Rahm Emanuel Back On Ballot

This afternoon the Illinois Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Rahm Emanuel has met the residency requirements to run for mayor of Chicago.

The justices said Emanuel's opponents did not prove that he had given up residency when he served in the Obama administration in Washington. "Given the record before us, it is simply not possible to find clearly erroneous the (Chicago Board of Elections') determination that the objectors failed to prove that the candidate had abandoned his Chicago residence," the court ruled in a unanimous decision. "We therefore reverse the decision of the appellate court and affirm the decision of the circuit court, which confirmed the Board's decision."

Homocon blogger Kevin DuJan must be positively quivering with rage. Heh.

Rahm Emanuel Back On Ballot (For Now)

The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to hear Rahm Emanuel's appeal of a lower court's ruling that he does not meet the eligibility requirements to be mayor of Chicago.

It will hear the case without oral arguments or new briefs, allowing for a faster ruling on the matter. The quick proceedings are necessary, with the race less than a month away and early voting set to begin next Monday. It was the second break in a matter of hours for Emanuel. The court ruled earlier Tuesday that no ballots may be printed without his name, at least not until the court has dealt with the appeal. "This Court is taking the case on the briefs filed by the parties in the appellate court," the court said. "No additional briefs will be filed in the Supreme Court. Oral argument will not be entertained."

Upon today's decision, all the end zone dancing from Twitter's wingnuts immediately ceased.

Court Rules Rahm Emanuel Ineligible To Run For Mayor Of Chicago

Opponents to former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's run for mayor of Chicago have won their appeal of an earlier court ruling that he was eligible.

Rahm Emanuel was thrown off the ballot for mayor of Chicago today by an appellate court panel, a stunning blow to the fund-raising leader in the race. An appellate panel ruled 2-1 that Emanuel did not meet the residency standard to run for mayor. Appellate judges Thomas Hoffman and Shelvin Louise Marie Hall ruled against Emanuel. Justice Bertina Lampkin voted in favor of keeping President Obama’s former chief of staff on the Feb. 22 ballot. “It’s a surprise,” said Kevin Forde, the attorney who argued on Emanuel’s behalf.

Emanuel's attorneys say they will appeal to the state supreme court.

Homocon Kevin Dujan Renews Claim That Rahm Emanuel Patronizes Bathhouses

Following Rahm Emanuel's announcement that he is running for mayor of Chicago, homocon Hillbuzz blogger Kevin Dujan is again spreading unsubstantiated rumors that Emanuel was once a patron of a Chicago gay bathhouse. During the 2008 campaign, when Dujan was a fierce Hillary Clinton supporter, he attempted (with no success) to plant the same story about Emanuel and Obama in the mainstream press.

Being a “resident” of a city does not mean owning property there; you are a “resident” if you rent so much as a room in Chicago, and can prove that you have such a room ready and waiting for you whenever you need to put your head down onto a pillow here to catch some ZZZs (among other things). Thus, another residency argument Rahm Emanuel can make is his lifetime membership to Man’s Country, a male bathhouse on Clark Street in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood – where Chicagoans for years have spotted both Obama and Emanuel when the two men lived here.

Man’s Country sells lifetime memberships for $10. Once a man becomes a member, he is allowed to show up anytime he wants (the place is open 24/7) to rent a room for 8 hours (he can also rent just a locker in case he doesn’t plan on sleeping and instead just wants to “hangout” or “play basketball” the way Obama used to with Kal Penn or Reggie Love until too much attention was drawn to their antics). The rooms have a small cot, a single pillow, a sheet, and sometimes a TV. Man’s Country is made up of a warren of these little rooms, with no ceiling, in what looks like a Halloween haunted house of twists, turns, nooks, and crannies. Watch out for ghosts! Could Emanuel’s Man’s Country membership, coupled with his voter registration, qualify him to run for Mayor of Chicago? We believe it could, because it meets all the requirements as we understand them.

You may recall Dujan's recent complaint that no gay man will date him because he supports Sarah Palin. Dujan has blogged that he fears "radical gay leftists" are planning his assassination.

Rahm Emanuel's First Campaign Ad

This plodding clip announcing a tour of Chicago's neighborhoods feels designed to counter his rageaholic rep.

Rahm Emanuel Says Good-Bye

Obama Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel Quits White House To Run For Mayor Of Chicago

The rumors were true. Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will resign tomorrow to run for mayor of Chicago. Earlier this month six-term Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced that he would not seek another term.

The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, at his daily briefing on Thursday afternoon said that the president will give two personnel announcements on Friday morning from the East Room of the White House. Mr. Gibbs, admitting that he was being purposely “oblique,” would not confirm whether the announcements would concern Mr. Emanuel. The two officials, who declined to be named in advance of the official announcement, confirmed that Mr. Obama plans to name Pete Rouse, a senior adviser, to replace Mr. Emanuel. Mr. Rouse has been at the president’s side since Mr. Obama arrived in Washington nearly six years ago as a senator, serving as his chief of staff.

On Rahm Emanuel's Potty Mouth

Second City has some fun with Rahm Emanuel's infamous penchant for strong language. Totally totally NSFFW. (The extra "F" is for "fucking.")

Bill Clinton Offered Rep. Joe Sestak A Job On Obama's Behalf

The Huffington Post reports that Bill Clinton acted as the president's intermediary to offer Pennsylvania Senate candidate Rep. Joe Sestak an administration job in return for dropping out of his primary battle with Sen. Arlen Specter. The GOP is contending that the offer was illegal.

Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) was offered a prominent but uncompensated, advisory position -- in the national security/foreign policy area -- if he would drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary race, a source with knowledge of the exchange said during a briefing on Friday morning. The offer was made by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel through a prominent intermediary -- former President Bill Clinton -- during the months of June and July of 2009. The White House initiated the conversation, which occurred over phone. It would have allowed Sestak to remain in the House of Representatives while advising the president. The source said it would not be surprising if more than one conversation took place, though there were no other intermediaries involved. Sestak ultimately rejected the overture and went on to defeat incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn) in the Democratic primary election earlier this month.

The White House has issued a memo confirming the offer.

Gay PUMA Site Claims Obama And Rahm Emanuel Visited Chicago Bathhouse

HillBuzz, the Hillary Clinton PUMA site founded by gay political gadfly Kevin DuJan, has got the wingnut blogosphere all aquiver over a claim that some mysterious MSM journalist is at last investigating their ridiculous claim that the president and Rahm Emanuel were once regular patrons of the Chicago-area bathhouse, Man's Country.

This has to be cloak-and-dagger for the time being, because though we’ve not been sworn to secrecy on the project, we’re not at liberty to talk in depth about what we did yesterday, which was in response to one of the occasional requests we get from members of the media for background info on stories they’re doing. Normally, it’s foreign journalists who get in touch with us when they’re in Chicago and want to go to the Southside to see how terrible it is, and talk about how Obama did absolutely jack squat for it as either a state senator or US Senator, and hasn’t used any of his particular brand of unicorn horn magic to improve it (or the black community residing there) since the illustrious Golden Age of Hope and Change began on January 20th, 2009. But, this time it was a US reporter who wanted information on Man’s Country in Andersonville, which is a place both Obama and Rahm Emanuel frequented in the past. Obama until 2002 or so, and Emanuel through 2008, according to what we’ve been told. We spent a good amount of time on the ground in Uptown, Boystown, Andersonville, and Hyde Park yesterday with this reporter, also telling him everything we knew about Trinity United Church of Christ and the Down-Low Club it operated under Jeremiah Wright’s supervision/matchmaking.

PUMA, for those who have forgotten, stands for Party Unity My Ass, the derisive expression created by those who refused to accept that Hillary Clinton did not win the 2008 Democratic nomination.