Chicago Sun-Times

Pritzker sails through Commerce confirmation hearing

Fri, 24 May 2013 02:26:18 -0500

WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary nominee Penny Pritzker breezed through her confirmation hearing on Thursday with both top senators on the Commerce committee, Democrat Jay Rockefeller and Republican John Thune, predicting she will be confirmed by the full Senate. Pritzker received a friendly reception from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Only 12 of the 24 members showed up to quiz her — seven Democrats and five Republicans. Her hearing lasted a little more than two hours, included no fireworks and only light questioning on the three topics where she could have faced a grilling: the failure of the …

Sweet: ‘Clerical error’ missed $80 million in Pritzker income

Thu, 23 May 2013 02:22:42 -0500

WASHINGTON — Billionaire Commerce Secretary nominee Penny Pritzker “inadvertently omitted” more than $80 million in income from the financial disclosures she filed last week, though the revelation is not expected to be a critical factor in her Thursday confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce panel. Pritzker’s lawyer, Robert Rizzi, said in a May 21 letter to a Commerce Department attorney that the income was not in the original May 15 filings with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics “because of a clerical error and through no fault of Ms. Pritzker.” According to Pritzker personal spokesman Susan Anderson, the mistake was …

Roskam takes ‘target’ practice on departing IRS chief

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:02:21 -0500

WASHINGTON — At the first congressional hearing on the IRS scandal, the soon-departing acting IRS chief Steve Miller balked each time lawmakers used the word “target” Friday to describe, well, the targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. After a four-hour House Ways and Means Committee hearing, lawmakers never were able to elicit from Miller the name or names of career IRS employees who devised the plan to scrutinize organizations with “Tea Party” or “patriot” in their names. Miller said what they were doing was a “shortcut” to grapple with a heavy workload. “I want to apologize on behalf …

When it rains, it pours for Obama

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:23:57 -0500

WASHINGTON — Add sexual assault in the military as another scandal for the Obama White House — one that is being overshadowed by the three other scandals commanding most of the attention in recent days. Obama held a press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and was grilled in the Rose Garden about the IRS targeting Tea Party and other conservative groups and the Justice Department snooping on the AP phone records. Still in play is the controversy over the Obama administration response to the Benghazi, Libya attacks. Later in the day, Obama called a special meeting with military …

Taxing situation: Obama forces out IRS chief

Thu, 16 May 2013 02:21:58 -0500

WASHINGTON — Juggling three big problems — with the IRS scandal sparking scorching bipartisan criticism — President Barack Obama and his team Wednesday scrambled to contain the damage. The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven Miller, was forced out over the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. Of the three crises — the IRS targeting, the Justice Department snooping on Associated Press reporters phone calls and the long running debate over what happened before and after the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, with four U.S. diplomats killed — the IRS debacle is the most threatening to …

Nomination pulls back curtain on Pritzker fortune

Thu, 16 May 2013 02:21:48 -0500

WASHINGTON — The portfolio of Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker, the Commerce secretary nominee, reflects vast holdings in hotels, casinos, parking lots, student and elderly housing, a stake in the show “Singin’ in the Rain,” and last year, $53.6 million from a family trust in the Bahamas. Pritzker filed a required 184-page disclosure document with the U.S. Office of Governmental Ethics on Wednesday, along with other papers outlining how she will avoid conflicts of interest if confirmed for the post.

Labor unions not raising a fuss over Pritzker

Wed, 15 May 2013 02:30:00 -0500

WASHINGTON — Penny Pritzker, President Barack Obama’s Commerce secretary nominee, has long been a target of organized labor — with the drive against her led by the Chicago Teachers Union and Unite Here Local 1, representing the city’s hotel workers. Yet as Pritzker is lining up Senate support for her confirmation — making her first courtesy calls on Tuesday, starting with a meeting in the Capitol with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) — no union, either national or local, has raised any objection to her nomination. “I look forward to helping her through the confirmation process and to working with her …

Lynn Sweet: Black Caucus chair asks for lenient sentence for Jesse Jackson Jr.

Wed, 08 May 2013 02:32:04 -0500

WASHINGTON — I wandered into a nuance-free zone on Tuesday, reading the first wave of letters (there were 14) that the public sent to a federal judge regarding the July 1 sentencing of Jesse Jackson Jr. and wife Sandi. People who know the couple are asking for leniency. Folks who only know of them — a onetime congressman and former alderman who looted $750,000 from campaign funds to bankroll a seven-year indulgent spending spree — want them shown no special mercy. There were no in-betweens. Eight of the letters argued for a break. The most prominent advocate for Jesse Jackson …

Sweet: How Penny Pritzker became the most public face of a private family

Fri, 03 May 2013 07:32:47 -0500

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s pick for commerce secretary, Chicago’s Penny Pritzker, is leaving the world she has dominated for decades — as a business tycoon, civic leader and philanthropist — to become, if confirmed, the storied clan’s first major public official. “She has always been active on not-for-profit boards, and more recently the Chicago Board of Education,” White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told me Thursday, a little after Obama announced her appointment in a Rose Garden ceremony. “She cares deeply about giving back. If not for a president that she respects and knows so well, then when? This …

Duckworth launches PAC, aims at leadership role

Wed, 01 May 2013 02:26:59 -0500

WASHINGTON—Freshman Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) is positioning herself for a leadership role, launching a political action committee to boost other Democrats running for the House as her profile — and buzz — are growing. Papers creating Duckworth’s “Perimeter PAC” were sent to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, with the name a play on the basic military responsibility of guarding a perimeter — duty the wounded Iraq war vet, a lieutenant colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard — did as a young soldier. One of the first steps ambitious lawmakers take, whether aiming to become leaders or to run …

Streisand, Obama movie spoof among top sights at Correspondents’ Association dinner

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:14:20 -0500

WASHINGTON — Takeaways from the just-concluded White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner weekend: ◆ Barbra Streisand was my favorite celebrity to spot at the giant Saturday night dinner. I am not above gawking — you all knew, right? I just happened to be hanging near the best table in the giant Washington Hilton hotel ballroom — massive coincidence — when Streisand and husband James Brolin sat down. Their seatmates included Kevin Spacey and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Streisand was next to Bloomberg. My problem at this event is always that my Hollywood and sports celebrity recognition quotient is too low. …

Obama moving cautiously on reports Syria used chemical weapons

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:25:59 -0500

WASHINGTON — While President Barack Obama was attending the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center on Thursday — prompting stories about former President Bush plunging the U.S. into the controversial Iraq War — he was moving cautiously on U.S. intelligence reports of “varying degrees of confidence” the Syrian government is using chemical weapons. Obama doesn’t want to get Syria wrong.

Hillary in 2016? Axelrod calls her ‘first among equals’

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:41:56 -0500

WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hits Chicago on June 13 to be honored by CURE, the epilepsy research foundation — this while a new poll and the start Wednesday of a new chapter in her life are sparking even more speculation about a 2016 White House bid. CURE — Citizens for Research in Epilepsy — was founded by President Barack Obama’s former top strategist David Axelrod, and his wife, Susan, 15 years ago; their daughter, Lauren, has epilepsy. Clinton, then the first lady, was the draw at the group’s very first fund-raising dinner and the boost …

Will Boston bombings derail immigration reform?

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:45:14 -0500

WASHINGTON — The question asked on various Sunday shows was whether the Boston bombings will slow or derail immigration reform; it came up because the suspects are immigrants: The now deceased Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was a legal permanent resident and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, 19, captured Friday, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to the FBI. Five takeaways, as landmark immigration legislation is pending in the Senate with the House version expected to be introduced in a few weeks: ◆ White House and congressional sources are saying the lawmakers who have or will call for delay in dealing with immigration …

Sweet: Hadiya law faces defeat, too

Sun, 19 May 2013 07:56:09 -0500

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans blocked a series of gun-control measures on Wednesday with an anti-trafficking provision named after Hadiya Pendleton, the Chicago teen shot to death in a park, expected to be sidelined with the rest of the gun bill on Thursday. Two items of particular interest to the Chicago area — an amendment expanding background checks to close gun show and other loopholes and another amendment cracking down on gun trafficking and fencing, with similar Pendleton language — could not muster the 60 votes needed to advance. Each of those amendments had a majority, but in the Senate, the …

LYNN SWEET: First lady’s tough stand against violence is long overdue

Sun, 12 May 2013 14:19:18 -0500

The usually cautious first lady Michelle Obama came home Wednesday to voluntarily plunge herself into a controversy, speaking out for the first time on two life-and-death matters: On preventing youth violence in Chicago and the need for Congress to at least vote on gun control measures. To this I can only add: Finally. What is the point of being one of the most popular people in the U.S. with a powerful platform if you don’t use it. I just hope Mrs. Obama’s era of being risk-averse is over — when it comes to protecting kids in her city, my city, …

First lady coming home to boost mayor’s initiative

Sat, 11 May 2013 06:34:05 -0500

LYNN SWEET: As the Senate is poised to take up measures to curb gun violence, likely Thursday, first lady Michelle Obama comes home Wednesday to bolster Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to help at-risk youth and visit Harper High School — where 29 present or former students were shot in the last year, leaving eight dead.

LYNN SWEET: Sen. Mark Kirk ‘unshackled since he came back from his stroke’

Sat, 04 May 2013 06:32:57 -0500

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mark Kirk announced Tuesday he supports gay marriage, the result of a new appreciation for life and love he’s gained as a survivor of a stroke that almost killed him. He opposed gay marriage when he started running for the Senate in 2009 — worried about a challenge from the right in the 2010 GOP primary. Supporting gay marriage early — that is for a Republican — helps Kirk burnish a moderate credential.