Daley Jobs Chief Guilty

by Rudolph Bush and Dan Mihalopoulos - July 6, 2006 - Chicago Tribune

Striking a resounding blow against what prosecutors called "a new machine" in Chicago politics, a federal jury Thursday convicted Mayor Richard Daley's longtime patronage chief of scheming to reward political workers with city jobs.

The prosecution of Robert Sorich and three other former city officials has reached more deeply into Daley's administration than any previous federal case, and prosecutors quickly promised that they are not done at City Hall.

"I really can't say anything more than 'stay tuned,'" said First Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary Shapiro.

The most amazing part of this article is the outrage exhibited by Democrats that anyone would think rigging jobs for political cronies was a crime. Anthony Sorkin, a Democrat attorney said "I find there to be a big difference between taking money and going to work and doing your job . . . ." Despite testimony that "they falsified job interview ratings forms and staged sham interviews to make sure that jobs went to politically connected applicants" the defendents insisted that this was not wrong. They seem to feel this is merely the Democratic way.

The sad part is that for many years, this has been the Democratic way all over America.