Emanuel sets my sleaze meter buzzing

Stuart Levine was the former head of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board who pleaded guilty in 2006 of peddling influence from that position in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks to approve various construction projects proposed by various health care systems within the state. Prior to his guilty plea, during a time when he was apparently taking the kickbacks in cooperation with Tony Rezko, the convicted developer who helped Barack Obama find a Chicago home, I interviewed Levine over the phone for a story I was working on for the local weekly newspaper.

I was a sports editor with the paper. However, as it was a small publication, I wore several hats, one of which brought me into contact with Mr. Levine. I don't recall what was said. What I do recall is the impression Mr. Levine made on me. I recall, when I got off the phone, I turned to the people in the room and said, "That guy's dirty."

I think those who heard me looked at me as though, "What the heck are you talking about?" and went back to what they were doing. I had made the statement out loud but more to myself than to anyone else.

Like I said, I don't recall the particulars of the interview. A health care system in the area wanted to build a new hospital and another health care system was contesting the approval of the project by the IHFPB.

I'm not trying to suggest that I have some kind of mystic ability to recognize people of inferior character or those who are up to no good. What I can say is that, when the state decided to create the IHFPB, they also created the opportunity for people like Levine and Rezko to take advantage of the situation for personal gain. There's nothing surprising about that. It should, however, be considered in relation to all the regulations and power distributed through the auspices of Obamacare. Make no mistake about it, that legislation is ripe with opportunity.

I guess, it's journalistic intuition that gave me a sense that Levine was not on the up and up. If someone in the office that day had questioned my statement, I could not have defended it. It was a feeling not a fact-based proclamation.

I have been hypercritical of mayoral candidate and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for quite some time now. I think some of his outlandish statements while in the White House, such as suggesting that a "crisis is a terrible thing to waste" in reference to the Great Recession, as well as news that he may have been up to no good while on the board of directors for Fannie Mae, give plausible evidence that my criticism may have some validity. But, that's only part of it.

The truth is, Emanuel sets off the same journalistic alarms for me that Levine did. There is no one currently in the public eye, nor anyone else I can think of, who sets my intuitive Sleaze Meter Buzzing as loudly as Emanuel. Obama comes close, very close, but not quite to the level of Emanuel.

I'll admit, I find Emanuel's professed ideology short-sighted and repugnant. But, regardless, and to the best of my ability, when I separate my personal feelings about the man and look at him through a journalistic prism, he makes me want to ask more and more questions. There must be other journalists who come away with the same feeling about this man. Maybe they're too committed to the Liberal progressive cause to say. Maybe they've drank too much of the liberal Koolaid to notice any longer. Or maybe I'm wrong. But, I hit the nail on the head with Levine, didn't I?