Emanuel: I don’t think Mayor Daley …said, "Don Tomczak, go work for Rahm."
Some links fixed and slight edits made on Friday, Aug. 26 at 1:00 pm.
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Fran Spielman: But, you have already said you don’t think it was Mayor Daley.
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: No, I don’t think Mayor Daley picked up the phone and said, "Don Tomczak, go work for Rahm.". --
Jeff Berkowitz: No, but somebody in your campaign who knew--would have to know where they [the Tomczak army] could help Rahm Emanuel the most. If it wasn’t the Mayor, somebody from your campaign had to tell them where to go [to help Rahm Emanuel in the 2004 Primary].
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: First of all, I got help from, as I said earlier, …from the police union, firefighters union…
*******************************************************
Congressman Rahm Emanuel [D-Chicago, 5th Cong. Dist.] was the guest speaker Wednesday at a City Club of Chicago lunch program [the best deal in town], which, of course, was SRO. Even Rahm’s critics concede that he put together a good, polished argument and he handled all questions with finesse and humor. His defense of Mayor Daley was simple and to the point: Daley did all these great things for Chicago over the last sixteen years—Good Parks [Forrest Claypool], Strong Libraries [Mary Dempsey], Improved Schools [Paul Vallas] and a prosperous Loop business climate [Who Knows], but he let others take care of politics—which led to all the corruption [Bracketed names are attributed to Berkowitz, not Rahm]. Congressman Emanuel faulted Daley, “Not for what he knew. But for what he didn’t know.” [See John Kass].
Taking into account the “totality,” of the Mayor’s record, Rahm Emanuel, who is also Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ("DCCC") hopes Daley runs again and unlike U. S. Senator Barack Obama [See Berkowitz], Rahm is ready to endorse the Mayor now [See Gary Washburn]. Again, in contrast to Senator Obama, Cong. Emanuel owes Daley big time, whether it was Rahm’s CHA Vice Chairman appointment or Daley’s unusual primary endorsement for Rahm’s tough 5th Congressional District race against Nancy Kaszak and a few others [See Fran Spielman or Daley’s actions possibly leading to convicted First Deputy Water Commissioner Tomczak's efforts to help Rahm get to the finish line before fellow Democrat Nancy Kaszak in the March, 2004 primary [See Mark Brown] and [See Berkowitz].
The above, however, may be a bit too harsh on Cong. Emanuel. One, his relationship with the Mayor is much more of an even trade. As the Chicago Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman points out, raising seven million dollars for the Mayor in just 13 weeks for his 1989 Mayoral race went a long way to earn the assistance Daley provided to Rahm to help him become the Mayor’s “Go To,” congressman [borrowing a favorite phrase from the City Club of Chicago’s President and Democrat campaign consultant/fundraiser, Jay Doherty]. That is, even before the speech, the ledger for Rahm and the Mayor may have been in balance.
Two, you get the feeling that Cong. Emanuel didn’t appear at the City Club of Chicago simply to pay back his patron, supporter and mentor. The arguments he put forth are ideas he believes in, with passion. He was careful to argue that no good deeds of Daley could justify any corruption, on Daley’s part or by anyone else. Cong. Emanuel made clear he thought Daley neither knew about nor was involved in corruption-- at least Rahm doesn’t believe Daley has any legal culpability for the corruption. So, I understand Cong. Emanuel to be saying that voters in 2007 should balance the goods deeds of Daley against his failure to stay hands on “in the politics,” which failure led to others acting corruptly. In Rahm’s words, no pol should ever “outsource politics,” and Rahm said he never does.
Three, unlike Daley’s often retained consultant, David Axelrod [See here], or journalist John McCarron [See here], Cong. Emanuel made no attempt to excuse, justify or defend patronage.
If you missed the lunch, Cong. Emanuel’s talk, followed by some hardball questions from some of those in attendance will air this coming Saturday night [Aug. 27], 7:00 pm- 8:00 pm on CANTV (Cable Ch. 21 in the City of Chicago) and again on Wed. morning [Aug. 31], 10:00 am-11:00 am on CANTV (this program airs on Cable Ch. 19 in the City of Chicago; CANTV airs on five different cable stations in the City of Chicago).
The Emanuel speech was good; as was the food-as it always is at Maggiano’s Banquets. Further, the questions from the audience were unusually tough—mostly fastballs and curves.
However, the real fun of the program was the press feeding frenzy, which followed it. Cong. Rahm Emanuel, to his credit, not only didn’t run from the press, but seemed to enjoy the challenge of answering questions, no holds barred, from nine different directions, with the Sun-Times Fran Spielman just a notch above everyone else: Oh, what I could do for a television station’s ratings with a Chicago local news camera crew. Take a listen:
****************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Rahm, Bob Crawford [WBBM-780 AM Radio Political Editor Emeritus] has talked for more than five years about the systemic problem of corruption [in the Mayor Daley Administration] and the [fact that the] Mayor, until recently, never treated it as a systemic problem. How can you defend that? He has to have known it was a systemic problem.
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: I said I can give you my sense of why he doesn’t care about that stuff- doesn’t want to know about it. But, that’s not legit. You can’t say it is only the workings of government and the libraries and the police stations and the public housing and the public schools and, in my view, that same reform, that same commitment, that same willingness to spend political capital to see changes in public schools and public housing has to be brought to public institutions and public service.
Craig Dellimore [WBBM-780 AM Radio Political Editor]: Let’s take the question one step beyond, though. If someone could be a mayor who ignored or didn’t see those kinds of things-- while focusing on the things he wanted to do—misses this level of corruption, should that person be the Mayor?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: Craig, I answered the question. I think he should be Mayor and I hope he runs for re-election.
Bill Cameron [WLS- 890 AM Radio City Hall reporter]: How can you argue that he held the line on property taxes when every year, but one, I think, he has raised the [property] tax for schools right up to the limit?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: What I said and what I believe is that he has shown a sense of fiscal discipline and innovation that as we expand our services—that he has held the line on taxes and he has.
Cameron: But he hasn’t.
Fran Spielman [Chicago Sun-Times City Hall Reporter]: You are painting a picture of him as someone who is basically “see no evil, hear no evil,” on the political aspect but totally…
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: I believe that the way, as I said, all- Fran- the totality. I don’t think you get a pass when you say I didn’t know that was going on. Because at the end of the day, you are the address of accountability. And, what I am saying is—you have got to make those changes…I always used to say if …we had known in the first year of the first term [of the Clinton Administration] what we knew by the first year of the second term-- the Presidency would be different. The Mayor thought he could get away is my guess…if he just did all the good works on city government—you know the public schools, the…that was enough, and that he could basically let that go and let somebody else manage it. He [Daley] has to set the standards. He has to set the priorities… That is what he needs to do and I think he will…
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Cong. Rahm Emanuel: …I am going to stand up for the Mayor because I think (A) you have got to pull the lens back and get a full picture of everything about his work. He doesn’t get a pass on the other stuff, but it is not a full description of the Mayor we know that has made this [City] in my view the most livable City in America.
Another Reporter: …don’t you believe it was the Mayor who called Tomczak [and] who said, “Get your troops out for Rahm.”
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: No.
Another Reporter: You don’t?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: You asked me do I believe the Mayor got on the phone. I just otherwise-- if I said that--
Another Reporter: [He called] Mr. Tomczak and said, back Rahm?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: You’re asking me to guess.
Jeff Berkowitz: How did Tomczak know where to go [with his help for you in the primary]?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: First of all, you know in that campaign, as I said to you earlier—in that campaign [the March, 2004 Primary in which Nancy Kaszak, came within nine points, or so, of beating Rahm Emanuel for the 5th Cong. Seat] Let me step back. One, he [Don Tomczak] never contributed to my campaign and he never worked for my campaign, and what he did was wrong. Two, I got support from a lot of folks in that campaign…
Spielman: But… who gave him the marching orders?
************************************************
Another reporter: …clarify now. Tomczak’s people did work for you?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: What I said is—they didn’t work on my campaign. They did not work out of my office or my payroll.
Spielman: But, they did field work for you. And, you had Greg Goldner as your campaign manager.
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: Fran, when Greg worked for me, he worked for me and nobody else.
Spielman: Right, but he’s [HDO honcho] Victor Reyes’-- [sidekick]
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: I was responsible for him [Goldner] for the four months he worked for me. He did not work for anybody else when he worked for me.
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Spielman: Who told Tomczak’s army to work for you?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: You have to go ask those people.
Spielman: Who do you think gave the orders?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: It’s a guess, I don’t know.
Spielman: You don’t think it was Mayor Daley?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: You asked me to guess. I am guessing.
Spielman: But, you have already said you don’t think it was Mayor Daley.
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: No, I don’t think Mayor Daley picked up the phone and said, "Don Tomczak, go work for Rahm.".
Jeff Berkowitz: No, but somebody in your campaign who knew--would have to know where they [the Tomczak army] could help Rahm Emanuel the most. If it wasn’t the Mayor, somebody from your campaign had to tell them where to go [to help Rahm Emanuel in the 2004 Primary].
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: First of all, I got help from, as I said earlier, …from the police union, firefighters union…
Berkowitz: Could you have won the Primary without Don Tomczak’s help? [See here].
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: I will leave that to your insights.
Bill Cameron: Yes. [Well, Bill Cameron might be right. Rahm could have. I should have asked-- WOULD Rahm have won without Tomczak’s help, but I don’t suppose Rahm would have answered that one, either. He didn’t go to Sarah Lawrence and Northwestern just to eat his lunch.]
Press Conference by Cong. Rahm Emanuel after he spoke at a City Club of Chicago lunch program on August 24, 2005.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs and an Executive Recruiter doing Legal Search, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
***********
********************************************************
Fran Spielman: But, you have already said you don’t think it was Mayor Daley.
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: No, I don’t think Mayor Daley picked up the phone and said, "Don Tomczak, go work for Rahm.". --
Jeff Berkowitz: No, but somebody in your campaign who knew--would have to know where they [the Tomczak army] could help Rahm Emanuel the most. If it wasn’t the Mayor, somebody from your campaign had to tell them where to go [to help Rahm Emanuel in the 2004 Primary].
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: First of all, I got help from, as I said earlier, …from the police union, firefighters union…
*******************************************************
Congressman Rahm Emanuel [D-Chicago, 5th Cong. Dist.] was the guest speaker Wednesday at a City Club of Chicago lunch program [the best deal in town], which, of course, was SRO. Even Rahm’s critics concede that he put together a good, polished argument and he handled all questions with finesse and humor. His defense of Mayor Daley was simple and to the point: Daley did all these great things for Chicago over the last sixteen years—Good Parks [Forrest Claypool], Strong Libraries [Mary Dempsey], Improved Schools [Paul Vallas] and a prosperous Loop business climate [Who Knows], but he let others take care of politics—which led to all the corruption [Bracketed names are attributed to Berkowitz, not Rahm]. Congressman Emanuel faulted Daley, “Not for what he knew. But for what he didn’t know.” [See John Kass].
Taking into account the “totality,” of the Mayor’s record, Rahm Emanuel, who is also Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ("DCCC") hopes Daley runs again and unlike U. S. Senator Barack Obama [See Berkowitz], Rahm is ready to endorse the Mayor now [See Gary Washburn]. Again, in contrast to Senator Obama, Cong. Emanuel owes Daley big time, whether it was Rahm’s CHA Vice Chairman appointment or Daley’s unusual primary endorsement for Rahm’s tough 5th Congressional District race against Nancy Kaszak and a few others [See Fran Spielman or Daley’s actions possibly leading to convicted First Deputy Water Commissioner Tomczak's efforts to help Rahm get to the finish line before fellow Democrat Nancy Kaszak in the March, 2004 primary [See Mark Brown] and [See Berkowitz].
The above, however, may be a bit too harsh on Cong. Emanuel. One, his relationship with the Mayor is much more of an even trade. As the Chicago Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman points out, raising seven million dollars for the Mayor in just 13 weeks for his 1989 Mayoral race went a long way to earn the assistance Daley provided to Rahm to help him become the Mayor’s “Go To,” congressman [borrowing a favorite phrase from the City Club of Chicago’s President and Democrat campaign consultant/fundraiser, Jay Doherty]. That is, even before the speech, the ledger for Rahm and the Mayor may have been in balance.
Two, you get the feeling that Cong. Emanuel didn’t appear at the City Club of Chicago simply to pay back his patron, supporter and mentor. The arguments he put forth are ideas he believes in, with passion. He was careful to argue that no good deeds of Daley could justify any corruption, on Daley’s part or by anyone else. Cong. Emanuel made clear he thought Daley neither knew about nor was involved in corruption-- at least Rahm doesn’t believe Daley has any legal culpability for the corruption. So, I understand Cong. Emanuel to be saying that voters in 2007 should balance the goods deeds of Daley against his failure to stay hands on “in the politics,” which failure led to others acting corruptly. In Rahm’s words, no pol should ever “outsource politics,” and Rahm said he never does.
Three, unlike Daley’s often retained consultant, David Axelrod [See here], or journalist John McCarron [See here], Cong. Emanuel made no attempt to excuse, justify or defend patronage.
If you missed the lunch, Cong. Emanuel’s talk, followed by some hardball questions from some of those in attendance will air this coming Saturday night [Aug. 27], 7:00 pm- 8:00 pm on CANTV (Cable Ch. 21 in the City of Chicago) and again on Wed. morning [Aug. 31], 10:00 am-11:00 am on CANTV (this program airs on Cable Ch. 19 in the City of Chicago; CANTV airs on five different cable stations in the City of Chicago).
The Emanuel speech was good; as was the food-as it always is at Maggiano’s Banquets. Further, the questions from the audience were unusually tough—mostly fastballs and curves.
However, the real fun of the program was the press feeding frenzy, which followed it. Cong. Rahm Emanuel, to his credit, not only didn’t run from the press, but seemed to enjoy the challenge of answering questions, no holds barred, from nine different directions, with the Sun-Times Fran Spielman just a notch above everyone else: Oh, what I could do for a television station’s ratings with a Chicago local news camera crew. Take a listen:
****************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Rahm, Bob Crawford [WBBM-780 AM Radio Political Editor Emeritus] has talked for more than five years about the systemic problem of corruption [in the Mayor Daley Administration] and the [fact that the] Mayor, until recently, never treated it as a systemic problem. How can you defend that? He has to have known it was a systemic problem.
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: I said I can give you my sense of why he doesn’t care about that stuff- doesn’t want to know about it. But, that’s not legit. You can’t say it is only the workings of government and the libraries and the police stations and the public housing and the public schools and, in my view, that same reform, that same commitment, that same willingness to spend political capital to see changes in public schools and public housing has to be brought to public institutions and public service.
Craig Dellimore [WBBM-780 AM Radio Political Editor]: Let’s take the question one step beyond, though. If someone could be a mayor who ignored or didn’t see those kinds of things-- while focusing on the things he wanted to do—misses this level of corruption, should that person be the Mayor?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: Craig, I answered the question. I think he should be Mayor and I hope he runs for re-election.
Bill Cameron [WLS- 890 AM Radio City Hall reporter]: How can you argue that he held the line on property taxes when every year, but one, I think, he has raised the [property] tax for schools right up to the limit?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: What I said and what I believe is that he has shown a sense of fiscal discipline and innovation that as we expand our services—that he has held the line on taxes and he has.
Cameron: But he hasn’t.
Fran Spielman [Chicago Sun-Times City Hall Reporter]: You are painting a picture of him as someone who is basically “see no evil, hear no evil,” on the political aspect but totally…
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: I believe that the way, as I said, all- Fran- the totality. I don’t think you get a pass when you say I didn’t know that was going on. Because at the end of the day, you are the address of accountability. And, what I am saying is—you have got to make those changes…I always used to say if …we had known in the first year of the first term [of the Clinton Administration] what we knew by the first year of the second term-- the Presidency would be different. The Mayor thought he could get away is my guess…if he just did all the good works on city government—you know the public schools, the…that was enough, and that he could basically let that go and let somebody else manage it. He [Daley] has to set the standards. He has to set the priorities… That is what he needs to do and I think he will…
************************************
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: …I am going to stand up for the Mayor because I think (A) you have got to pull the lens back and get a full picture of everything about his work. He doesn’t get a pass on the other stuff, but it is not a full description of the Mayor we know that has made this [City] in my view the most livable City in America.
Another Reporter: …don’t you believe it was the Mayor who called Tomczak [and] who said, “Get your troops out for Rahm.”
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: No.
Another Reporter: You don’t?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: You asked me do I believe the Mayor got on the phone. I just otherwise-- if I said that--
Another Reporter: [He called] Mr. Tomczak and said, back Rahm?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: You’re asking me to guess.
Jeff Berkowitz: How did Tomczak know where to go [with his help for you in the primary]?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: First of all, you know in that campaign, as I said to you earlier—in that campaign [the March, 2004 Primary in which Nancy Kaszak, came within nine points, or so, of beating Rahm Emanuel for the 5th Cong. Seat] Let me step back. One, he [Don Tomczak] never contributed to my campaign and he never worked for my campaign, and what he did was wrong. Two, I got support from a lot of folks in that campaign…
Spielman: But… who gave him the marching orders?
************************************************
Another reporter: …clarify now. Tomczak’s people did work for you?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: What I said is—they didn’t work on my campaign. They did not work out of my office or my payroll.
Spielman: But, they did field work for you. And, you had Greg Goldner as your campaign manager.
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: Fran, when Greg worked for me, he worked for me and nobody else.
Spielman: Right, but he’s [HDO honcho] Victor Reyes’-- [sidekick]
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: I was responsible for him [Goldner] for the four months he worked for me. He did not work for anybody else when he worked for me.
**************************************
Spielman: Who told Tomczak’s army to work for you?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: You have to go ask those people.
Spielman: Who do you think gave the orders?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: It’s a guess, I don’t know.
Spielman: You don’t think it was Mayor Daley?
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: You asked me to guess. I am guessing.
Spielman: But, you have already said you don’t think it was Mayor Daley.
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: No, I don’t think Mayor Daley picked up the phone and said, "Don Tomczak, go work for Rahm.".
Jeff Berkowitz: No, but somebody in your campaign who knew--would have to know where they [the Tomczak army] could help Rahm Emanuel the most. If it wasn’t the Mayor, somebody from your campaign had to tell them where to go [to help Rahm Emanuel in the 2004 Primary].
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: First of all, I got help from, as I said earlier, …from the police union, firefighters union…
Berkowitz: Could you have won the Primary without Don Tomczak’s help? [See here].
Cong. Rahm Emanuel: I will leave that to your insights.
Bill Cameron: Yes. [Well, Bill Cameron might be right. Rahm could have. I should have asked-- WOULD Rahm have won without Tomczak’s help, but I don’t suppose Rahm would have answered that one, either. He didn’t go to Sarah Lawrence and Northwestern just to eat his lunch.]
Press Conference by Cong. Rahm Emanuel after he spoke at a City Club of Chicago lunch program on August 24, 2005.
**********************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs and an Executive Recruiter doing Legal Search, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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