By Steve Rhodes
“The No. 2 executive of the United Neighborhood Organization quit Tuesday, eight days after the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the politically influential charter school operator paid state grant money to companies owned by two of his brothers,” the paper reports.
“Miguel d’Escoto, who was UNO’s senior vice president of operations, resigned ‘by mutual agreement’ in a letter submitted Tuesday evening, said the group’s CEO, Juan Rangel.”
It’s deja vu all over again.
“Chicago Transportation Commissioner Miguel d’Escoto came to a City Hall meeting with his resignation letter in hand Thursday, correctly sensing that he would be the next department head to be swept from his job in Mayor Richard Daley’s housecleaning,” the Tribune reported in 2005.
“Daley sought and received d’Escoto’s resignation because of ‘a pattern of problems’ that occurred on his watch.”
Nice resumé, dude.
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American Exceptionalism
“Another U.S. administration official described Hadiya Pendleton as a bystander who was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time.'”
Oh, wait. That was Abdulrahman al-Awlaki.
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“Asked about the strike that killed him, a senior adviser to the president’s campaign suggests he should’ve ‘had a more responsible father.'”
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That senior adviser was Robert Gibbs, the man Barack Obama plucked from the gutter to be his spokesperson during the Hope & Change Tour of ’08. Lee Atwater, being dead, wasn’t available, though he frequently phoned in advice from Hell.
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I’m doing it wrong.
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The Race To Replace Junior
Kankakee Republicans like Toi. Is a George Ryan endorsement far behind?
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Rahm’s Pick Has No Plan
The newsroom thinks I was too harsh on the new Chicago Alderman replacing Sandi Jackson.What do you think?… fb.me/24FYPgw0E
— MarkSuppelsa (@MarkSuppelsa) February 13, 2013
Hardly.
Just an awful debut for Natashia Holmes.
You can see Suppelsa’s tone change as he realizes how lame she is. Totally unable to answer the obvious question about her fidelity to the mayor. Totally unable to discuss the challenge ahead of her. Totally unable to discuss the famous foibles of the council – or even what her plans are for day one, besides, you know, taking care of some things.
She has no projects on her agenda.
She has to get to know her ward.
On ethics, she’ll “do what’s right.”
Oy.
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By the looks of her resume, she’s smarter than she appeared. (And I didn’t get to see her actual press conference; did Rahm let her speak?) But geez.
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At first I wondered if it was the Emanuel administration who sold the media on describing her as a former IDOT worker, instead of the more logical and routine practice of referring to her most current job, which was working as a project manager for Metro Strategies. Smelled like lobbying to me, and I figured that appointing a lobbyist wouldn’t be the kind of storyline the administration was looking for.
But Rahm’s press release didn’t unreasonably press the IDOT point, and she appears to have not been a lobbyist as much as a transportation policy geek.
Maybe “IDOT” just made for an easier-to-write headline.
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“Metro Strategies is a Glen Ellyn-based planning, policy and public affairs firm that works with government, businesses and nonprofit organizations,” the Tribune account says. “It handled public outreach for the Chicago Department of Transportation’s Streets for Cycling Plan 2020, according to company’s website.”
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A Waterboy’s Chicago Adventure
Mike Scott in Paradise.
Local TV Notes
We choose a Check, Please! host.
QT: Timberlake, Nugent And Rand
Plus: Beware the ides of National Return Shopping Carts To The Supermarket Month.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Check and check.
Posted on February 13, 2013