. . . and sentencing. She doesn’t call the judge a nitwit. Doesn’t have to, noting that she ruled out the Blagojevich connection (whether JJJr. offered big money for the senate seat), but rather credited JJJr. for testifying vs. Blago!

Prosecutors werent allowed to bring up the Blagojevich case at Jacksons sentencing. But Jesse Jackson Jr.s lawyer, Reid Weingarten, asked for less [prison] time for his client, in part, because Jackson was a critical witness at Blagojevichs trial who was very important to Blagojevichs conviction.

She let him do that?

[He] wouldnt have gotten away with that in Chicago.

The truth is that it was Blagojevich who called the ex-congressman to the stand.

As a defense witness. [italics
added]

And then JJJr. chief defenseman Dan Webb called JJJr’s wife Sandi, who lived with him and their kids in DC

an extraordinary alderman. Too many people [wrote Korecki] would have pounced on the fact that, in the annals of corrupt Chicago aldermen, most had a leg up on her: At least they lived here.

Even though JJSr (Reverend Milker of corporate cash cows with threats of guerilla politics by way of boycott) urged her not to live outside the city they love so much!

Read it at today’s Steve Huntley column:

Dick Durbin, one of the most powerful members of the U.S. Senate, has set his sights on the American Legislative Exchange Council. The ALEC focuses on fiscal issues in state legislatures but did support stand-your-ground laws that have been adopted by many states.

Such laws have been the focus of much controversy after the Trayvon Martin case, although Floridas statue [sic] was not a factor in the trial. Durbin wrote 300 companies and organizations that donate to ALEC asking their position on the laws. Durbin tried to frame this as a transparency issue, saying the donors may not be aware of ALECs support of the laws. Why didnt he just tell the donors of ALECs position instead of asking for their views?

Conservatives understandably see Durbin using the racial undertones of the Martin case to intimidate controversy-averse corporations and groups from donating to the ALEC, which has been effective in promoting free-market principles in state capitals. Confirming that suspicion is Durbins declaration that he will make the donor responses public in the record of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. In a chilling evocation of another era, Durbin asks, Do you now or have you ever supported stand-your-ground laws?

Scratch a liberal, I say more and more, and you find a fa—st, sometimes incipient, sometimes not.

Dennis Byrne says we know right away whether someone is black, white, or in-between.

Denies it says anything but that we have our eyes open — which is usually a good thing, by the way.