A Hero of the Common Man

Congressperson Jan "Tax Cheat"* Schakowsky's husband Robert Creamer was sentenced to 5 months in prison for tax violations and bank fraud, and in the manner of Very Important Persons issued a non-apology apology. Also Marathon Pundit here. (Sentencing, originally scheduled for February, was predictably delayed until after the primary election.) Tribune:

Creamer, founder and former head of Illinois Public Action, also must serve 11 months of home confinement. But he escaped the longer sentence of 30 to 37 months suggested by federal guidelines.

Creamer, 58, of Evanston, apologized in court for his conduct but maintained that he had merely been overzealous in his support of a good cause.

"I will never again allow my passion for that goal to overwhelm my good judgment or my respect for the law," Creamer said in a short statement after the hearing.

Schakowsky said in her own statement: "More than anything, I am proud of who Bob is. ... He has been a constant crusader."

Why he's a real hero of the common man!

And in the best socialist tradition---taking other people's money to advance your own power. Laws? What laws?

The cause was getting his wife elected to Congress. Schakowsky signed the tax returns.

And lining up to offer testimonials to this felon's extraordinary character was the Democrat glitterati:

More than 200 people wrote letters of support on Creamer's behalf, including U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Cook County Clerk David Orr, state Sen. Carol Ronen (D-Chicago), Chicago Ald. Joe Moore (49th), former State Sen. Dawn Clark Netsch and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner.

Political consultant David Axelrod and Rev. Jesse Jackson also wrote letters on his behalf.

Creamer's ties to the Democratic community are so deep that Moran considered recusing himself from the case. The judge, a former Democratic state representative from Evanston, said he had a potential conflict of interest because his son-in-law, political consultant Peter Giangreco, had worked with Creamer and Schakowsky and had sat on the board of one of Creamer's organizations.

I don't see Congressman Rahm Emanuel on the list. I guess he is too busy pushing his Republican culture of corruption message. And looking for clean Democrat women candidates.

Prosecutors said that "Creamer's arguments sounded more like self-promotion than true remorse.", and that, according to the Tribune, " Creamer should have known that his methods were illegal after FBI agents interviewed him in 1992. Yet he repeated the same crimes, repaying money only after the scheme was discovered." Creamer did the same thing in 1993,1996 and 1997. His wife Jan Schakowsky was elected to Congress in 1998. The job currently pays $165, 200 a year plus benefits.

While serving the "home confinement" portion of his sentence, " he will be permitted to travel back and forth to Washington on business." (Guess that ankle bracelet is pretty loose.) Presumably in his job as a Democrat consultant, he will be consulting on.....business as usual.

*Last August Schakowsky's husband pleaded guilty to two felony indictments on "tax violations and bank fraud for writing rubber checks and failing to collect withholding tax from an employee". And "Creamer, 58, a prominent Chicago political consultant, was accused of swindling nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million while he ran a public interest group in the 1990s." The congressperson co-signed the fraudulent tax returns.