Luis steps down. I'm good with it. Stirs the political pot in Chicago.

Normally, I would take the news that a progressive Democrat was leaving congress, as a bad thing. But I didn't take Cong. Luis Gutiérrez' announcement that way. On the contrary, I think his announcement yesterday that he won't run again in 2018 and his endorsement of Chuy Garcia in the primary, is good news.

For one thing, Gutiérrez will be easily replaced by another Democrat as part of the anti-Trump wave in 2018. For another, the announcement disrupts the current political inertia on the part of progressives in a good way. Already, potential candidates, including Garcia, Ald. Carlos Rosa, Ald. Joe Moreno and others, are mobilizing their supporters to go out, knock on doors, gather signatures and speak to the issues that Gutiérrez championed. These include: Trump's impeachment, immigration rights (including several arrests for acts of civil disobedience); defense of the Dream Act and support for DACA students, Puerto Rico's post-hurricane rebuilding, maintaining Chicago as a sanctuary city and many others.

I also think Gutiérrez can be much more effective in the years to come, working on these issues outside of congress. Twenty-four years should be enough for anyone.

While some on the left are bemoaning the idea of a primary race among progressives, I think it will generate a lot of excitement and should improve voter turnout and increase votes for progressive candidates up and down the ballot. Dan Biss and Fritz Kaegi, among others, should be smiling this morning.

I was also impressed that Luis and Chuy, who were close allies back in the Harold Washington days, were able to come together and set aside recent differences. Remember, Gutiérrez supported Rahm Emanuel over Garcia in the last mayor's race. I assume that Rahm's sticking to his support for Sanctuary Cities is part of the return on the deal. Luis' endorsement of Chuy should also help rebuild bridges between the city's Mexican and Puerto Rican communities.

More possibilities open up, including Progressive Caucus Ald. Rick Munoz replacing Chuy on the County Board and some younger progressive (I hope) replacing Rick in the 22nd Ward and on the City Council.

Some pundits, like Politico's Natasha Korecki, claim that this is part of a deal brokered by Rahm, to pull Chuy out of the next mayor's race, thereby "clearing the path" towards Rahm's re-election. But that doesn't seem plausible to me. First of all, I don't believe Chuy would have been part of such a deal with Rahm. Second, I'm not convinced Chuy had any serious intention to run again for mayor. Third, I'm not sure that Chuy, despite having, against all odds, forced the mayor into a runoff last time around, had much chance of defeating him this time. Having said this, I still don't agree that the mayor can't be beaten in 2019 by any one of a number of other candidates. Certainly no "clear path" as Korecki claims.

Rahm is still running scared this morning.

Brother Fred and I will be discussing these issues and more with Friday's guest on Hitting Left, veteran Chicago media and political consultant Delmarie Cobb. Tune in Friday at 11 a.m. CT on www.lumpenradio.com or download the podcast  at iTunes.

THANKS

We're taking the day off to recover from last night's turkey fest. But if you missed last week's show with in-studio guest Fritz Kaegi, it's re-running this morning at 11 a.m. CT on WLPN FM 105.5 in Chicago, streaming wherever you are at www.lumpenradio.com.  We will return to the airwaves next Friday, Dec. 1st, same time, same station.

Local holiday thanks go out to...
State's Attorney Kim Foxx whose first year uin office ended on a high note, including the release of two black men serving life sentences for a 1994 rape and murder, set free based on DNA evidence that links the crime to another suspect. In other words, Nevest Coleman and Derrell Fulton, doing life life in prison, were obviously framed for the 1994 murder of Antwinica Bridgeman and served 23 years when a fresh round of DNA testing this spring showed semen stains on Bridgeman's clothing matched a serial rapist.

Foxx should credited with the release of Jose Maysonet, and Arthur Brown, who have served 29 years after being falsely convicted and the exoneration of 15 men, en masse, who had 18 convictions between them - all tainted by crooked cop Ronald Watts and his officers who terrorized residents of the Ida B. Wells public housing complex for years before they were caught by federal agents.

Thanks also to Alds. Scott Waguespack (32nd), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), and John Arena (45th) the only three aldermen who had spine enough to stand up to "Mayor 1%", Rahm Emanuel and vote no on his budget.

Ald. Ramirez-Rosa: "It is time we demand that the rich and wealthy elite of this city pay their fair share. We can and should reinstate the corporate head tax, enact substantive TIF reform, implement a commercial lease tax, and create a municipal bank."

Ald. Waguespack: And yet, again through this year's budget, the Emanuel administration adds to the load of regressive fines, fees and taxes that working families must bear. We cannot in good conscience vote to advance this irresponsible approach." .

And thanks in advance to groper/assaulter, Al Franken, for voluntarily stepping aside and allowing MN Gov. Mark Dayton to replace you with another Democrat, hopefully a woman or even a real progressive like Keith Ellison. Yes thank you for saving the party from humiliating defeats in 2018 and allowing fellow Dems to speak out on women's issues in Congress without being rightfully  ridiculed. 

In case you need more reasons, consider recent polls and let me remind you of the fact that you used your super-delegate vote at the 2016 convention in Philly to override the votes and voices of Minnesotans who wanted Bernie Sanders as their candidate. 

Thanks and don't let the door hit you on the way out. 

I think Democrats have underestimated how seriously voters are taking the Franken allegations and how hypocritical it makes them look. https://t.co/fw3xSIz59G

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 22, 2017

KSTP/SURVEYUSA: Just 22 percent say Sen. Franken should remain in office. 33% say he should resign...36% wait for results of Senate Ethics Committee. His approval rating in MN now just 36%, only 5 points higher than President Trump. pic.twitter.com/eHXI5CBFiq

— Tom Hauser (@thauserkstp) November 22, 2017

Former CPS liar-in-chief leaves Rahm's Super PAC to start her own biz.

Substance photo

"She will be a real asset to those that work with her," says Michael Sacks, CEO of Grosvenor Capital Management. -- Crain's

Becky Carroll served as J.C. Brizard's and Byrd-Bennett's liar-in-chief at CPS before moving over to run Rahm's campaign Super PAC. Now, after a year and a half at Chicago Forward, Carroll is setting out on her own. Her new money-making venture is called Chicago Backward (just kidding) C-Strategies LLC and I assume her specialty will be union-busting, school privatization, and attacking progressive political candidates, as always.

Carroll's time at CPS was mostly spent trying to cover up Brizard's ineptness (admittedly an impossible job) and then keep a lid on the BBB/SUPES affair and the UNO corruption scandals. Then there was her CPS budget deception and her selling of the school closings (she named it, "right-sizing"). 

Oh, I almost forgot her efforts to spread dis-information about the Chicago teachers strike in 2012. Quite a track record.

After her relationship with local reporters crashed and burned last year, the mayor pulled her out of CPS' massive Communications Dept. and moved her over to run Chicago Forward where she headed the PAC's $5M effort to elect Rahm's favored puppy-dog aldermen. $2M of that was used to target two progressives, Scott Waguespack in the 32nd and Carlos Rosa in the 35th. Both won handily over machine candidates.

For more on Chicago Forward's failed run at the progressives, see Paul Blumenthal's piece at Huffington, "Chicago Progressives Emboldened After Rahm Emanuel's Super PAC Fails To Beat Them."

Despite this trail of losses, I'm sure Carroll, with investors like Michael Sacks behind her, will make a pile of money in her new venture. Carroll says she's already signed up 10 or so clients, including the Illinois Restaurant Association, who's leading the charge against increasing the minimum wage, and  union-busting education group, Stand for Children.

I can't say I wish her well.

Warning: Be careful who you embed with

em·bed

əmˈbed/ verb 1. fix (an object) firmly and deeply in a surrounding mass.

No, my warning isn't directed at Charlie Sheen's "goddesses". Probably too late for them. It's also too late for GOP current poll leader Ben Carson whose ignorance on foreign policy just got exposed (as if we hadn't noticed) by his "close adviser" and professional embedded "journalist", Armstrong Williams.

So just consider this a warning to everyone who feels they may need it -- AFT, NEA leaders?

Armstrong Williams

For those too young (or too old) to remember, William's approach to journalism was to embed himself with the Bush administration and in particular with Bush's ed secretary, Rod Paige. In January 2005, USA Today reported that documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that Williams had been paid $240,000 to promote No Child Left Behind. USA Today found that Williams was hired "to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same".

Now Armstrong has betrayed Carson. I guess Dr. C must not have left enough money on the nightstand.

Not to say that politics doesn't make strange bedfellows, or shouldn't. Just a reminder to use protection.

Case Studies... Billionaire Rauner is now the most hated governor in IL history. His budget terrorism and banning of Syrian refugees have been met with hostility and resistance across the state. But who will step up in this fight to save public education and salvage what's left of social support networks in the state? And what kind of deal will Sen. Cullerton and House Speaker Madigan try and cut?

I know CTU is watching to make sure we don't get sold out again on Cullerton's "compromise" SB318 like we did on the unconstitutional pension-theft bill.

Brother Fred says that the Supremes' latest oral arguments indicate that their next ruling will help insure us against another pension grab.

When the Court rules again in favor of our pension rights, as it is expected to do, it will now include what it did not have the opportunity to rule in SB1. They will not only protect us from the elected pension thieves in Springfield and City Hall. They will protect us from sell-out union leaders as well.

Ald. "Slow Eddie" Burke is still quick enough to know which way the wind is blowing on this one. He knows Rauner will take a beating on the refugee question, especially here in Chicago. For one thing, the governor doesn't have the authority to stop refugees from settling in Illinois. But he can push the legislature to cut funding for refugee aid.

So Burke is introducing a city council resolution reaffirming "Chicago’s historic role as a place of sanctuary and refuge". Co-sponsors are Marty Quinn (13th) and Progressive Caucus member, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th). Should pass easily.

Ald. Waguespack

From Natasha Korecki at Politico -- 9:30 a.m. Progressive Caucus presser at City Hall. From a release:

"Members of the Progressive Reform Caucus will join Access Living Chicago in support of a resolution calling for hearings regarding the impact of financial cuts to special education programs in Chicago Public Schools. To date, Chicago Public Schools has cut approximately $32 million dollars in special education programs, and the budget cut announcements are not over."

-- Expect Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) to introduce a resolution calling for public hearings on special education funding cuts. "This resolution asking for hearings by the Education Committee will provide CPS an opportunity to clear the air and tell the public exactly what the state of funding and support for special needs students is at this point in time and throughout the year," Waguespack said in a statement. "The system supporting special needs students needs to be fully funded and CPS has an obligation to fulfill that duty today."

In case you missed the interview with Kim Foxx, candidate for Cook County State's Attorney on Chicago Tonight. Watch it here.

Looking back on Chuy's 'Fuzzy Math'. He wasn't fuzzy, was he.

Most of my political junkie friends tell me that Rahm's election victory in April was sealed when Chuy Garcia failed to come up with specifics on how he'd solve the city's financial crisis. But political theories are like butt cracks. Everybody has one. Yes, the media did a job on Chuy (above) for his reluctance to commit to a property tax increase without first being able to examine the books to see where the money is stashed and how the dark money really being spent.

Turns out that Chuy was just being honest and that's no way to win a mayor's race in Chicago.

If Rahm had been honest (did I really say that?) he would have admitted that he too had no solution to the city's debt/pension crisis and that he wasn't really about that anyway. What he was about was using the crisis to enrich his bankster friends without taxing their profits or big incomes.

Yesterday, Rahm did what he and Daley have always done. Despite the city's junk bond rating, he borrowed another $1.1 billion at an exorbitant interest rate from Morgan Stanley, the very bank which financed Daley's criminal parking meter deal. Billy Daley's bank to be exact.

As you might expect, the bogus borrowing plan sailed through the city council without even time for Rahm's toady alders to even read it. Shades of the parking meter deal.

Only 3 NO votes, Arena (L), Waguespack, and Rosa.

Despite the victories of supposed anti-Rahm council candidates in April, there were only three NO votes yesterday -- Scott Waguespack (32nd), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) and John Arena (45th) -- bless their souls. Makes you wonder about the other "progressives". Don't it?

As you might have expected, Patrick DALEY Thompson (11th) and "Slow Eddie" Burke (14th), chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee, voted "present", knowing that the plan would pass anyway.

Said Ramirez-Rosa:

“We can no longer allow the working families of Chicago to shoulder the cost of new borrowing with no plan to repay the debt. We were promised a responsible financial plan. Instead, we have been asked to blindly supply private banks and a limited number of connected individuals with the power to determine the future of Chicago’s financial health.”

He's only a rookie. But he has the heart for the struggle

.@CDRosa cast 1 of 3 "no" votes on city borrowing 1.1 billion for city debt. Ran as a progressive and keeping it that way in office.

— Lynda (@Lyndab08) June 18, 2015

'Another lost generation': My notes from yesterday's inauguration

No words... 

First -- One look at the new members being sworn in tells me that the City Council won't be the same. Congrats to the expanded and energized Progressive Caucus and especially newest progressives like Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), Milly Santiago (31st), Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th) and more.

Rahm's inauguration speech got rave reviews -- from Rahm. He couldn't wait to get on the phone and call gossip columnist Sneed to tell her how wonderful it was. Rahm tells Sneed, his speech was so great that his mother cried and his father praised him in Hebrew.

Comedian Richard Lewis stopped by lingerie company peach’s launch party at the Public Chicago Hotel Saturday . . . Oh wait. I'm reading the wrong Sneedling. Sorry. Here's the one on Rahm's call.

He told me he had a speech on education and finances ready to go, but he scrapped it a week ago. 

“I thought, well . . . spring is a season for renewal and what could be more personal than our kids,” said Emanuel, who has three children: Zach, Ilana, and Leah [remember, he scorched reporters for bringing up his kids?--m.k.].

“But I wasn’t just thinking about my kids,” he said. “I was thinking about the human spirit and about kids who have an absence in their eyes that you don’t see in your own children."

Who's Lost?...Rahm was speaking not about his kids, but other people's children, who he describes as "a lost generation." You know -- the human spirit.

When the mayor talks about young people in Chicago, especially children of color, it's in the language of pathology and hand-wringing.

And so the mayor talked about the city's troubled youth, describing them as children who live in poverty, fail to receive a proper education and can turn to a life of crime. -- Tribune

“The faces of these lost and unconnected young men are often invisible — until we see them in a mug shot as the victim or perpetrator of a senseless crime, Their existence is avoided rather than confronted. They live in the shadows of our cities — and in the recesses of our minds."

Does this generation look "lost"?

He takes no personal or political responsibility and offers only band-aid solutions to the problems he helped create.

  "...beyond government initiatives... the mayor cited the Phillips Academy football team that made the state finals and Urban Prep Academy’s record of 100 percent college attendance". -- DNAInfo

Don't even get me started on Urban Prep's 100% attendance.


Who's Absent?... No, it's not about "an absence in their eyes". Those "shadows" the lost generation are supposedly living under are about boarded-up schools, the absence of health clinics, libraries, factories and businesses in their isolated and segregated neighborhoods. On top of that comes Rauner's cuts to social services, youth job programs, and education.

No mention in the mayor's speech about Moody’s downgrade of Chicago’s bond rating to junk status. along with those of the Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Park District. He never mentions Spike Lee's "Chiraq" film, the results of his massive school closings, or the SUPES/Barbara Byrd-Bennett scandal. And hardly a word about the pension crisis -- what the S-T calls, "the gorilla in the room”.

Ald. Scott Waguespack noticed.

 "I was really expecting to see something by now, and it's a little foreboding not to see any substantive ideas put on the table."

Memo to Rahm -- It's not the generation that's "lost." It's you.

Change is in the air in Chicago

You won't see a word about this in today's Trib or Sun-Times. But the Logan Square auditorium was packed last night. The mood, electric. It was in this same room a few months ago that we celebrated the election of Rep. Will Guzzardi and dealt a major blow to the  Emanuel/Daley/Madigan/Burke/Barrios/Mell... machine (or what's left of it). It was in this same ward, at the Norwegian Church across the street in 1983 that I remember that same energy and sense of power and unity as the crowd overflowed out onto the boulevard to hear candidate Harold Washington drive another nail into the old machine's coffin.

In the room last night, you could feel the power of a new movement for change. But last night's crowd also told a different story, one about the changes taking place in the make-up of our community and our city. The cheering crowd looked and sounded a bit different than the one at Guzzardi's rally and certainly than the one at the Harold rally 4 decades ago. So did the group of progressive candidates on stage. The both were largely Latino, including a 26-year-old newly-elected alderman in the 35th Ward, Carlos Rosa. Some African-American representation would have even made it better.

Carlos had not only handily defeated his machine rival a few weeks ago, but helped carry the ward for Chuy Garcia over Rahm Emanuel. Chuy got with 57% of the vote in the war. It reflected the the city's changing demographics and the emerging Mexican plurality which is largely under-counted by the pollsters (in case you're moaning over this morning's Tribune poll). It also holds the potential for a new, progressive rainbow coalition, the likes of which we haven't seen in the city since the Harold days. It was another hopeful sign that whether Rahm wins or loses this race, Chicago politics will never be the same.

Good riddance.

Chuy hit another home run with his speech last night, staying on his Chicago as tale-of-two-cities message. He's on a roll, even while up against tremendous odds and the power of LaSalle St. big money. I can't wait for Monday's face-to-face debate with the Little Emperor.

And the Racist Drivel of the Week Award once again goes to former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani for these pearls of wisdom: I wish President Obama were more like Bill Cosby and Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson Should Be 'Commended' For Shooting Michael Brown. Definitely GOP presidential timber. Or at least, a convention keynoter.

But pointing out and hammering the racists like Giuliani or the OU frat boys, while necessary, is too easy writes Zak Cheney-Rice at Identities.Mic.

The backlash against SAE was predictably swift: The frat's national headquarters shut down their Oklahoma chapter, while University of Oklahoma president David Boren severed all school ties with the organization. "You are disgraceful," he told its members in a highly publicized statement. What he didn't do was talk about racism.

Racism is bigger than a video. Racism is the legacy of being "the only national fraternity founded in the antebellum South," with a Civil War-era membership class of 400, of whom 369 fought for the Confederacy. Racism is a school housing an organization with a documented history of racial abuse; SAE chapters in St. Louis, Memphis, Clemson, South Carolina and elsewhere have all been embroiled in racism controversies. Racism is the truth behind the frat brother's song, that there probably never was a "nig**r" at SAE, or at least none in significant numbers.

Hey Little Emperor...

Hey little Emperor, come down from your throne

The hourglass is empty, your time has come and gone
The battlements are crumblin’ the walls are tumblin’ down
Your counselors and concubines are getting’ out of town 

-- Steve Earle

Even though I didn't drink last night (honest) I feel hung over this morning after 14 hours of poll watching and then hitting Carlos Rosa's victory party at the Levee. I can't remember a victory like this since Harold Washington won the Democratic mayoral primary in 1983 (Yes, we once had party primaries in Chicago). Yesterday's citywide defeat of Rahm's overstuffed political machine, and Chuy Garcia's forcing of Rahm into a runoff, was as close to being on par with that as it gets.

Rosa's stunning win over a Rahm-backed incumbent was but a small piece of the pie (which I'm still digesting). In my diverse Logan Square neighborhood, it comes on the heels of Rep. Will Guzzardi's devastating rout of  machine daughter Toni Berrios last March. Rosa, a 26-year-old community activist, more than doubled the vote of the mayor's guy, discredited incumbent Rey Colon.

DNAInfo reports:

Ramirez-Rosa was joined on stage at The Levee, 4035 W. Fullerton Ave, by 39th District State Representative Will Guzzardi and a crowd of friends and family around 8:30 p.m. The incoming alderman then claimed his victory in the ward, which represents portions of Logan Square, Avondale, Hermosa, Irving Park and Albany Park.

"This is not about switching one alderman for another; it was about a movement," Ramirez-Rosa said following his acceptance. "We aspire to more — a city that uplifts working people. That's the message the 35th Ward sent today. We proved tonight we can begin the first step of that progression."

Yes we did.

Carlos & Chuy

Citywide, Rahm failed to carry a majority in any ward except for the lakefront and a couple on the far southwest side. His superPAC proved worthless. And his toady incumbents, like John "Petcoke" Pope in the 10th, Deb "Boss' Daughter" Mell, have been forced into runoffs by progressives Susan Sadlowski Garza and Tim Meegan.

My alderman, Scott Waguespack, a leader of the Progressive Caucus, who was singled out for defeat the so-called Chicago Forward PAC, defeated it's candidate Dooty-Jones (I love saying that name, like I love saying Huck-a-Bee, Huck-a-Bee) with 80% of the vote.

The Elected School Board referendum, which was a dagger aimed at the heart of mayoral control of the public schools, carried in ward after ward with numbers around 90%. Makes you wonder who the other 10% was?

More to come on this as my head clears and the final numbers come in.