Sen. Kirk: Re-elect Rahm or Chicago could end up like Detroit

[brooklynite]

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., on Monday warned that Chicago could go the way of Detroit — which declared bankruptcy — if Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not re-elected.

“The people who are running against Rahm don’t have the gravitas with the bond market. I would worry about the value of the Chicago debt if Rahm was not re-elected,” Kirk told reporters at the Pulaski Day festivities at the Polish Museum of America, 984 Milwaukee Ave.

Kirk’s dire warning comes three days after Moody’s Investors Service dropped Chicago’s plummeting bond rating another notch, to two levels above junk status.

Emanuel is facing Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia in a runoff election April 7. A recent poll put the race in a statistical dead heat. Emanuel and Garcia survived a first-round election Feb. 24 against three other challengers — Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd), businessman Willie Wilson and community activist William “Dock” Walls.

Read more: http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/407760/sen-kirk-re-elect-rahm-chicago-end-like-detroit

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It's nice to have friends.....

[hobbit709]

1. a Repuke endorsing Rahmbo tells me what I need to know.

[daleanime]

29. +1

[blkmusclmachine]

35. +1000

[randys1]

51. No shit...Have never liked Rahm

[blackspade]

2. Talk about coersion and corruption.

[Scuba]

47. "Nice little city you got there. Be a shame if something happened to its bond rating."

Sure sounds like a threat.

[HereSince1628]

3. Fear! Not surprised conservative leaners go with brinksmanship

[muntrv]

4. Memo to Kirk: The bond rating drop happenned DURING Rahm's watch!

[dhill926]

17. exactly what I was thinking...

[merrily]

26. Good to know. Thanks

[Dawson Leery]

5. Tammy Duckworth is gearing up to take out this soft fascist(kirk).

[truebrit71]

6. And this says everything you need to know about Rahm...

....

[RationalMan]

7. If Kirk is endorsing Emanuel.........

we know that Emanuel needs to go.

I am not in Illinois so I cannot vote but I suggest that Chicago send a resounding NO to Emanuel at the runoff. He and his brand of crony politics needs to go the way of the buggy and horsewhip.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

14. We'll always have crony politics. We just need to make sure we have better cronies.

[Enrique]

8. "(those) people... Detroit..."

i see what you did there, Senator...

[global1]

9. A Lot Of Good Rahm's Gravitas Helped...

It is on his watch that Moody's dropped Chicago's bond rating. Kind of makes you wonder why a Repug like Kirk would endorse Rahm? And to boot - Rahm and Rauner have a past together. Chicagoans feel that they have Rahm's number.

One can almost feel the tide turning here against Rahm. You just get a sense in Chicago that Chuy is going to beat Rahm. The people are tired of Mayor 1%. They got his number. My two nephews 38 & 40y/o were both pro-Rahm the first time around. I talked with them about two weeks ago just before the election and both were down on Rahm and were going to vote for Chuy. One lives near Wrigleyville the other off Sheridan Road near the lake. They tell me that their family, friends and neighbors all feel the same way. Both areas are affluent and youthful and they are lining up against Rahm. Couple that with the schools closing primarily in the Black neighborhoods and the fact that Chuy will get the Latino vote - what do you think will happen.

Last weeks election where Rahm didn't win the majority and sail into the Mayorship was a shot in the arm of a lot of People in Chicago that were feeling disenfranchised. They saw first hand the power of the People and now know that their votes can make a difference and Rahm can be deposed even though he has a big war-chest of money.

My assessment is that Rahm is in real trouble and unless Chuy really screws up - Chuy will be the next Mayor of Chicago.

And NO - we're not going to go the way of Detroit.

[lark]

10. Rahm's reign

is the reason the bond rating is falling, he cut taxes on the rich and services for the poor and Chicago isn't doing well. He's just another DINO, third wayer who might as well be Repug.

[android fan]

11. Advising my sister and her hubby to vote for Garcia as Emmanuel is done.

The corporatist Democrat is going to get tossed.

[merrily]

28. From your keyboard to the voting booths of Chicago! I hope you are right.

Rahm raised 9 million for the primary. Now he is running against only one person, not a field.

I hope DUers from all over the country can donate something, even if it's $5.

We cannot out-donate the Koch brothers, but they dropped a money bomb and a lot of strategy on Scott Brown to take Ted Kennedy's seat. I imagine that was (a) because both Kennedy and Massachusetts were such iconic liberal symbols to the rest of the nation and (b) that was the only national election going on in the nation at that time.

What Kennedy symbolized iconically for liberals, Rahm symbolizes iconically for Third Wayers.

If anyone reading this can possible donate to Jesus, please do so.

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/chicagoforchuy

If anyone is close enough to Chicago to volunteer, please do so. Here is a list of field offices:

http://chicagoforchuy.com/field-office-locator

[Gidney N Cloyd]

12. Anyone else a little disturbed that bond ratings depend so heavily on "gravitas"?

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. ROFL: it's all very scientific, you see!

Truly an unbelievable statement.

[merrily]

30. I think the Republican meant to say "closing public schools"

and "soul-less austerity generally," but he figured "gravitas" might sell better with Chicago voters.

Just a guess.

[Jim Lane]

42. That was my reaction, too.

Would the good Senator be so kind as to tell us which of his Wall Street buddies do their bond ratings on the basis of whether they like the Mayor personally, rather than on data?

If he's right that it's a significant factor, then there's an opportunity for contrarian investing here. Short-sell the bonds that are being rated up based on "gravitas" or the like and you should come out ahead.

[JI7]

13. hopefully this will hurt him

[Hoppy]

15. Or elect Rahman and Chicago will end up like Somalia.

[fredamae]

16. I thought this was The Onion

for a moment.

lol.....Not only do I believe rahm is Toast...but Burnt Toast....Will the GOP heed kirks warning and "save" rahm Or refuse to turn out at all for him?

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. New qualification for mayor: gravitas with the bond market

Rahm should put that in his commercials:

Vote for Rahm: He has Gravitas with the Bond Market!

It's like they don't even hear themselves, these neoliberal extortionists!

[riderinthestorm]

20. As though Rahm has had nothing to do with the bond rating dropping so far

[former9thward]

22. Most of Chicago's problems lie with Daley.

He left the city heavily in debt.

[riderinthestorm]

23. Agreed. But he's been in office for 4 years now. He's got some responsibility here

and I refuse to let him off the hook for his part.

[former9thward]

25. Oh yes and I think it would be refreshing to have Garcia win.

I still remember the Washington years. They were fun politically and broke up the (old) Daley machine. Son came along and developed a new model with contractors replacing the old ward organizations. That led to the financial problems now bubbling to the surface. Garcia can't solve those problems, no one can, but he would bring a breath of fresh air into Chicago.

[riderinthestorm]

27. He can solve all the city's financial woes by legalizing recreational MJ

it would also relieve the prison population burden as well as reducing some of the racial arrests that revolve around MJ.

Chuy Garcia has said he'd look at that as an option. Frankly it's Chicago's best hope Imho (see Colorado's amazing example as a prototype for Chicago).

[merrily]

32. Obama appointed Mayor Daley's son to replace Rahm as chief of staff. At first, I thought

that might have been part of a package deal with the Daleys to get their support Rahm for Mayor. But, then, I found out that Daley had been Special Counsel to Bubba on NAFTA, as well as Secretary of Commerce and I wondered if Obama would be looking to him on TPP. Also a bankster.

According to his wiki, he wanted to be Governor of Illinois, but withdrew from the race suddenly, citing the rigors of campaigning. A Republican won.

Must be sweet to have been born to into the Chicago machine family.

[bloomington-lib]

21. Always follow the opposite plan of a Republicans.

You don't even have to be a Dem or Lib to know that. You just have to look at the Republicans track record. When was the last time they were right about anything?

[tularetom]

24. Nobody needs that kind of "gravitas"

https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-downgrades-Chicago-IL-to-Baa1-from-A3-affecting-83--PR_294237

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/03/chicagos-fiscal-freefall-moodys-cuts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+(Mish's+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis)

http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/401903/moodys-drops-chicagos-bond-rating-another-notch-two-levels-junk-status

And we all know what "like Detroit" is code for, wink wink nudge nudge.

[merrily]

33. and, by "code," I assume you mean "dog whistle."

[Blue_Tires]

55. +1

[guillaumeb]

31. sounds like Mark Kirk had too much vodka at the celebration.

The Sun Times, like the Chicago Tribune, is a right wing paper for our area. I would expect nothing different from either paper. Rahm Emmanuel made $18 million in a very short time as an investment banker. His good friend, newly elected GOP Governor Bruce Rauner, AKA Baron von Carhart for his habit of wearing a Carhart jacket to show he "understands" workers, helped Rahm in his rapid climb to financial success. Rahm is the prototypical DLC Conserva-Dem. He is no friend to working class people.

Rahm is in trouble because he assumed that massive campaign spending could fool enough people in an off-year election so he could win. He will spend the next 6 weeks at countless meet and greet opportunities to try and fool people into thinking he really cares about them. He probably also hopes the voters will forget about all the schools he closed in black and brown neighborhoods.

Way to go Mark Kirk, telling people that the white vote is the right vote.

[merrily]

36. Or, did he?

[merrily]

34. Go, Jesus!

[guillaumeb]

38. carefull with that tltle

the atheists are looking.

[merrily]

39. But, it's such fun!

[guillaumeb]

41. firestarter

I have enjoyed sparring with the atheists but many are as rigid and "fundamentalist" in their views as any fundamentalist Christians I have met.

[merrily]

43. Well, now you've made it less fun and much more serious. However, I will say this:

I think A LOT of problems would go away if we followed Jefferson's view of a wall between church and state for, as he said, the benefit of both.

I think a lot of bitterness arises from the intermingling. Sure, if you're gay and your family shuns gays because of their pastor's teachings, you are going to be heartbroken, no matter what. Ditto maybe if you are a pregnant teen. For the rest of us, though, the resentment comes from the insistence that your pastor's teachings become secular law for all of us.


("You" and "your" in the above post are generic and not a reference to guillameb.)

[guillaumeb]

49. understand and agree

I understood the generic "you" and agree completely with your message. I am a person of faith but I do not feel that means anything as a statement if I do not demonstrate it with my behavior. Believer or not, I judge a person by their actions.

Also agree that the Constitution is not a religious document and the US is not a theocracy.

[merrily]

50. Thanks. I have no problem with anyone being a person of faith. I do have a problem with

intermingling religion and government.

I wish Democrats had years ago taken a strong stand on separation. I think the Party and the country would be better off now if that had happened. I hope it happens someday. And, on the flip side, I think there would also be less resentment of religion today, if people respected strict separation.

[guillaumeb]

52. great reply

insightful observation:
And, on the flip side, I think there would also be less resentment of religion today, if people respected strict separation.

[merrily]

53. Thank you.

[LiberalElite]

37. I just donated to Garcia for Mayor - and it's all because of YOU, Sen. Kirk! nt

[merrily]

40. See, Republican Senators can do some good in this world, even if they'd rather not.

Good on you for donating.

[LiberalElite]

44. Whatever good they do is by accident nt

[merrily]

45. And against their will!

[whereisjustice]

46. "The people who are running against Rahm don’t have the gravitas" meaning

they might not be as willing to sell off the public trust like a bunch of Wall Street whores.

[apnu]

48. self- delete. Stupid post.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

54. We still have Rahm to thank for 2010

His screw-the-base strategy sent the WH off track and pissed off the base good for the midterms.