Gene Schulter Is Not a Ho
By Kevin Robinson in News on Jan 11, 2007 3:50PM
The plot got a little thicker yesterday, as it was revealed that the piece of real estate that the FBI used in its bribery case against Arenda Troutman isn't even in her ward. One thing you can say about her, though, she's definitely willing to work to earn her bribe money. Free on bail as she awaits trial, Troutman went to the city council meeting yesterday, earning breathless reports from Bernie Stone about what he said and what she said, and prayers and glares, all covered in a veritable play-by-play from the Tribune.
Speaking of the Tribune, they couldn't resist the sensationalism of this story, either, and built a nice little piece around aldermen being offended by Troutman's statement that "most aldermen, most politicians are ho's". Forty-seventh Ward Alderman Gene Schulter was particularly "outraged" at being lumped in with the whole lot of them. "I am absolutely livid and outraged. ... I am absolutely outraged about the conduct being alleged by the U.S. attorney. It is so disappointing for a person like myself who has been around for a few years," said Schulter.
And Gene Schulter isn't a ho. Not really. That ward organization he built in the 47th, the one that he uses to either back a candidate he likes (like Daley) or shakedown and intimidate a candidate he doesn't (like Tony Peraica), that came without having to pay for it. Same with all those cute shops and restaurants up and down Lincoln Avenue, the ones that make the ward too expensive for his patronage army to live in. No, he got all that without taking money from the developers. He built that ward up from nothing for the people that live there. Schulter has always been the classic mild-mannered, do-what-you're-told type of alderman, and it wasn't until he saw the writing on the wall between Washington and Vyrdolak that he decided to break out and be his own man. The tragic thing is that the only man he's ever been has sold himself to the highest bidder. Where we come from, that's called being a ho.