Democrats in the News

In its heyday, the Chicago Democratic machine worked “miracles” for Democratic candidates. In 1960, for example, when the race between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy was too close to call, the infamous Daley machine teamed up with Sam Giancana, Chicago’s top mob boss, to “produce” a 9,000 vote margin for Kennedy – throwing the Illinois electoral votes, and the presidential election, to Kennedy.

A reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, Earl Mazo, found a cemetery in one Chicago precinct where most of the inhabitants proved to be registered Democrats who had voted for the Kennedy-Johnson ticket. He also reported finding a single Chicago address claimed by 56 Kennedy voters. What he found was a vacant, partially demolished house with no occupants.

When Republicans filed suit challenging the Chicago results, the lawsuit was assigned to the court of Circuit Judge Thomas Kluczynski, a Democratic appointee, who quickly dismissed the suit. Following Kennedy’s inauguration in January 1961, Kluczynski was rewarded with an appointment to the federal bench.

But the days of the Chicago machine are now numbered. According to a recent New York Times story, a Chicago jury has convicted four former city officials on corruption charges, “sending a resounding message…that City Hall’s legendary patronage machine should come to a halt.

“After a six-week trial and three-and-a-half-days of deliberations, the jury…agreed with the federal government’s argument that the city’s longtime practice of awarding jobs and promotions to politically connected candidates and campaign workers was a crime.”

Robert A. Sorich, 43, a former patronage chief for Mayor Richard M. Daley, was convicted on two counts of mail fraud and acquitted on two other charges. Timothy McCarthy, 35, a former aide to Sorich, was also convicted on two counts of mail fraud. Sorich could face up to 10 years in prison and McCarthy up to 25 years. Forty-four others are indicted and awaiting trial.

Needless to say, Mayor Daley was SHOCKED…SHOCKED! The mayor told reporters, “I am saddened by the verdict for these men and their families because I’ve never known them to be anything but hard-working.…As for the city, from the time we first heard about these problems, we have worked to reform our hiring processes to prevent any abuses or gaming of the system.” Uh-huh! And the Nazis were convinced that Auschwitz was just another Boy Scout camp. 

And from the State of Georgia there is news that Democrats in that state have won a victory in the courts, albeit a temporary one.

Georgia Democrats are absolutely astonished to learn that some of their closest friends are accustomed to voting two, three, or four times in each election; that Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and many other fictional characters are all faithful Democratic voters; and that many of their deceased parents and grandparents, some dead for fifty years or more, still manage to pull the Democratic lever in every election – proof positive, I suppose, that most Democrats actually do believe in an afterlife.

In March 2005, the Republican-controlled Georgia legislature passed a law requiring voters to have a drivers license or other government ID, or to purchase a special state ID card. However, Federal District Judge Harold Murphy, appointed by Jimmy Carter, declared it unconstitutional, saying that it amounted to an indirect “poll tax.” 

Republicans then produced a bill to provide free photo IDs to every Georgia voter who didn’t have a drivers license and who couldn’t afford to pay the small fee to purchase an official ID. And for those who were unable to get to a license bureau to have a photo ID made, Republicans provided a means by which state employees would go to voters’ homes to produce the free voter IDs. 

Democrats, with the help of the ACLU and other left wing groups, immediately filed suit to have even that new law invalidated. And on July 7, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland, a Democrat, declared the new statute unconstitutional, saying that the law “violated the State Constitution by placing an undue burden on the fundamental right to vote.”

So, Democrats have lost a big one in Chicago and they’ve won a preliminary skirmish in Georgia, but the war against Democratic vote fraud is just beginning. If the Georgia Supreme Court fails to reverse Westmoreland’s decision, the U.S. Supreme Court surely will. 

If Americans can be required to show a photo ID when making a $10 purchase at Wal-Mart, surely they can be required to show that same photo ID before being allowed to exercise their most important civic duty. 

Justices named Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia, and fittingly, Kennedy, will see to it.