Chicago Daily Observer

One might call it Shakespearian if there were a shred of nobleness in the story of Eliot Spitzer’s fall. There is none. Governor Spitzer, who made his career by specializing in not just the prosecution, but the ruin, of other men, is himself almost certainly ruined.

Mr. Spitzer’s brief statement yesterday about a “private matter” surely involves what are widely reported to be his activities with an expensive prostitution ring discovered by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. Those who believe Eliot Spitzer is getting his just desserts may be entitled to that view, but it misses the greater lesson for our politics.

Throughout it all the un-calibrated, unexpected, improbable, impromptu and thoroughly vexing manifestations of the human condition…what British Prime Minister Harold McMillan called “events, my dear boy, events!”…change history more than any plotting or strategizing. And so: was what happened to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer yesterday confounding? Spitzer was found to be a patron of an expensive prostitution ring in Washington and was captured on tape negotiating with a woman with whom he was to meet at the Mayflower hotel.

On the difficult compromises that required the political courage to challenge one’s own political constituency, Obama flinched: the “Gang of 14” compromise on judicial appointments, the immigration compromise to which Obama tried to append union-backed killer amendments, and, just last month, the compromise on warrantless eavesdropping that garnered 68 votes in the Senate. But not Obama’s.

Bill Foster’s decisive, six-point win over Jim Oberweis in Saturday’s special congressional election is both a combination of a perfect storm and a harbinger of bluing to come. The latter point has national and local Republicans really singing the blues: they may be losing another three congressional seats here.

Let’s look at the rosiest (for the Repubs) construction first.

This once staunch GOP district turned blue because (a) there was some general discontent with the recently resigned incumbent, Dennis Hastert, (b) the Democrats wound up with a smart, wealthy candidate remarkably well attuned to the district, (c) Oberweis was a dramatically odious candidate who happened to be nominated over an even more mean-spirited opponent, and (d) turnout was tiny, unreflective of a general election, and therefore things could be reversed come the rerun in November.

Foster had a much harder and narrower than expected primary race against John Laesch, ... Read More...

Following the 1997 re-make of the movie Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, an amusing T-shirt began showing up about town. “THE SHIP SANK,” it read. “GET OVER IT.”

One could say the same for the feminist movement.

This thought came to mind as I attended a recent talk at DePaul University by Phyllis Schlafly, the Alton, Illinois housewife-turned-attorney, a visit organized by the DePaul Conservative Alliance.

Having attended college in the ‘seventies, I knew a thing or two about Phyllis Schlafly, all right. She was the annoying blue-haired lady who led the fight to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment, and who wanted to keep women down. Never mind that I hadn’t ever read a scrap of her writing or heard her speak.

As a music student, I wasn’t interested in the grown-up working world anyway, and I’ve always liked men. But I was surrounded by ... Read More...

Oak Street Beach needs to be retested for asbestos because previous tests for the cancer-causing substance weren’t done properly, a scientist on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s asbestos advisory board is urging.

“They should go back and retest,” said the scientist, James Webber, who teaches at the State University of New York in Albany.

In 2004, University of Illinois at Chicago scientists found asbestos fibers in 11 of 12 samples taken at Oak Street, the city’s signature beach. It was a surprising and troubling finding. Inhaled asbestos fibers can cause a cancer called mesothelioma. Another concern: The most deadly form of asbestos—amphibole—was found at Oak Street.