Saturday, February 13, 2010

Chicago Tribune Joins Growing Chorus of Demands for Alexi Giannoulias to Address Banking Questions

The hits keep on coming on Democratic Senate Candidate Alexi Giannoulias for his failure to address -- no, make that his steadfast avoidance of -- questions regarding his involvement with the checkered history and troubles of his family's bank. But now, it's not just opponent Republican Mark Kirk and the NRSC and ILGOP that are loudly clamoring for Alexi to come clean, it's the Chicago Tribune in an editorial this past week:

Now that Alexi Giannoulias is the Democrats' nominee for U.S. Senate, he's got an answer for everything: Jobs, jobs, jobs. That's not what people are asking about, though, and Giannoulias knows it.

Voters want to know about his role in his family's struggling Broadway Bank, and Giannoulias promised he'd provide those details after the Feb. 2 primary election. "If I'm fortunate enough to make it out of the primary, we can have that conversation," he said. His plan now seems to be to stonewall until November. Or forever.


If there's one thing that serious media folks like the Chicago Tribune absolutely can't stand, it's being blown off. The Tribune itself recalls in the editorial how it even brought now-President Barack Obama in to explain himself over his associations with Tony Rezko after much hemming and hawing:

Giannoulias needs to borrow a page from his friend Barack Obama, the man whose former Senate seat he hopes to fill. Campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama spent months trying to dismiss questions about his associations with the same Tony Rezko. But the issue wouldn't go away. Finally he sat for a 90-minute Q & A with the Tribune editorial board.

"By the time I leave here today, you may not be happy with all my answers, but at least you can't say that I have not answered your questions," Obama said. "Is that fair?"

It's fair. Giannoulias promised a similar accounting if he survived the primary. It's time.

If Alexi thinks he can ignore Mark Kirk and the Republicans, that's fine. It's all part of political strategy, and that's what partisan campaign ads are for -- to focus on your tightly controlled message and get votes without having to answer the hard questions. No doubt Alexi, though he's crying poor now, will have plenty of money to get his message out.

He can even ignore the calls of his campaign chairman, Senator Dick Durbin, to fess up and get whatever he has to say over with. Who knows if Durbin is really serious anyway, or if his call to Alexi to come clean was just for political show.

But he can't ignore the Trib for long. Alexi has little hope, barring some kind of Kirk implosion, of getting the Trib endorsement this Fall, as they endorsed Kirk in the GOP primary and Alexi's opponent, David Hoffman, in the Dem primary. But the Trib and other career journalists will dog Alexi without mercy until he submits himself to a full interrogation from the media, without stonewalling.

Based on how the Trib handled the Rezko issue with Obama, maybe Alexi shouldn't be too worried, as I thought the newspaper was pretty easy on Obama once they got him in there. But Alexi is no Obama, and the more these newspaper sharks smell chum in the water, the more bloodthirsty they get.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

TA, the mainstream media, both print and TV, seems to turn a blind eye to everything that Obama has done and will do in the future. Fox is the only place to find out what's really going on. I hope that the Kirk campaign sends the Tribune piece to Fox News since they have the largest audience in the nation. As for print media here, the Tribune might continue to ask Alexi to explain a whole lot of his bank dealings, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a follow up piece to what appeared yesterday.

Anonymous said...

Hey, TA, a bit off the topic but not really. I think you better mozey on over to Ellen Beth Shrill's Blog to see how she describes YOU for a change. That poor woman has never met a Republican worth talking to or who she feels is worth talking to, ten fold when Mark Kirk is involved. You have to feel sad for that woman. I'd use a different word but I don't want to force you to delete the post! Oh yes, she was not at the event she claims to talk about, has no first hand knowledge of what Mark Kirk did or didn't go when he shook hands with Alexi. What she reported is way off base and hardly accurate. True to her form, however, so I wasn't surprised.

Team America said...

Thanks, actually noticed Ellen's comment about how we ran into each other on the lecture circuit a few years ago. She was talking about title issues and I was talking about environmental issues in real estate development. We both pretended we knew nothing about each other's political blogging and we had a nice chat. She actually complented my presentation to the audience in the higest terms. So I was a little surprised that she brought up that encounter as an example of 'poor manners' of Republicans because I didn't bring up our mutual blogs. I suppose she could have brought it up just as well, so I don't see how I was guilty of bad manners. But bottom line, neither I, nor anyone else here, really cares what she thinks, and I certainly didn't respond on her blog. I haven't left a comment there for two years, since she kicked me off and I started this blog. So as nasty as she is, we can all thank here for helping to start Team America and turn it into a major force in North Shore politics. So if Ellen's upset I never thanked her, THANKS ELLEN! Don't ever say I was a nasty mannerless Republican.

Anonymous said...

YOU are the best, TA. I had no interest in you trying to respond on her Blog, it was just an FYI. Sadly, she's without merit in how she describes any and all of us who identify as Republicans. As I said earlier, you almost feel sorry for this pathetic woman, don't you? Just kidding. She's the last person on earth I care about or even think about. But for her help in the creating of this great Blog I guess we do owe her a vote of thanks.

Anonymous said...

The rude catlady called YOU rude? LOL!

Nice of the press to wait until after the elections to begin checking the backgrounds of all the candidates. I guess the pawnbroker fiasco inspired them to actually do their jobs.

The ticking time bomb that is Broadway Bank will explode around May 1st.

Watch a bunch of Democrats then run around and claim that they didn't know a thing about it.

Typical. Why I bet even Ellen will "forget" to mention it!

Louis G. Atsaves

Anonymous said...

Ellen will ignore it and everything and anything that revolves around Democrats. She will be ranting and raving and distorting whatever Mark Kirk is saying and doing since she's obsessed with him. Sad. Pathetically sad, but true. When the Feds truly do cause the Broadway Bank issue to explode, who might be the nominee that they'll insist on running against Mark? You don't think that our senior senator will want yet another disgrace on his watch. Let's bet on this one.

Anonymous said...

Frankly I am shocked that alexi can do anything that doesn't involve his fathers money or a mention of a basketball game at the east bank club. this is phd level stuff for him to know who mark kirk is. Must have not used as much hair gel or had as many martini's last night as he usually does. He won't make it to the senate but if he did and the dems got out more than their usual share of the dead people or nut vote, he would be the first senator to ever have the makeup and mindset of the situation from jersey shore. I am sure his wife looks just like jwoww.

I worry about going too into broadway bank too soon, we want this to be death by 1,000 cuts, if Alexi comes clean and makes good, we can't knock his teeth out all year.

As far as lauren beth gash goes, her staff wouldn't have quit on her and she wouldn't have been fired from air america much less ignored by 10th voters in 2000 if she had been a nice person. Her concession speech was a highlight of my life.

fan of king louis astaves the alexi ellen and pup slayer