Brush up your Shakespeare, Alexi

UPDATES below*Yet more drama surrounding the family business in Chicago--Democrat politics. It's talk like Shakespeare day in Chicago, and coincidentally the day the Feds will probably close in on the bankrupt Broadway Bank. The curtain rises on the Giannoulias family bank death watch, but the family will do fine. This AP story is pretty brutal.

The bank owned by Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias' family could fail in just days, forcing him to overcome a notable business stumble as he tries to keep President Barack Obama's old Senate seat in Democratic hands.

His Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, is sure to brand him a failed banker at a time when Americans are still fuming over taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street. What's more, Giannoulias' family could walk away with millions in tax refunds after writing off Broadway Bank's losses — giving Kirk the chance to paint him as a fat cat.

But we should all pray for Reckless Alexi, the hapless hot money victim of a bad economy, who had to make loans to mobsters just to make ends meet:

Longtime Broadway customer Shehdeh Abukhalil said he has been praying for the bank and said he won't hold its troubles against Giannoulias. "It's the economy," said Abukhalil, who owns gas stations, restaurants and convenience stores.

Fellow customer Mohammad Khan, who owns a Chicago auto repair shop, agrees. "Everybody's suffering," Khan said.

Oh, and Alexi says he expects our President Barack Obama to campaign for him. Hmm. Is Alexi on the schedule? Perhaps that is why our President Barack Obama is campaigning in a small town downstate this coming week, rather than coming home to the house that Rezko built. So to speak.

One of my friends at our weekly right wing conspiracy coffee this morning wondered if that's the town where they stop cars to let the snakes cross the road. [Guess not, maybe next time. But maybe they'll stop for you in Quincy.]

Some Shakespearian advice from the Trib:

Talking like Shakespeare, or at least like one of Shakespeare's characters, means, ideally, speaking in meter: "There is a tide in the affairs of men." ("Julius Caesar").

Shakespeare often wrote in iambic pentameter, meaning five iambic "feet" per line, each "foot" being a soft-hard syllable pair … da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM. Which is hard work to speak, but once started,'tis harder still to stop. 'Tis the insane root / that takes the reason prisoner!

Next thing, nail the tone of voice, says Ross Lehman, a Chicago actor and veteran of many Shakespeare plays. He knows that some in the audience aren't following his every word, he says. "But say it like you mean it, and it'll sound right."

Say it like you mean it, Alexi, maybe some will believe you. You gotta brush up your Shakespeare:

P.S. White House leaves Dick Durbin hanging. The Politico:

Getting involved would be an unwelcome Illinois flashback for Obama’s Chicago-bred brain trust of Emanuel and senior adviser David Axelrod, dominant players in many of the state’s campaigns for two decades. Making matters stickier: Emanuel’s recent public musing about running for mayor of Chicago if Richard Daley, Giannoulias’s most important ally, retires.

Brain trust. For sure. These guys have started to get in each other's way too much. (And just about all of em are tied to Tony Rezko, who is in hiding again. Maybe he's in Barack's unoccupied house:) Guess no Quincy get-together. HT Memeorandum. It's all a big Kabuki theater. They want to win, even if they win dirty. Look how Durbin was the kingmaker for Roland Tombstone Burris, after the Dems like House Speaker Mike Madigan let Blago retain the power to appoint a new Senator rather than push for the special election they thought they'd lose. (And the current GOP candidate Mark Kirk would win.) And Rahmbo was a Daley guy before he went to work for Barack--so his noises about wanting the mayor's seat may be so much kabuki too, to fend off other challengers and make the mayor look good by comparison. Kabuki.

Alexi won the Dem primary, fending off a challenger. He's their stinky guy. Kabuki. Kabuki Shakespeare.

...And if Blago engineers their losses, more power to him. Even if no one goes to jail. ...He's probably brushing up his Shakespeare right now.

"And while you're at it, you might as well throw in a little 'Richard the Third,' " he writes. "Because when the story of my years as governor ends, I was left with neither a kingdom nor a horse. Or for that matter, even a car."

UPDATE: Closure confirmed. Chicago News Bench with pix earlier in the day.

More. Alexi statement. So surreal:

While this is a surreal and extraordinary day for me, unfortunately, the struggle of family businesses across the State has become all too ordinary. But the knowledge that what has happened tonight is just a sliver of the hardship...

Surreal. Alexi Giannoulias. A real man of the people.

HT Capitol Fax.