Congressman seeks help

Shorebank helped by friends

The bailout has been controversial. Senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett served on a Chicago civic organization with a director of the bank, and President Obama himself has singled out the bank for praise in lending to low-income communities.

But the bank has made its share of bad bets, and some of the Wall Street firms that have given money have said they’ve received political pressure to contribute to the bailout of a business that under normal circumstances would have been left to fail

Can this be crony capitalism?

We had our principles

Tom Roeser on conventional liberal advice to candidates, according to which :

the way to go is pro-abort, pro-gay rights (preferably gay marriage), hold on to the size of state government that exists now, agree to the “inevitability of income tax increases” and bow obsequies to the gifted leadership of the Madigans.

I will say this: it is definitely the authentic voice of 98% of those reporters in the mass media. You have a couple of beers with most newspaper and TV reporters and you’ll hear the same opinions . . . . Frankly, they’re the same observations reporters expressed to me years ago when I was a press secretary. No change since then.

Yes, yes, and double yes. We Chi Daily News reporters and editors trooped into the Corona basement for ham off the bone the day after McGovern won the Dem nomination in ’72, grinning to beat all.

“You’re all happy your man won,” the grizzled Italiano basement cafeteria manager said, and he was right, of course.

And that left-liberal tilting — let no man call it bias — endures to this day, among the very same people, except for the occasional maverick who whispers support for a fallen-away liberal like myself or the veteran police reporter regaling a reunion with tales of murder on the South Side (chuckles and smiles) but (uh-oh) quoting a psychologist he knew who theorized that black people just have shorter fuses. (Groans and disapproving looks.)

Plus ça change, as Roeser says, though not in so many words.

Tags: liberal+bias, Tom+Roeser, George+McGovern

Superior folks talk down

James Taranto at Wall St. Jnl Best of the Web notes that “the liberal elite” puts itrs “ugly attitudes . . . on display” at moments like this, when erstwhile White Houser James Carville says publicly that “there are a lot of stupid people out there” who think Obama is a muslim. It’s a pattern, says T., noting that the Pew Center considered the matter worth polling.

Thus, at a time when the vast majority of voters oppose the president’s policies for any number of legitimate reasons, the media’s self-superior dwelling on “stupid” or “kooky” Obama critics tends to marginalize Obama, not his opponents. Obama’s presidency is being consumed in a bonfire of liberal vanities.

That’s very good, that bonfire stuff. Will have to read Tom Wolfe’s book.

Tags: Obama+muslim, liberal+elite, Bonfire+of+the+Vanities

Wheeling Jesuit trustee leaving national post

[Drastically corrected version] Fr. Charles Currie, [not] the sole Wheeling Jesuit U. trustee [this was Fr. Edward Glynn] who did not collaborate in the firing of fellow Jesuit Fr. Julio Giulietti from the WJU presidency a year ago, is stepping down as president of the Assn. of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Colleagues heap praise on him in comments at The Chronicle of Higher Ed’s “The Ticker” blog.

Tom Ingram, president-emeritus, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB):

The 28 Jesuit colleges and universities will be losing an extraordinary leader next year, and so will the rest of higher education. Father Charlie Currie has inspired his colleague presidents to be sure, but he has also shepherded his Church and Catholic higher education across the board through some very very, very challenging issues ranging from threats to academic freedom in classrooms and institutional self-determination, as well as to their adequately preparing for their inevitable transition to lay Catholic leadership.

I’m certain that what he has done to help Catholic colleges and universities to begin addressing their futures while honoring the values, traditions, and teachings of the various religious communities that founded each of them will prove to be one of his true legacies.

David Baime, American Association of Community Colleges:

I know Father Currie less as a professional colleague than as a fellow tenant of the fourth floor of 1 Dupont Circle [DC]. To put it succinctly, to know him is to love him, and to chuckle with him as well. Father Currie’s moral authority within the higher education community, stemming as it does from a unique combination of intelligence, geniality, and learning, will be missed. But I will miss him more as a friend.

And an otherwise anonymous “raslowski”:

Charlie has served the Society of Jesus and the Jesuit Colleges and Universities with distinction. His has been a clear and consistent voice for an education in which the promotion of justice is a critical component. His efforts have shaped the world of higher education for the better.

Currie had the job 14 years. His stepping down is set for next June. He previously served as president of Wheeling (WV) Jesuit and Xavier University, in Ohio. Succeeding him will be the Rev. Greg Lucey, a former president of Spring Hill College, in Alabama.

In the course of post-firing controversy, [not] his email exchanges [but Fr. Ed Glynn’s] with the WJU board of directors chairman and the Jesuit president of the all-Jesuit trustees, appearing on a pro-Giulietti web site, shed much light on the firing itself, which happened after Giulietti, now at Loyola U.-Chicago, had been president two years. Glynn and Giulietti were trustees. The three others held a brief telephone meeting on Aug. 5, 2009, without either, agreeing to fire Giulietti after the directors had come close to doing so but failed to muster the required 2/3 vote. The trustees required a unanimous vote for the decision, from which Glynn was absent.

[Indeed, Currie from the start papered over the unexplained aspects of Giulietti’s firing, and indeed the firing itself, apparently going along with the whole business.]

Golden years

Melissa Bean, Congresswoman — Image via Wikipedia

The lady of Tom Roeser’s house calls this sort of thing a digression, he tells us. It happens in the middle of explicating Melissa Bean as a wimp:

Ms. Bean has come up with another formula to protect herself from the public and you can see it on YouTube or Breitbart and elsewhere around the Internet. I would put it here but I don’t know how to do it but, hell, there are enough reproductions of that event to satisfy anyone curious enough to look-see. I’m all thumbs at this technological stuff anyhow.

(Here’s the video with thug, btw).

It’s about being 82:

At eighty-two you’re thrilled when you wake up in the morning, ecstatic when you pull yourself up smoothly from a chair, declining help from those who rush over, stunned when you remember the punch-line of a funny story, saddened beyond words when you read the “Deceased” list of names in your university alumni magazine and find buddies there, edified when you make it up the 18 cement steps leading to the great wooden doors of Saint John Cantius, depressed when you have to pony up a stiff fee for new higher powered hearing aids, humiliated when you tell your family you can hear better now, leading them to ask “what kind?” and you look at your watch and say “a quarter to four.”

No, Dad, I didn’t ask the time! I asked: what kind?

There’s more:

You’re terrified when that sharp pain hits in your chest, electrified with joy when it turns out to be only gas, fervent with sweet resignation (maybe some fear) when you whisper to your God the Act of Contrition before you go to sleep hoping for the best.

Not yet famous last words — he has more where those came from. But an apt contribution to our geriatric treasure chest.

My variation on seeing death notices is this: Look for the ones born before you and figure out how long that gives you before shuffling off, and not to Buffalo either.

Rep. Bean’s Office: You Know How Dangerous Librarians Can Be! (riehlworldview.com)

Rev. Jesse from the bunker

Rev. Jesse Jackson’s ghost does not speak in rhyme, as Rev. J. used to, but he does have a way with a cliche:

American politics isn’t beanbag. It is rough, bare-knuckled and often dirty. In today’s 24/7 media environment, attack ads are remembered, and the truth has a hard time catching up with a lie. . . . unrelenting assault . . . Staggering numbers . . .

People have the right to say what they wish, particularly in political speech. But having the right does not make it right.

Opposition to the president’s policies should be combined with respect for his office. Political tactics ought to be informed by the reality that we all want this country to succeed. [?]

Democratic House leader Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan were diametrically opposed, but managed to find ways to work — and to share a drink — together.

Dr. King always taught us to appeal to the better angels of our opponents, even those unleashing dogs and armed with billy clubs. It is a lesson we should not forget. [Italics added]

Come home, America!

We know where you live, so watch out

Deeply flawed argument, old chap — D. Byrne in Chi Trib. As if Islamists would be impressed by our integrity (they would dance in their streets, taking credit and encouragement), as if there’s a move to slap a stop-work sign on otherwise-hallowed-ground mosque construction (have not heard of it), as if it’s not at this point a question of how dumb and/or rad-leftist is our president (I vote for both).

Anyhow, nice fulminating. Take that, you bad guys!