Tribune Details Own Shortcomings

Royko used to say something along the lines of "It isn't a scandal until the other guy finds out about it." It described the Machine politics of the 1950's and 60's. Daley-the-Younger embraced this philosophy throughout his career and made sure the media had plenty of other crap to talk about. Rahm has used this extensively as the Sun Times has aptly danced to the tune the mayor sings on a near-daily basis.

Now the Tribune beclowns itself by detailing how they and others fell a bit short in their "watchdog" duties:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration on Monday produced a letter showing it knew about questions surrounding Amer Ahmad and a controversial government contract in Ohio before the mayor hired him as Chicago's comptroller in April 2011.
  
  The letter was released as the administration attempted to show how it vetted Ahmad, who pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court to a kickback scheme stemming from his tenure as Ohio's deputy treasurer. Ahmad, 38, abruptly resigned from his City Hall job nearly a month ago. The administration has said Emanuel didn't know about Ahmad's federal problems until the former aide was indicted last week.
  
  In a letter to the Emanuel transition team dated April 1, 2011, attorney Vincent Connelly said he had interviewed Ahmad about an Ohio contract awarded to an East Coast bank and found Ahmad "acted appropriately." The bank was awarded a lucrative contract in 2010 after hiring a friend of Ahmad's as its lobbyist, a deal that led to Ohio newspaper reports and a campaign attack ad against Ahmad's boss questioning the arrangement.
  
  "We find no reason that he should not be considered for the position" of comptroller, Connelly's letter to Emanuel administration official David Spielfogel reads.

First up, this Connelly attorney ought to retake any ethics courses he supposedly passed in law school. This "appropriate" conduct appears to be the exact case that Ahmad was indicted for.

Second, no one thought to read up on the extensive newspaper articles written after this contract was awarded? It was a big fucking deal in Ohio evidently. Ohioans must never have seen anything like the quid pro quo hiring/contracting scandal before, and the Chicago media has been conditioned to think that everyone in the country does it like the Chicago Machine, so they didn't think to mention it in their pages.