Monday, October 30, 2006

Checks and Balances for Seals

Quite a balancing act, purportedly illegally soliciting for a Dan Seals fundraiser via email while working as a "$73,000-a-year employee of the Chicago office of the attorney general's criminal enforcement division". Attorney General Madigan's office is investigating the matter after the Tribune "obtained a copy of the email and requested comment".

Seals is running in the 10th congressional district against Mark Kirk. Guess Chicago-style ethics have followed the candidate, even though he's moved from liberal Hyde Park to within a few blocks of the 10th district.

That's right, Seals doesn't actually live in the district he's running to represent.

And the honorary chairs of the Chicago fundraiser included Chicago congressman Rahm Emanuel and Jan "Tax Cheat" Schakowsky of Evanston. Seals actually lives in Schakowsky's district. In fact, he can't even vote for himself on election day. I imagine Seals will vote for Schakowsky, whose husband Robert Creamer's get-out-of-jail-practically-free card springs him right before the election.
(His group, Illinois Public Action, which she essentially co-founded, was instrumental in her political rise. Rahm Emanuel worked for the group at one time as well.) Creamer was convicted of tax fraud (Jan signed the tax returns) and writing bad checks.

Fortunately for Dan, Creamer was in jail at the time of the Dan Seals fundraiser.

Presumably this
Seals supporter and "$73,000-a-year employee of the Chicago office of the attorney general's criminal enforcement division" will use the "Creamer Defense":
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."
And if he's lucky enough, he'll get the same judge and the same testimonials---why not---many of the same people who attested to Creamer's crusading character were at the fundraiser. Gee, maybe it won't even be luck, ya think?:

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.

Was it the one? Don't leave us in suspense. Quite the checks and balances among Chicago, uh Evanston, uh that other district Democrats for Dan Seals. Check out the Demnet and you'll see they're bringing in "campaign crusaders" from Chicago and Evanston to take over, uh, take their message to the suburbs.

Since he'll be out of jail before the election, and since her district is in the bag, maybe "top fundraiser" Schakowsky and her husband "Constant Crusader" Creamer will pull out all the stops and come up here to campaign for Seals. And give the "$73,000-a-year employee of the Chicago office of the attorney general's criminal enforcement division" a ride.

After all, he's not in jail yet. And Chicago liberal, uh "independent" candidate Seals thankfully is not in Congress.

(Another reason to vote for Mark Kirk.)

UPDATE: Another Schakowsky "fundraiser", under investigation, another on behalf of Seals. Tribune:
An FEC spokeswoman confirmed that the agency is looking into a complaint that Seals failed to properly disclose who was paying for a fundraising solicitation letter on his behalf that was written by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Evanston Democrat. Richard Ringer, Seals' campaign spokesman, called it "a minor staff error" that had been corrected.

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