Countdown to Rahmageddon: Don't F*ck with the Party

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 7, 2011 3:09PM

As the residency challenges to Rahm Emanuel's candidacy continue, Carol Marin's most recent Sun-Times op-ed raises some interesting questions regarding who might have sicced election law attorney Burt Odelson on Emanuel. Read on and you'll see that, as Studs Terkel once told Art Shay, it's all connected, isn't it?

Odelson is a gun for hire. Huffington Post Chicago points out that Odelson has worked for everyone from the George W. Bush campaign in the Florida hanging chad mess that brought W to the White House to Brian Buchanan, a Joliet plumber who in 2004 ran for Will County State's Attorney.

Here's where it gets interesting. One of the attorneys assisting Odelson in the Emanuel residency challenge is Tom Jaconetty, who just happens to be a top aide for Cook County Assessor and Democratic Party chairman Joe Berrios. During the election, Emanuel opted not to support the Democrat and urged supporters to vote for Forrest Claypool.

As we've seen, Berrios has a petty streak, to say the least. From suing the Better Government Association for bringing his actions on the County Board of Review to the public, to firing Assessor's office workers hired by his predecessor Jim Houlihan, to offering veiled threats that 47th Ward Alderman Gene Schulter will get his for supporting Claypool if he tries to fill Berrios's old BOR seat, Berrios has been acting like a Hispanic Boss Tweed.

Would it be out of the realm of possibility for Berrios and Jaconetty to be colluding against Emanuel? Well, both have denied it. But Odelson is getting paid from someone and Chicago politics sometimes makes for strange bedfellows.

It's all connected, isn't it?