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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (56785)	12/11/2008 9:18:17 AM
From: TideGlider	4 Recommendations Respond to of 224738

Prez-elect Ill.-advised Chicago roots may entangle By Michael Graham Thursday, December 11, 2008 Just five weeks ago, in a fit of anti-Bush anger and liberal self-flagellation, 53 percent of the electorate voted to send an unknown, untested and inexperienced Chicago pol to the White House. Who was Barack Obama? What sort of pol? Nobody knew or, apparently, cared. Best Ways to Boost Your Credit Score Sex Pheromones are Bending the Laws of Attraction How to Keep Your PC Clean and Quick Now America is learning to pronounce “Blagojevich” and discovering what The New York Times [NYT] calls “the murky and insular world of Illinois politics.” It’s a realm of open corruption, boundless greed and contempt for the law. And it’s the lifelong political home of President-elect Obama. Surprise! What, you didn’t know that Obama made his bones in the Chicago political machine? You didn’t know, for example, that he won his first election by getting one of his political mentors thrown off the ballot? Or about his financial support from corrupt Chicago moneyman Tony Rezko? Or how Obama and sidekick Rahm Emanuel advised the campaign of a machine hack named Rod Blagojevich? You didn’t? Don’t feel bad. According to a post-election Zogby poll, a large majority of Obama supporters didn’t know key facts like these, either. And why should they? After all, NBC, The Boston Globe-Democrat and the rest of the Partisan Press had little interest in reporting these stories. Instead, as the Chicago Tribune’s John Kass just wrote, the media “have been clinging to the ridiculous notion that Chicago is Camelot for months now. It must help them see Obama as some pristine creature, perhaps a gentle fawn of a magic forest, unstained by our grubby politics.” “Grubby”? After reading the transcripts of Mr. and Mrs. Blagojevich’s political discussions, I needed a shower. Camelot it ain’t. This is the Chicago Way, and for two decades it’s been the Obama Way. And for the rest of us, this story is just beginning. Pols don’t spend their careers as players in the corrupt culture of Blagojevich, Rezko and Daley without making embarrassing friendships and compromising decisions. The morning after Obama’s election, skeletons began rattling the doorknobs of closets across Chicago, looking to make their way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I am not saying that the president-elect is directly involved with the scandalously stupid behavior of Rotten Rod (Full disclosure: I worked on a congressional campaign against Blagojevich and his hatchetman David Axelrod in 1996). But I am saying that the Blago scandal is the opening of a door into the actual career of Obama rather than the media-made hagiography that’s been passed off as journalism for the past year. My prediction: Blagojevich is Barack Obama’s Whitewater. Before Bill Clinton became president, the Whitewater story had begun leaking into the media, but nobody paid attention. To most Americans in 1992, the names Webb Hubbell, Susan McDougal and Jim Guy Tucker sounded like the cast of a Branson, Mo., musical act. They meant nothing when Clinton was elected, but all three were in jail - and on the front page - before he left office. Anybody want to bet that a similar cast of the corrupt and conniving is now sitting in Chicago central casting? Just before the election, Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose had a fascinating on-air conversation conceding how little they knew about Obama, his policies and politics. “We really don’t know him,” Brokaw confessed. I was one of the viewers throwing stuff at my TV and shouting, “Then why don’t you ask him, Tom?” Well, it’s too late now. Six weeks after the election, we’re finally meeting Barack Obama, Chicago-style. Michael Graham hosts a talk show on 96.9 WTKK. news.bostonherald.com