Bankrupt of arguments to defend their many disastrous stands on public policy, Barack Obama and his Democratic allies have resorted to a last desperate stand…calling their Republican adversaries mean, unfeeling, slavish to the rich.
That’s what Obama is doing with John Boehner…calling him unfeeling, uncompassionate, charging that he is holding middle class tax cuts hostage in order to get tax cuts for the rich. By singling out Boehner, this highly unpopular president is doing the GOP House leader an inestimable benefit (by assailing private citizen Richard Nixon as “a chronic …

What led Richard M. Daley to his decision not to run again? The right answer is probably contained in these guesses. Maybe a mixture of them.

1. Maggie Daley’s health. For the first time in a long time the media cameras have focused on her fixedly. Before this we’ve gotten glimpses of her leaving the hospital and in a few seconds of viewing she looked virtually the same. But standing by her husband at the rostrum, it’s clear she has lost weight and…always charming…looks exactly like she …

Cool Obama in 2008; Jug-Eared Dope in 2010.
Ah, it is so cool as a Chicago hedge fund tycoon in 2008 …to demonstrate how liberal you are and be shown raising money to Barack Obama! Like Sidney Poitier he is not just any black man but an Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law version of Sidney Poitier so savvy and cool I feel we are in the vanguard of a New Era of Racial Awakening…not like those redneck dinosaur Republican pals, very un-trendy, figuratively scratching their bellies, wearing …

Now that I’ve been writing this blog for five years, it’s time I…well not make a confession…but make an affirmative statement. I cuss. It’s a habit I got from my father who was an eloquent cusser. I think I know about as much theology as the average guy who took four straight years of theology and philosophy from Ernie…and I’ll tell you, I still can’t imagine anyone thinking use of swear words is a sin. I exempt denunciations that invoke the name of the Son of …

There’s no publication that exceeds thecapitolfaxblog.com in touchy-touchy race sanctimony (it groaned in fear that the stonewalling juror in the Blago trial might just be black: she was and so what?). As a wondrously comprehensive publication (and I must salute it for candidly saying something Richard M. Daley does not want to hear: Chicago is bankrupt)

Yet it’s often marvelously blind-sided on political correctness. Seemingly, to it the mere mention of race being used as a political cudgel is a no-no. Certainly for Republicans. It went after …

It’s with a great deal of sadness that I note the death of a good friend of mine, Phil Krone. He died Sunday of liver cancer. I knew Phil for 46 years, when he was a young volunteer for Chuck Percy…through his colorful attempt as Republican ward committeeman to name himself to the state House to succeed Pete Granata…past his rejection for that post, his subsequent resignation and his turning to the Democratic party where he became an enduring friend of the original Mayor Daley, his son, Neil …

By the time I went to bed…10:45 pm…there was mainly not entirely good news for conservatives in the primaries. In Florida the nomination of Marco Rubio for the GOP Senate was a given—and it happened. Charlie Crist as the independent nominee has a problem: if he should happen to win, who would he caucus with? If he says the Democrats, he is likely to lose the 20 plus percent of Republicans who have stuck with him. If he says the Republicans he can kiss goodbye any chance …

When the news broke that the Blago jury was hung up on 23 counts and could only get agreement for conviction on one, I was talking on the phone with an old Harvard buddy who was on the faculty the same time I was a Kennedy Fellow in 1977 (he’s since retired). Since Kennedy Fellows are treated the same as faculty, we’d chow down frequently at a not too shabby place: the Harvard Faculty Club during January to June of that year.

What brought us together was this: …

The story I did a few days ago about the Gangland Bus cruising around with goggle-eyed tourists hearing crime and corruption stories this town savors—and advertises—almost came true yesterday in every respect when a jury of Blago’s peers found him guilty of only one of the 24 criminal corruption charges he faced.
The reason the former governor didn’t get convicted on all 24 was not due to ineptitude of the prosecution—or the ineffable brilliance of the defense (although I will grant the defense better understood Chicagoans) —but because of three …

The first…and only…time I interviewed Melissa Bean was on my radio show…shortly after her election—and she showed up with a handler armed with a fact-book from the DNC. I had a list of questions to ask her and as I am the ultimate in gentle-ness, I reviewed them with her before the broadcast to get her thinking about them.
That’s the kind of guy I am, folks. I’d rather get a thoughtful response than sneak up on an interviewee and surprise him/her with a “gotcha” question.
No, no, no she said …