{"id":214,"date":"2011-01-26T10:59:07","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T17:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/herbgould.com\/?p=214"},"modified":"2011-01-27T08:04:03","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T15:04:03","slug":"rahm-emanuel-all-you-need-to-know-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/commentary\/214\/rahm-emanuel-all-you-need-to-know-part-one","title":{"rendered":"Rahm Emanuel: All you need to know. Part One."},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n

Ordinarily, I don\u2019t discuss politics. I love to argue about politics, but I also have many friends from Downstate and in the sports world\u2014and I\u2019ve learned not to go there. Because the chances of me changing their mind about Obama vs. Bush are about as good as their chances of changing my mind.
\nIt\u2019s not gonna happen.
\nBut this whole Rahm Emanuel on-the-ballot question is so outrageous, I\u2019m going to break my rule.
\nIf you don\u2019t want the guy to be mayor, fine. Work and vote for another candidate. But to bar him from the ballot on a dubious technicality is like using a Jim Crow law.
\nIsn\u2019t this another great moment in Chicago politics? When minorities who were disenfranchised by devious tactics now embrace those same devious tactics?
\nShame on the other candidates for not stepping up and saying, “This is baloney.\u00a0 Rahm Emanuel is clearly qualified. Let\u2019s decide this election on the merits, not ban a legitimate candidate on a politically motivated technicality.\u2019\u2019
\nAnybody who\u2019s going to suggest that Emanuel is not eligible because he rented out his house, or because he didn\u2019t sublet a studio for a few hundred dollars a month, is being disingenuous, as they say on the news channels. Although my old friend Mike Royko would have put it more bluntly\u2014something similar to being constipated.
\nEmanuel grew up here. He was a congressman here for eight years before he became President Obama\u2019s chief of staff. Never anywhere is there any intent by the man not to live in Chicago, except when he lived in Washington serving the President.
\nIf you want to say, “The law is the law,\u2019\u2019 well, here is the law, courtesy of my Chicago Sun-Times colleague, Mark Brown, who cited Chapter 5 of the Election Code: “A permanent abode is necessary to constitute a residence within the meaning of Section 3-1. No elector or spouse shall be deemed to have lost his or her residence in any precinct or election district in this State by reason of his or her absence on business of the United States, or of this State.\u2019\u2019
\nEmanuel owns a house here. Sounds pretty permanent to me. He rented it out because he was going to be absent on federal business, serving the President.
\nSo he rented out his house. It makes sense to have someone in your house if you\u2019re going to be gone. Ask an insurance agent. Ask a fireman or a cop. You don\u2019t let a house sit empty.
\nYou can go round and round about whether that means he\u2019s no longer a resident. But everyone knows that\u2019s a crock of beans\u2014including the people who are arguing that.
\nIf a soldier gives up his apartment to go fight in Afghanistan for two years and wants to run for office when he returns, are you going to tell him he doesn\u2019t meet the residency requirements?
\nSo why would you tell the President\u2019s chief of staff he doesn\u2019t meet the residency requirements?
\nMaybe because you don\u2019t want every voice to be heard. Just admit it. You like exclusionary rules. You just don\u2019t remember when they applied to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ordinarily, I don\u2019t discuss politics. I love to argue about politics, but I also have many friends from Downstate and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334],"tags":[4827,4828],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-rahm-emanuel","tag-chicago-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2011\/01\/Headshot-20044.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}