a self-serving letter written simply to cover his own behind.
It just seems lame to me trying to stick Hastert with the culture of corruption label on a perfectly legit land-deal when we have so many fish-in-the-barrel to take pot-shots at in Illinois.
Corruption is rampant in Illinois and it's mostly among Democrats because that's mostly what we have.Banker Alexi Giannoulias -- the Democratic nominee for state treasurer -- is accused of approving a $1 million loan to an 86-year-old mentally incompetent woman whose "business partners" have been suspected of fraud in the past.
[***]
Additionally, Giannoulias wrote a letter to Billings, expressing his concern to her about their history, recommending she hire an attorney to help review the documents.
However, attorney Peter King, representing Billings' estate, which filed the suit against Broadway, called that "a self-serving letter written simply to cover his own behind."
The suit marks the second time questions have been raised about bank loans tied to Giannoulias.
At least Durbin and Obama both voted against the culture of defeat when the both voted to yea to table amendment 4269 to the Defense Authorization Act,
To require the withdrawal of the United States Armed Forces from Iraq and urge the convening of an Iraq summit.My problem is I'm not sure if Durbin and Obama voted to table this because they believed it wrong, or if because they're more Democrats covering their own behinds.
cross posted at Bill Baar's West Side
17 comments:
Bill, if you want to start a thread about Alexi Giannoulias, I would understand. But you had to stray into national politics with this “culture of defeat” crap at the end of your post. The last time I looked, this blog was called Illinoize, not Iraqize. Why can’t you play by the rules and stick with local and state politics?
So Speaker Hastert selling a farm is worthy of Illinoiz...
...but Senator Durbin and Obama's votes in the Senate --on behalf of the people of Illiois-- are off limits?
Especially when we have a culture of covering ones tail which seems scalable from Washington to Cook County.
If Hastert's land deal is perfectly legitimate, then so is every deal that the Broadway Bank and Giannoulias have been involved in.
Neither broke the law, but both cases stink really bad.
Opa! -- well put.
It ain't the laws that were or weren't broken -- it's the obvious lack of ethics.
If you're going to talk Washington Bill, then let's point out it is the Democrats who voted to remove one of their own from his committee seat because of the current evidence against him (even before a court proceeding) as opposed to the conservatives who come to the immediate defense of their questionable ethics...
Anyone can buy and sell land, even land near a proposed highway.
Only a select few can actually make that proposed highway get built through Federal dollars and then sell their land 3 months later.... and of those select few, only one is Speaker of the United States House of "Representatives".
What sort of ethical credo is Denny "representing", and why are you so willing to be part of his "culture of covering one's tail"?
(Either that, or Denny Hastert is so lucky he ought to try the Lotto or a riverboat casino -- he's got *impeccable* timing.)
I wish Hastert could use that clout to get us a few more bridges accross the Fox.
I'm with the Black Caucus on Jefferson. He should stay where he is until indicted. I said the same for Delay. Same goes for him.
Alexi has much worse loans than that, or more specifically his dad has much worse loans. They were cutthroats and did high risk lending.
The Feds are out for money laundrying, and there's lots & lots to look at over at Broadway Bank.
Just ask the folks at ABN AMRO LaSalle Bank. Back in 2001 they got a little loose with their dealings, then in 2003 they got "religion" big time, since then they've spent an absolute ton of money on revamping internal systems, a number of high ranking people at AMRO and LaSalle got chopped, and lastly, back in December, 2005, AMRO, the Dutch parent of LaSalle Bank Corp. agreed to pay $80 million in civil penalties in connection with violations of anti-money-laundering regulations.
And guess what, they're still not out of the woods yet with the Feds.
As for Alex and Broadway Bank, pay close attention to those who went before you - it's instructive in what you can expect to face down the road.
Wait for it...
Bill,
Make sure Denny buys a few acres near any such proposed bridge across the Fox and ... lo and behold a few years later you'll get funding for a bridge or two. And then Denny will sell his land three months later and make a million bucks.
Great idea!
To those who accuse Americans who want a change of course in Iraq of being part of a 'culture of defeat':
"He’s sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big, fat backside-saying stay the course. That’s not a plan!
"We've got to change direction. You can't sit there in the air-conditioned office and tell troops carrying seventy pounds on their backs, inside these armored vessels-hit with IED's every day-seeing their friends blown up-their buddies blown up-and he says stay the course?"
-- John Murtha speaking about Karl Rove on NBC's Meet the Press, 18JUN06
Murtha certainly has a plan for himself. That we now know.
I doubt Rove had --or has-- much say one way or the other on foreign policy other than advising against anything politically unpopular; should anyone bother to ask him.
For Murtha to ramble on about Rove is just plain self serving politics. Not serious criticism or analysis of the Administration's waging of the war on terror.
President Bush sneaks into Iraq for five hours and then leaves. What does that action tell the Iraqi people and particularly insurgents and terrorists? What does it tell our troops? It’s pretty clear, that politics are more important than winning the war. Agree with the above, either we substantially increase troop levels or we announce a date for leaving. No more brave American soldiers should die to support a “culture of incompetence.”
We have the politics right with this war.
Imagine a Vietnam in 1968 united north and south with a freely elected national unity gov including everyone from conservative religous parties to the communist party; and ethnic minorites...
"Imagine a Vietnam in 1968..."
Bill, I've forgotten -- what years did you serve in Vietnam?
Austin,
Do you ever wonder, when you write such comments to people you don't know... what losses they may have suffered?
On this, or any other issue?
Liberals always assume the poltical must always be personal... they lose all credibility as serious people.
Bill
I do.
Bill,
Did you ever wonder about such things before you labeled those who oppose the Bush Stay-to-Pay Iraq policy a "culture of defeat"?
One risks losing credibility as a serious person when one seems concerned only with ones own suffering.
And yes, when my peers are made to fight and die so that Bush supporters can continue to buy time in an effort to eventually prove themselves not entirely wrong, that gets to me personally.
And when my children are forced to pay for an invasion and occupation financed with money borrowed from the Chinese government, that too gets to me personally.
-- S.C.A.M.
Does it make me such a bad person to believe that if the Iraqi people wanted to be liberated, they should have done it themselves, with us only supporting after resistance movements started?
That being said, perhaps we did owe them liberation because of the disgusting sanctions we put on the country. Those sanctions killed Civil society in Iraq and are the main reason that there was such a power vacuum after Saddam's fall. If the sanctions were not in place, Saddam would have likely been overthrown in the 1990s internally.
Sanctions never work, and they always help dictators and hurt citizens. Cuba is the most obvious example today.
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