Daily archives: May 8th, 2010

Todd Stroger Thinks Cook County is His Corporation

Todd Stroger was happy to open the checkbook wider for one of his aides, and cash-strapped Cook County tax payers will have to pay more.

From the Southtown Star:

Jaye Morgan Williams, the county’s chief financial officer, sent letters to all 17 county commissioners Friday, explaining why Stroger boosted her pay from $176,156 to $230,000 for this year.

In the two-page letter, Williams, appointed by Stroger in August, noted that she helped deliver the county’s 2010 budget within 90 days of her start date, finished a "woefully stalled" 2008 audit just 90 days into her tenure and was earning less than two of her fellow CFOs on the county payroll.

She said she’s also taken on extra duties despite a 60-hour work week and at one point this year asked for "compensation consideration."

"As a professional with a long career in the industry, I do not want to get caught up in the current maelstrom and only ask that I be treated fairly," she wrote in a letter to the commissioners that was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

A defensive Stroger echoed those sentiments Friday during a radio interview, saying Williams’ salary is a "lot of money, but she actually is a chief financial officer of a $3 billion corporation."

And there’s the rub: Cook County is not a corporation. Cook County is not a business.

Are you counting the days until the November election?

I am.


Utah Republicans Oust Sen. Bob Bennett for Uber-Conservative Tea Bagger

From Politics Daily:

Sen. Bob Bennett, a conservative who fell out of favor among even more conservative Republicans in an anti-incumbent rage, failed to get his party’s nomination in Utah Saturday, making it very difficult for him to seek a fourth term.

The gangly, bespectacled senator finished third in the second round of balloting at the Republican state convention in Salt Lake City, sealing his fate, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Businessman Tim Bridgewater and lawyer and Tea Party favorite Mike Lee finished first and second respectively and will face off in a June 22 primary.

When results were announced there were shouts of "he’s gone, he’s gone," as some GOP delegates waved "Do Not Tread On Me" flags — a favored symbol of the aggressively conservative Tea Party movement.

Bennett became the first incumbent Utah senator to be deprived of his party’s nomination since Democrats ousted Sen. William King in 1940. King opposed the New Deal.

Tea Baggers oppose any deal.

The radical and destructive polarization of American politics ushered in by Ronald Reagan continues.