Continuing to unwrap the gift of the governor
By John Kass, Chicago Tribune
The media would have you believe Barack Obama's heart is as pure as Mr. Tumnus
President-elect Barack Obama was not found as an infant, floating in a reed basket along the banks of the Chicago River. He is not the gentle faun, the Mr. Tumnus, of the Daley machine. Obama could have forcefully and publicly demanded that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and fellow Illinois Democrats support legislation for a special election to fill his vacated Senate seat. Obama had a responsibility to the people of Illinois to do so. But he kept his mouth shut. As always, he avoided conflict with machine political bosses, a consistent character trait stubbornly ignored by his media cheerleaders.
His top White House strategist and his chief of staff are creatures of the Daley machine, and Democrats didn’t want to risk the Senate seat. What happened to the promise of transcending the old politics?
Tags: Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Rod Blagojevich