7/29/2005

Good deed punished

“Scrutiny on the bounty” is Chi Trib e-version headline (not bad!) for story about firing by (private) employer of Cook County Republican chairman because he offered $10G reward for information leading to indictment of one RM Daley, mayor of our fair city, for violating court order vs. political hiring.

Gary Skoien's offer Tuesday infuriated Daley and, most importantly, Skoien's boss, a Democrat and outspoken supporter of the mayor. Skoien was terminated Thursday as an officer of Prime Group Inc., a Chicago-based real estate firm where he has worked since 1990.

“It was sophomoric at best,” said Wash.-based staffer for Rep. Dennis Hastert, our muy (tres, very much) politico House speaker, as firm a supporter of what Chi Trib’s Kass calls the Illinois Repub-Dem ruling combine as you will find.  Look out, U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald, scourge of politicos-at-the-trough, we do not think Dennis H. has your or our best interests at heart when it comes to shaking up the scene.

As for sophomoric, what about RM Daley’s dragging wife and children into the picture in response to the $10G bounty?  Hey, it’s how he learned to get the other guy on the Nativity of Our Lord playground.  Why quit now?

See also Kass in Chi Trib today with pointed, even piquant references to:

 mid-level Daleyites the day after the leak became news, strutting around City Hall on Thursday with their chests puffed out, like bull pigeons in front of a popcorn shop.

and various acute observations, such as:

"Our guys" [11th Ward denizens] means a tribe. It all comes down to tribes in tribal Chicago. Like the tribe that must show it is fighting back to keep its warriors in line, the tribe that takes what it wants, the tribe that runs things now.

 the leak accomplished one thing. It let a few pigeons puff and strut, at least for a day.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, and while Daley, boo hoo, is dragging his family into the fight, he doesn't care much about the hundreds of families that he's uprooting from Bensenville for O'Hare Airport. Or that the largest concentration of affordable housing in DuPage County is about to be ravaged (when Daley keeps talking about his great efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing). Or that the neighborhood he is about to destroy is one of the most multi-cultural in DuPage County, with many Hispanics. Where is Victor Reyes' Hispanic polical organization you need it? Come to think of it, where is the press?

Anonymous said...

Gary's firing sounds as if it could have been lifted from Royko's book "Boss."

Anonymous said...

Gary's firing sounds as if it could have been lifted from Royko's book "Boss."