By Steve Rhodes
Given his documented history, Joey “the Clown Lombardo” is going to be destroyed on cross-examination. But it’s going to be fun.
Lombardo took the stand on Tuesday in his own defense and played the part of overgrown street kid.
“At times, Lombardo meandered in his testimony, like the man at the dinner party who doesn’t realize his story has gone on too long,” Steve Warmbir of the Sun-Times reports.
But Joey knows the score, though I think he’s a bit stuck in the past.
“There are 50 bosses in Chicago,” he said. “If you want anything in this city, you go see the alderman. If you want a zoning change, you go see the alderman. If you want a card game going, you go see the alderman. If you want a dice game, you go see the alderman. If he tells you to stop, you stop.”
There is only one boss in Chicago now. And he and his minions are more interested in condo games than card games. But still.
How Rich
“Tuesday’s development shifted focus off of Blagojevich’s late-night approval of 9.6-percent pay increases for himself and lawmakers Monday night – a move that broke his 2006 campaign pledge to veto the pay hikes,” the Sun-Times noted deep in its story about the governor’s latest legislative manueverings – the same way the Trib did.
I thought it was up to the media to decide where to put the focus.
“Blago Raises Own Pay” might have been a good front-page headline.
Beachwood Video
Tony Rezko Had a Crush on Obama.
Though I still like this one too.
Inside Out
“Obama is merely doing political business as usual. At the same time a central theme for Obama on the stump is that his campaign is different,” Lynn Sweet writes today.
Christian Coalition
Obama is campaigning as a Christian.
Mayor Manager
“Very few people are good managers,” the mayor said on Tuesday after hiring his 11th chief of staff in 18 years and finally appointing a new head of the scandal-wracked transportation department.
Cheese Whiz
Fran Spielman calls Sadhu Johnston, the city’s environment czar, a “whiz kid,” but the last time I saw him he was getting worked over for spouting bullshit by Tribune reporter Michael Hawthorne on Chicago Tonight.
So let’s not be so easily impressed.
Pot Shot
“A backlog of 3,500 unfilled potholes has been reduced to a mere 188,” Spielman reports.
Yes, they were reclassified as green spaces.
Paper Tigers
* The Sun-Times Media Group stock fell to a record closing low Tuesday at $2.80, down 50 cents or 15 percent, the paper reports.
* “Tribune Company shares fell as low as $24.46 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, nearly $10 below the $34 a share that investors are receiving as the company goes private,” Crain’s reports. “Shareholders have been pushing down the stock, fearing that the company’s worsening performance and a crunch in the wider credit market could endanger the deal.”
* Meanwhile, analysts are high on The Beachwood Media Company. Investor inquiries welcome.
Peter Piper
“Karl Productions, headed by former Channel 5 reporter Peter Karl, has been awarded a $414,600 contract for the coming year by the Chicago Park District board. The Chicago-based company will produce public service programming for cable access – at $37,500 per episode,” Robert Feder reports (fourth item – right after the one about Amy Jacobson selling her house).
Memo to Park District: I’ll do it for half. Even less if I get to tell the truth.
*
Karl, you may recall, is the same guy whose company pulled in $468,000 a year from the Chicago Police Department to produce Crimewatch even as he reported on unsolved murders for Channel 5.
Inspector Peraica
How hard will the Daley Machine work to keep Tony Peraica out of the State’s Attorney’s Office? Harder than they’ve worked at anything to date.
Chicago Rocks
Some of us have been saying it for years: Chicago has one of the nation’s best local music scenes – if not the best – and the mayor not only doesn’t care, he’s at war with it.
Over the last 15 years, the city blew its chance to nurture the Wicker Park neighborhood and its collection of artists as well as other aspects of the indie, jazz, and alt-country communities and instead has smothered it with a thousand lead pillows.
Let’s face it, Richard M. Daley doesn’t rock.
The Daily Hypocrisy
“Paddock Publications President and Chief Executive Doug Ray and his senior managers have declined comment on the layoffs at the Arlington Heights-based Daily Herald in recent days, the first in the family-owned paper’s history,” Phil Rosenthal reports (second item).
Apparently commenting to newspapers – or working for them – is for suckers.
The Beachwood Tip Line: Suckers welcome.
Posted on August 15, 2007