" stuff, if he gets out of line (goes for real reform). He could already be a victim of blackmail, or they could already have something all cooked up, ready to threaten him with, for instance if his Dept. of Justice goes after the wrong people.

This is a reality of our present political establishment that we must face. Clean or not, anyone can be gotten. No one can be clean enough. It is not possible. Dammit, I saw this happen in California, to one of the most honest politicians in the country--our former good Sec of State, Kevin Shelley. They ran him out of office on completely bogus corruption charges, after he decertified Diebold touchscreens and sued their asses, six months before the 2004 election. It is now 2008. Siegelman is out of jail. Rove is out of the White House. And the good guys seem to be gaining some footing, as to dealing with this junta. But we should not underestimate what has occurred, or imagine that everything is going to be put right with one election.

The grass roots, citizen activism of the Obama campaign is the key to our country's recovery and renewal, whatever Obama does or doesn't do, and whatever the corporates do, in November or later on. We need to get our country back, however we can do it, and with whatever leaders manage to survive in this toxic atmosphere, with some sort of decency and loyalty to democracy. Everything else is bullshit.

[whistler162]

78. Harry S Truman - Kansas City MO Pendergast machine