Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel made it official on Saturday: He is running for Mayor of Chicago. Emanuel staged his media event at Coonley Elementary School, a public school in his old congressional district. It wasn’t a press conference since Emanuel did not answer any questions and the Chicago media was actually content not to ask any.
Kelly/Rahm from Breitbart on Vimeo.
Emanuel’s announcement reminded me of the old Soviet Union-style speeches where people used to afraid to be the first ones to stop clapping. Along with the shouts of joy and bursts of over-enthusiastic applause, there was something menacing in that room. What were the Chicago media so afraid of? Or were they just being Rahm’s good little apparatchiks?
I asked a Rahm staffer if the media were going to be allowed to ask Emanuel any questions. She said “no.” I knew that meant one thing: I had to ask a question. After his announcement, I knew Emanuel was probably hiding in the building waiting for everyone to leave. I waited until his staffers had cleared the last reporters from the room. As I was leaving, I noticed Emanuel was, in fact, waiting in one of the outside exits for the “all clear” sign from his staffer. That was as good of an opportunity as I was going to get.
I walked to the door camera rolling, gave it a knock, and Emanuel’s staffer opened the door. Rahm was right behind the door so I asked him the question I came to ask: “When did you know about the accounting irregularities at Freddie Mac?” Rahm heard the question but turned his back without answering it. I am sure his lawyer is probably happy to read that. All the while, Rahm’s Deputy Press Secretary was talking over my questions, pushing me, and blocking my camera – all things she wouldn’t have been doing had I been asking “nice” questions. Afterwards, a senior Rahm staffer led her away saying from me, “You don’t need to talk with him, trust me.”
Based on past experience, my media detractors in the Chicago media will say that I was “rude” or “illegitimate” because a Rahm staffer stuck her left nostril in my camera while I was asking a question. That doesn’t surprise me. The Chicago media have been saying I was rude and illegitimate ever since CBS anchor Jay Levine threatened me on-camera for trying to ask Emanuel a tough question on Columbus Day. They have been even more angry since I charged Levine with assault, which he will have to answer to at his court appearance on November 19th in Chicago.
To the biased Chicago media and those that support them, I only have this to say: If you aren’t willing to ask tough questions or risk rudeness when prevented in the asking, what kind of reporter are you? Isn’t that what a real reporter does?
And there are plenty of unanswered questions left for real reporters to ask about Rahm Emanuel. Questions about Rahm’s involvement with convicted former Governor Rod Blagojevich. Questions about Rahm’s history with the Clinton Administration. Questions about Rahm’s involvement with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Questions about the scandal-ridden history of his 5th congressional district seat.
For background, Congressman Dan Rostenkowski was the congressman of the 5th congressional district in Illinois from 1959 to 1994. He was convicted of mail fraud and sentenced to 17 months in prison. Rod Blagojevich – America’s favorite reformer – took over the seat in 1997. Emanuel took the seat in 2002 after Blagojevich decided not to run for re-election. Lucky us, he ran for Illinois Governor instead. Moreover, Blago’s father-in-law, powerful Chicago Alderman Richard Mell, played a significant role in organizing field operations for Emanuel’s 2002 congressional run. As such, the 5th congressional district has been run by some of the worst elements of the Chicago Democrat machine. It is a district where you learn how to use stalking horses, place holders, and other underhanded techniques to win political offices for you and your friends. It is the kind of district where you might even learn how to sell public offices for profit and power. In this landscape, it is not hard to imagine a Rahm Emanuel being involved in bribing candidates like Sestak and Romanoff as President Obama’s Chief of Staff to ensure they wouldn’t run in hotly contested Democrat primaries in 2010. Maybe or maybe not. But shouldn’t these issues be raised?
The media should be asking Rahm Emanuel tough questions now – just like they should have been asking Rod Blagojevich tough questions before he became governor. Imagine if Rahm was a Republican instead of a Democrat. The Chicago media would be asking tough questions of him morning, noon, and night – not giving him a pass or a hailing his coronation.
Tough questions like why has Rahm’s toughest competition been dropping out of the mayoral race like flies? Why did Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart decide not to run when he would have been a front-runner? Why did speculation over Jesse Jackson Jr.’s role in Blago’s pay-to-play scandal and his tryst with a DC nightclub hostess only now become front-page news in Chicago? Why did the media wait for such an opportune time to release this information? Wasn’t it widely known? Did Rahm ask them to? The latest speculation was that former U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias was also going to throw his hat in the ring for mayor. But after a reported meeting with David Axelrod, Alexi was said to be frightened and refused to meet with the Chicago alderman who wanted to support his campaign against Emanuel. Again, what is everyone so afraid of?
We don’t need any more thugs in the City of Chicago and we certainly don’t need one running it. Whether or not Rahm Emanuel is indeed a “thug” is beside the point. This is the image he has fashioned for himself and it is precisely why I think he needs to be held accountable for his “dead fish, steak knife” actions past and present.
The one thing that may yet prevent a Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ascendancy is a little technicality called a “residency requirement.” A legal battle is underway to challenge Rahm’s petitions for Mayor based on the fact that he rented his Chicago home while residing in Washington DC. To be Mayor of Chicago, you are required to be a Chicago resident for a one-year period. I asked a WGN TV reporter about this issue on Saturday and she told me my point about the residency issue was “legitimate” but that she was only there to cover Rahm today. What?! Are there any real reporters left? The new media has stepped in to fill this journalistic void and finally ask the tough questions the mainstream media refuses to ask.
As the new media, the next questions we need to ask are: Do the same rules that apply to you or I apply to Rahm Emanuel? If not, where does it end? Is there any accountability? Or is all just one big manipulation? Does justice serve justice or does it serve power? Do we have any rights at all? Maybe the mainstream media won’t ask these questions but there is at least one reporter in Chicago who will. Even if they call me “rude.”
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