This was the Machine rolling
Beavers in the Sun Times,
"This was the Machine rolling," said Ald. William Beavers (7th), who has been Stroger's muscle and who won his own seat Tuesday on the County Board.I think it's going to turn out to be a very tough time for Liberals and Progressives in Illinois.
Here's Madigan's Steve Brown in the Trib,
"It's a good referendum on Democratic policies," Brown said.As Illinois politics sinks under indictments and fiscal crisis, they're going to have to ask themselves if the deal with the rolling Machine was worth it, because these prizes look only symbolic to me. The getting-in-bed with the Machine will make them pay an awful price, starting with scandals that will continue to tarnish Obama's national bid.
Under the trio of Chicago Democrats—Jones, Madigan and Gov. Rod Blagojevich—the social agenda over the last four years included laws bolstering gay rights, requiring equal pay for women and increasing the minimum wage—something the governor made clear he hoped to do again.
As for the GOP, when your at the bottom, the only way is up. I just wish JBT had said early on she was badly mistaken about Peter Fitzgerald.
xp Bill Baar's West Side
20 comments:
Absolutely correct and on target, Bill.
There is a gradus to public service taken by effective politically elected officials - they are successful.
Bill, the voter, has been talked down to by the incubated and hatched 'reformers.' Incubated and hatched by university think tanks, study groups, and other tweedy wonders who could care less what the average voters wants in a punlic servant.
The Coalitions, Mobilization Cadres, Peoples Movements and all that sort of nonsense is not and never has been grassroots - grassroots is Mrs. Bobich with a cracked driveway and two sons home from Iraq looking to take the Cement Finishers test and want the Precinct Captain to reachout to Aldo Parreti the BA with Laborers until the test is talken and the Precinct Captain calls the Alderman about Mrs. Bobich's problems and the Alderman 'gets on it' and the Precinct Captain delivers. That's Grassroots.
The 'Machine' like it or not is Grassroots its called government service.
So, before Sqweaker or Mousey gets the Haines in a knot with 'Pay to Play, or Insiders, or Royal Families - read the numbers and grow up.
Baar, you really are an idiot.
Your people lost.
They lost because they ran bad candidates.
They lost because they ran bad campaigns.
Of course, with whiners like you in the party, they are heading for more of the same.
See you the day after the election in 2008. I'm sure you will be whining then too.
Skeeter,
Whose Campaign are you screwing Up?
Do they know what an obnoxious little twerp your are? Or, do they have a masterplan to mobilize like minded little twerps in your Ward?
How DO you make it through the day - in one piece? Tolerant world.
I guess Toddler, Beavers and the rest of the Machine can party like it's 1964 again. But how many more hundreds of millions of ther taxpayers' dollars (if not more) will now be wasted on corruption and ineptitude here in Chicago and Cook County?
We should all dress in mourning clothes over this tragic event. I fear the investigators and prosecutors at the US Attorney's office may collapse from overwork before all is said and done, in their efforts to root out this carp infesting our government.
Nationally, some good Democrats won. And Lieberman won big.
If this election was a repudiation of Bush, it was also an affirmation of some sensible Democrats, and one --Lieberman-- who used to be... Bruce Reed has a good analysis here.
Democrats are going to have decide if they hangon to this sort of Democrat or cast them out.
In Illinois, I think anyone who views themselves as a reformer, is going to be faced with some big challanges, sooner rather than later.
Pat's right, what passes for reform in Illinois can be awfully detached from real people's concerns.
Victory can present it's own set of problems.
it was also an affirmation of some sensible Democrats, and one --Lieberman-- who used to be... Bruce Reed has a good analysis here.
Bill, Nice call on that one - talk about an artificial construct - the assault on Joe Lieberman by the Barbara Streisand Democrats.
No wonder this Party of mine gets success challenged dopes like Kerry every four years.
Maybe we should start a Grassroots Movement to send the lunatic fringe big-mouths to a nice quiet room for a few years.
Nah, We'd spend too much time in Court with ambulance chasers and punks like Ayers and Dorhn getting grants to undo such work.
Let's get things straight here:
My post wasn't gloating.
The point was to say that when you lose, you don't claim the victor is headed for disaster.
That was Baar's initial post, which was ridiculous. He's been saying the same thing for six months. It was whining and if he reads it over, and I'm sure he will see that.
Baar can be a smart guy, but he needs to start looking at his own party rather than always just reciting the tired mantra that the Democratic Party is headed for disaster.
After Lemont won the primary, what did Bill Baar say? Dems go left, headed for disaster. What was my response then? No, the problem was that the GOP had been taken over by extremists and that was the real problem. Looks like I was right. Not that I'm gloating.
The problem IS with the ILGOP. They keep running poor campaigns offering nothing more than "my opponent is a liberal." That is not a winning message.
They keep going far right rather than reaching out to the moderates. They no longer offer fiscal conservatism. That is why the voters spoke yesterday as they did.
And to LL:
I seem to recall you claiming that there was no way in the world that the Dems would pick up the House, so frankly, I am not that concerned with your views today. Show some real analysis and then I may respond.
After Lemont won the primary, what did Bill Baar say? Dems go left, headed for disaster.
I bet Miller a Beer Lamont wouldn't break his primary total. He added 100k to his 140k from the Primary.
But it was still a disaster for Conn Dems. National ones too, imagine being some of the Democratic Senators who have to deal with him now.
The problem IS with the ILGOP. They keep running poor campaigns offering nothing more than "my opponent is a liberal." That is not a winning message.
You read me disagreeing with your thought here?
Find me someone saying there is anything right today with the ILGOP.
Like I've said, JBT's mistake was not admitting how she badly fumbled it with Peter Fitzgerald; who is a Republican by the way, and ought to consider returning to Illinois to lead us (Illinoi, not only Republicans) out of this morass.
"The point was. ."
Under your tiny hat, Skeeter.
Bill,
You are a Christian gentleman.
First, any time that you go from a 15 seat minority in the House to a House majority, and also take control of the Senate, that is no disaster. That is top quality political work. Rahm is the real deal. Give the DNC credit too. The 50 state strategy paid off.
The Dems will have a challenge working with elements of the party in the next two years, but every party has that challenge. It will beat the challenge that the national GOP has in looking at what happened and trying to figure out what went. In a worse case, Lieberman really leaves. The Dems are still better than they were on Monday. 50-50 beat 46-54. It was a good night. They are not headed for disaster. Headed for a challenge? Maybe. But not disaster.
With regard to Conn. Dems:
How was it a disaster for the Conn. Dems?
I think they picked up two or three
House seats there, and the Republican candidate for Senate became irrelevant.
It was Conn. Dems voting for those new House members, and a lot of them also voted for Lieberman.
Nationally, the Dems shifted to the right, as they needed to. The best examples are Webb and Heath Schuler, but I could probably find 20 other examples.
Face it: The Dems did last night what they had to do. They had to appear competent on security and they did. The GOP shifted right and it cost them.
Thanks Pat.
Skeeter, of course, the Dems won because they tacked right. When they tacked left with Lemont, they lost big.
Now I'm not optimistic that message will sink in with them.
Right and Left don't have a lot of meaning here either. I like to think of these new Reps as sensible instead of social-conservatives.
The other thing Dems should note was sending the abortion question to the people for a vote, as opposed to sending it to the Judges for a ruling.
Scalia said a judge is no better equipped to judge moral issues as the next citzen and he's right. These issues belong before voters not judges.
And South Dakota should give Democrats pause to mull that over and consider putting their faith back in the voters.
Acknowleging constitutional rights to same-sex marriage and abortion should not be litmus test issues to qualify as a Liberal or Democrat.
One should be able to say Scalia's right here...send this to the people of South Dakota.
I think the SD abortion vote just showed that voters believe in rape, incest, and health of the mother exceptions. Since these cases are clearly constitutionally protected, Roe v Wade or no Roe v Wade.
For people who are concerned about the right of a woman to have an abortion in other cases, I would think that they still would want Roe v Wade to be in place.
Lovie,
Exactly. The Feministas who wore the pink 'I Had and Abortion' T- Shirts and push the BS 'A Woman's Right To Choose' tell the tale on one end and the 'Life begins at Dirty Thoughts' Hairshirts on the ened have so muddied the issue that common sense is given no common ground.
Public Leaders in both Parties need to grow a pair and tell the bug-eyed and the goofy to takea seat in the comfy but padded rooms.
Beavers is a racist.
The only reason Stroger won, admitted by his campaign, is because Blacks voted for Blacks.
They called (the campaign of Stroger) Peraica "the Croation"--and that was the best of the words.
A real shame.
Hickey, the machine maybe used to be good when it was fair, passed out the goodies beyond Blacks and 2 white wards (11 and 19) and hurt a lot of people. Basically, the whole body politic is Irish and Black--No one else need apply--
The machine also gave us a billion dollar plus boondaggle hospital that people die in the waiting rooms with third world type access, higher taxes, fraud and corruption galore. That is a machine that does not work, if it was a washing machine the clothes would still be dirty.
Dan,
With regard to you comment -
'The machine also gave us a billion dollar plus boondaggle hospital that people die in the waiting rooms with third world type access, higher taxes, fraud and corruption galore. That is a machine that does not work, if it was a washing machine the clothes would still be dirty.'
As a single Dad and close to nature of the Maytag - it ain't the Machine, but what goes into it.
As for your Anti-Mick complaint -
Perception does mean everything. It appears that the Irish are the kings of corruption and malevalence but let me ask you
What part of Galway did Tomczak, Fawell, Ryan ( Orangeman I believe), Sorich, Loren- Maltese, Cliff Kelley, Allan Streeter, and Clarence McCalin hail from - I do not believe they were Kerrymen.
There is plenty of corruption from ALL races.
Tomczak is Polish hopefully American first. Loren-Maltese is Lithuanian. Sorich is Croatian. Streeter and McLain are Black or African American depending on the current words in use. All are Americans and ALL are human beings capable of greed etc.
BUT the people in charge are MOSTLY Irish to wit:
MAYOR-Richard M. Daley IRISH
(Don't knowe f it is Galway though could be Cork)
ATTORNEY GENERAL--Lisa Madigan (she was adopted though) but IRISH
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE--Michael Madigan--IRISH
COMPTROLLER--Dan Hynes--IRISH
COUNTY BOARD PRESIDENT--Was Dick Phelan--IRISH--now Todd Stroger to be controlled by John Daley chairman of fianance IRISH
ASSESSOR--Jim Houlihan--Irish
SHERIFF--SHEEHAN--Irish to be replaced by Tom Dart--Irish
STATE'S ATTORNEY--DICK DEVINE--IRISH
If this was all Italian or all Black people would be saying these groups were taking over. The Irish have had to power share with Blacks because of numbers but on the above list there are no Mexicans, Italians, Polish, Croations, Bohemians, Slovaks,--as in years past. Chicago actually had more power sharing along ethnic lines before Daley.
In terms of the 19th ward:
Tom Hynes, Dan Hynes, Tom Dart, Sheriff Sheehan--are all physically from the 19th ward and Irish as are their top capos
Houlihan doesn't live their currently but has deep roots there
Dick Devine is North Side Irish but is heavily influenced by Jeremiah Joyce just ask any investigator.
There is corruption in Italy, the Vatican, Mexico, France, Germany and every country on the planet, brutal problems in Iraq, Sudan, Rawanda--but in Chicago there is an unfair centralization of power with the facade of Democracy.
You are going a bit back in time to get Cliff Kelley and Allen Streeter but you can go currently in the African American community in County government to see Gerald Nichols, the woman who stole the hundreds of thousands of grant money with 10 felony convictions, the CEO of Provident who set up phony companies to steal money, the head of the hospital who said even doctors needed clout, or the Tony Resko relatives on the payroll.
McDonogough and Walsh construction on almost every project playing by different rules.
The Duff's who made over 100 million treating people bad and making phony companies claiming minority status, ask your buddy Skinny Sheehan about them.
Or Quinlan and his law contracts and position as the parliamentarian.
County government is a complete corrupt joke with major fraud, bad services, and high taxes.
It is the machine.
Whale Oil Bee!
I have to agree that Beavers is a racist.
Claim what you'd like, but the fact is that the African American community chose practically the entire state and county governments, and the vote totals in the county board prez race proved that they voted strictly based on race.
They can no longer gripe about state or county gov't "discriminating" against them, nor can they gripe about corruption. They will, however, gripe about "racist" white voting, even though neither Stroger nor the Messiah could have won without huge numbers of white votes.
What we have learned is that discrimination in voting has now shifted from white to black, but it is politically incorrect and "racist" to bring that up, let alone criticize it.
6 out of 100 African Americans in the Chicago Public School System graduate college
94 out of 100 have NO degree
There are more African Americans of college age in jail than in college.
The death rate for African Americans is higher in Chicago streets than in the Armed Forces between 15 and 30.
Unemployment in the Jackson and Davis district is as high as 50% for African American males.
The Juvenile home in the County has rape, molestation, corruption, financial mismanagement, and physical violence.
The Cook County Hospital, some good doctors notwithstanding, is a Third World health care system with African Americans dying in waiting rooms and weighting months for tests and years for surgeries.
The Stroger family would never use this hospital. Death rates, and illness are worse in the African American community.
Money is being stole from crooked grant writers who are members of the 8th ward organization, the CEO of Provident Hospital creating phony companies with phony billing invoices.
Yet African Americans are in charge of Cook County government (actually John Daley is but who really cares about that)and County government is misserving the poorest of the poor while making the rich richer and the politically connected fat.
We cannot cry racism or class warfare when the crooks running the asylum have Black skin and we voted them in.
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