The Brunner-Goldner Contest On My WLS Show Was Historic Because

...never before has a Daley campaign leader faced charges linking the mayor to precedent made by the George Ryan conviction. Always the media have been satisfied with a stony denial and rant by the mayor with his political people either playing mum or dumb. Greg Goldner was the campaign manager for the mayor in his last run in 2003 and has been requested to answer some questions before the feds. Frankly, I give him a great deal of credit for having the guts to be on the show. Terry Brunner, former executive director of the Better Government Association, has been a federal prosecutor, a key member of an organized crime strike force under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and a prosecuting attorney in Wisconsin.

The program was significant for four reasons. First, Brunner has become the first prominent ex-prosecutor to publicly affirm that the Mayor may well be in trouble as result of the Ryan precedent. Second, he was the first prominent ex-prosecutor to publicly affirm that Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee may be in trouble for using city workers in his first campaign—a campaign that Greg Goldner ran—against Nancy Kazak…a charge that should have national repercussions since Emanuel is criss-crossing the nation inveighing against a Republican “culture of corruption.” Third, while I don’t know how he votes (and don’t want to), having known him for 30 years, I can attest that Brunner is no Republican but has a long lineage of background that would warrant his being associated with liberal Democratic public officials.

Fourth, Goldner was the first responsible representative of the Daley campaign to respond to the charges. He is no “dat-dese-dem” guy who follows the classic pattern of hear-no-evil, see-no-evil. He candidly argues Daley is innocent. The program was moderated as even-handedly as I could make it. The exchange, while not bitter, was heavy and content-filled.

The deafening silence and black-out which greeted the program by the so-called “mainstream media” shows clearly that non-approved anti-Establishment news is not appreciated. For one thing, Brunner is the exec for the Airport Integrity Project which has been fighting Daley’s O’Hare expansion. An enormous preponderance of media, business and labor interests support the expansion. The black-out is signal reason why another Chicago news outlet is needed to offset the mono-media Combine. In the eyes of the MSM media, this broadcast was a non-event. It didn’t happen.

To get the other side, keep listening to “Political Shootout” airing every Sunday night between 8 p.m. and 9 on WLS-AM (890) and tune in to this Blog.