[Judy Erwin, a former state lawmaker ‘s] quick departure represents an early embarrassment for an incoming administration that gained a decisive victory last week after campaigning on themes that included bringing further ethics reforms to a city long known for its history of government corruption. -- Rick Pearson and John ChaseRemember Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, and Hilda Solis they were Cabinet picks for president Barry Hussein Soetoro Mayor-Elect Rahm Emanuel’s former boss. All were found to have outstanding tax problems, which would be tax evasion if similar lapses in ethics were discovered in you or me.
Then there was New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson’s pay-for-play federal grand jury investigation that stopped his would be cabinet appointment by president Soetoro. Remember Soetoro promised the most ethical administration in the history of the United States of America, quite an inauspicious start to an administration that made ethics its banner in the beginning.
Would it be too trite to say that in Rahm Emanuel‘s case the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Or perhaps shall we ponder which came first the apple or the tree? In any event, for Chicago’s Mayor-elect Emanuel to start his administration in the same embarrassing fashion as did his former boss suggest a common mind set one would think.
The president’s administration as well as his personal eligibility has been under ethic scrutiny since day one of his presidency and even behind that regarding his eligibility. One would think that Mayor-elect Emanuel would have taken note to be somewhat careful regarding questions of ethics since he was a part of the Soetoro administration and has firsthand knowledge of how damaging suspicions of ethic violations can be.
"Judy Erwin is a friend of Rahm's with a wealth of experience and he'll continue to consult her public policy knowledge," LaBolt said in a statement issued late Friday.-- Rick Pearson and John Chase
In Emanuel’s case, Erwin was a known ethics violator yet as if he were immune to consequences, he hired her to work on his transition team in what seems to be quid pro quo for work she did for the Soetoro campaign while she was working as a State employee on state time. (see story)
Erwin admitted using her office e-mail and phone while working on a campaign committee for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, using staff resources to plan her trip to the 2008 Democratic National Convention and engaging in campaign fundraising activity while on the job, the state's Executive Ethics Commission ruled in a decision filed Feb. 16.-- Rick Pearson and John Chase
Is this the business as usual political corruption that is so laissez-faire between the Soetoro administration his political favorites. Has Chicago politics now adopted the “no controlling legal authority” of the Al Gore kind?
Ms. Erwin did Mayor-elect Emanuel a favor by stepping down. That action will satisfy those who are willing to ignore the lapse of vetting that placed Erwin in such a position in the first place.
She did Chicagoans and Americans a favor too. We now are aware that the same processes that are in place corrupting our national politics are also in place wherever anyone who is connected with Barry Hussein Soetoro goes.
The apple doesn’t fall far…
