Olympics Crony Watch: Let the games begin
Last week, I spotlighted Valerie Jarrett and Michelle Obama’s collaborative efforts to push their mentor, friend, and former employer Chicago mayor Richard Daley’s bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016.
From now until Oct. 2, when the International Olympic Committee votes on the decision in Copenhagen, I’ll keep tabs on all the Chicago scheming with an Olympics Crony Watch.
The latest news on the p.r. front? Jarrett is hinting that The Crony-in-Chief himself may make an appearance in Copenhagen:
President Barack Obama personally gave the order to send a White House advance team to Copenhagen and would “love” to be there himself next week to argue Chicago’s case for the 2016 Olympics.
That’s the word from key presidential aide Valerie Jarrett in the latest and perhaps strongest sign that last week’s suggestion that Obama would skip Copenhagen has changed.
In a phone interview Monday, Ms. Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president who heads the White House’s new office on the Olympics, said the decision to send the advance team to Copenhagen to prepare for a possible presidential visit “was his”: Mr. Obama’s. Sending the team will “preserve the option” that the president can join first lady Michelle Obama, who already is scheduled to travel to the Oct. 2 IOC meeting.
“(Mr. Obama) would love to be there,” Ms. Jarrett said. “He (just) wants to make sure his absence won’t be harmful” to ongoing negotiations in Washington over national health care reform.
Ms. Jarrett said the president several days ago personally communicated his desire to be in Copenhagen to Mayor Richard M. Daley.
“The president has been an ardent supporter from the beginning,” Ms. Jarrett added. “He cares passionately about bringing the Olympics to Chicago. . . .It’s good for the U.S. and it’s good for Chicago. We talk about it every day.”
They talk about it every day.
Priorities.
Jarrett and FLOTUS will travel ahead of POTUS and are scheduled to land in Copenhagen on Sept. 30.
Taxpayers, hold on to your wallets:
Mayor Richard M. Daley and Patrick Ryan assure Chicago taxpayers that a safety net of insurance would insulate them from the financial risks of hosting the 2016 Olympics.
But the insurance policies Mr. Ryan says he’ll secure would cover only about $1.1 billion of the $3.8-billion operating budget that the mayor’s Olympic point man has drawn up for the games. In many key areas, no insurer stands between taxpayers and the risk of revenue shortfalls or cost overruns.
For example, there’s no insurance against the risk that private lenders won’t shell out $1 billion to finance construction of the Olympic Village, as Messrs. Daley and Ryan predict they will. And there’s no coverage against shortfalls in corporate sponsorship sales, which they predict will rake in $1.8 billion, two-thirds more than London expects to collect for the 2012 games.
Oh, and did you know that there is a White House Olympics office?
“Even if [White House officials] don’t give financial guarantees, at least now they can say there is some government support behind the Olympic bid, and they’ve never been able to say that,” said Mallon. “We’ve never had anything approaching this. Historically, the U.S. government
has said, ‘We don’t want to have anything to do with governing the Olympic Games and supporting Olympic sports in the United States.”The new office – officially called the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport – will “coordinate federal resources, and act as liaison to, any organizing committee for an Olympic and Paralympic Games hosted in the United States,” according to a statement announcing the new office.
The office also will work to promote youth sports, particularly in urban areas, the statement says. “As the International Olympic Committee moves forward with their selection process we hope that this new office can serve as a model for youth involvement worldwide,” Obama said in the statement.
The White House did not answer questions about staffing or budgeting, but did say the office would be housed in the White House Office of Public Engagement, whose top leadership includes Jarrett.
Guess who else gets a windfall? Senior White House adviser David Axelrod’s p.r. firm, AKPD, which has done work for the nonprofit corporation formed to lure the 2016 Olympics to Chicago.
Steve Bartin sums up the Olympic-sized graft and taxpayer rip-offs that lie ahead:
In Chicago, prestige is important, but graft is the real king. In Chicago, one of the most corrupt big cities, the Olympics represents, more than anything, a grand chance for a giant heist.
Economists have a technical term for profiting from the political process: it’s called rent-seeking. Chicago’s politically favored businesses, unions, and insiders with ties to Mayor Daley and Alderman Burke have perfected this activity. The Olympics just provide another opportunity to clean up at the public expense.
This is how it works. On Chicago public works projects, those on the inside hope to get overpaid at the expense of Illinois and federal taxpayers. Now throw in the Olympics where opportunities for such activities have long been rife with corruption and you can understand the glee in the Chicago machine’s eyes.
Right now there isn’t any financial guarantee from the federal government. But Chicago’s power elite hopes Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod, and others can convince the Congress at some point to help with Chicago’s Olympic sized costs if they get the 2016 games. They can always call it a “stimulus”!
…The fear of cost overruns, a history of bloated union contracts, and fraud has tempered enthusiasm for the Olympics. Mayor Daley has had to promise tighter oversight on the whole Olympics process. Yet this has not prevented an effective grass roots opposition organization from springing up. No Games Chicago has been instrumental at raising questions of money and accountability, dampening public support for the games. No Games Chicago spokesman Thomas Tesser explains:
The City Council voted to give oversight of the City’s Olympic commitments to Ald. Ed Burke, chairman of the Finance Committee. This is the final cruel joke played by the Council on the taxpayers. Burke has become a millionaire doing deals with firms that have business with the city and has collected millions in campaign contributions from firms doing business with the city. Pat Ryan, the chairman of the 2016 effort, contributed $3,000 to Burke. Burke didn’t mention that he has ten clients who are major donors to the 2016 Committee, giving a total of at least $1 million in cash and services, and likely much, much more.
But, Alderman Burke isn’t the only insider benefiting from the Olympics. Real Estate developer Michael Scott also stands to gain. The Chicago Tribune reports of Scott: “A member of Mayor Richard Daley’s team working to bring the Olympics to Chicago has quietly arranged to develop city-owned land near a park that would be transformed for the 2016 Summer Games, potentially positioning himself to cash in if the Games come here.”
Michael Scott is also President of the Chicago Public School board. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Scott
has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury investigating how students are chosen for admission to some of the city’s most elite public schools.
This new scandal might put in to question Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s leadership as CEO of the Chicago Public School system.
All the recent skepticism of the cost of the games couldn’t stop Chicago insiders from getting the stunning vote of support from Chicago’s City Council. This is still a one-party, all-machine, all-the-time town. In a vote of 49-0, the City Council showed that there is not a single vote to back the nearly fifty percent who oppose Mayor Daley’s plans.
Michelle Obama will lead a Chicago delegation for the last pitch for the games in Copenhagen next month. Some speculate that President Obama will make a dramatic last minute appearance to make Chicago’s case in front of the International Olympic Committee. No one knows for sure whether Chicago will get the 2016 games but if it does, it will be a grand feeding time at the trough for the insiders and ever bigger burdens on the less well-connected businesses and individuals who inhabit Chicago.
Commenter almiller: “Utah’s Olympic bad boys will look like Boy Scouts once this crew is done.”
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Chicago politics goes international.
This is what happens when you let Tony Sapranno and Al Capone into the White House.
Chicago in August? Is this bid for the summer or winter games?
Right out of the liberal playbook to pay for one program by “eliminating fraud and waste” (that they haven’t been able to do in decades) from another program.
Utah’s Olympic bad boys will look like Boy Scouts once this crew is done.
Planners need to allow for the one-third of the money that will be skimmed and paid to “insiders” and “diversity” proponents.
This will be the biggest taxpayer rip-off known to man, occurring in The Land of Ripoffs and Double Dealing. Home of Hopenchange.
Maybe the city can pave over the entire South Side and make it a parking lot. That would improve things somewhat.
The Olympics is SUPPOSED to be the one time the whole world sets it’s differences aside and comes together to see who has the best athletes. And amature athletes have the opportunity to proudly represent their country.
Why can’t politicians just stay the heck out of the way?
Can someone on his staff please sit this idiot down and explain to him what he is suppose to be doing as President? Traveling around the country and rest of the world to give PR speech is NOT what the President of the United States is suppose to be doing.
Oh can someone in the media report on who is running the country now because President Obama appears to have no time in his schedule for that job.
So Obama can keep up on what is going on with Chicago’s bid for the Olympics, but he can not keep up with what is going on with ACORN.
For that matter, Obama said on Meet the Press this past Sunday,
with this being the case, would it not make more sense to be working on a strategy then worrying about the Olympics?
But,but,but, wont this contribute to global warming and enlarge our carbon footprint or something?
What kind of Olympic games would they have in Chicago?
- Hiding the body 100 yard dash ?
- Political opponent clubbing ?
- 13 year old hookers hiring ?
It would if a Republican were in the White House, but not a Democrat. That’s kind of how this whole global warming thing works.
It’s like Bush being responsible for Katrina, Rita, tsunamis, you name it. But no one is blaming the flooding in the south now on Obama.
Er Mr. President, about those troops McChrystal needs. Are you as passionate about the needs of our men over in Afghanistan?
Well then, problem solved. Hey Barry, pick me up a case of Carlsburg while you’re there.
I’m from Chicago and hate the idea of the Olympics being in this corrupt city, county, and state. Here’s what I put on a local newspaper’s site:
According to Wikipedia, Millennium Park was “finished four years behind schedule and cost approximately three times as much as was initially budgeted.” I don’t think the Olympic venues will be any different. I figure that since the Olympics won’t get delayed, the overtime will kill us tax wise. I have no confidence in the city being able to do it on time and budget.
Secondly, I have talked to many people about this and no one wants the Olympics here. I’m not sure where the polls are being taken, but it’s not by my associates. Ironically, co-workers in Madrid don’t want it there either.
Finally, I had read that the opening ceremonies could cost $1,800.00 per person. Even in the best of economies, how many Chicagoans can afford to go to that? I’m not talking about Oprah, Obama, Daley, etc. I’m talking about the normal, middle class.
Chicago hosting the Olympics – what a joke. The roads in and around the city can’t handle the normal traffic. There’s not a snowball’s chance in he!! that Chicago could make this work. The additional chaos created by all the building and spending may stress the political thug machine to the breaking point.
I wish he cared as much about special olympics.
“This is what happens when you let Tony Sapranno and Al Capone into the White House.”
Hey.I resemble that remark!
I don’t understand the controversy. Communist governments always make a big effort to host the Olympics so they can showcase all of their professional athletes.
If Barack Obama can help bring the summer Olympic games to Chicago I’m all for it. It will be the one great thing he does during his one term in office. My perspective is that of a track & field athlete who definitely wants to have a chance at another USA Olympic team that gets to compete here in the USA.
Also, it will be great to have the Olympic baseball final in Wrigley Field.
If they get the Olympics, it’ll be interesting to see how they make ‘Ballot Stuffing’ a spectator sport.
I’d add:
- seiu/acorn drug test/event results fraud
They could have pool play baseball games in Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, etc. leading up to the semi-finals and final at whatever they call the White Sox stadium these days and Wrigley Field.
You might see this during an Olympic baseball game in Boston:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PxHqMEcSuQ
Oh, and the men and/or women’s Olympic marathon course will have to include Lower Wacker Drive just like in the movie the Blues Brothers,
…
I read an excellent novel, The Devil in the White City, about the Chicago World’s Fair. The corruption, cronyism and budget overruns were unbelievable in the 1800s…it’s about a million times worse now. I know a handful of people in Chicago and surrounding areas and they are all vehemently against it. But this is par for the course when we have a Chicago-style govt – cronies first, constituents somewhere else waaaaay down the list.
I have to laugh at Obama traveling to Copenhagen… so first he goes around the world telling everyone how awful the U.S. is, now he’s going to go and try and convince everyone how great it will be for the Olympics? Work on the economy and on Afghanistan, you dolt!!
Pothole Dodging is my favorite Chicago sport. Mugging Avoidance is pretty up there too.
You can keep your eye on this if you want but the cronies aren’t cronies of Obama but Daley. Michelle, there is so much to this story but to try and link it to Obama is nonsense. This is a Mayor Daley operation. The people that will benefit are Daley cronies and you focusing on Obama is really confusing the issue.
I disagree, especially if Oblio is going to be point man!
He’s not the point man. Daley is the point man. Malkin isn’t from Chicago. She frankly doesn’t have the first clue what she’s talking about on this story. Any Chicagoan would be upset by this story as it perverts what’s happening here.
Daley has lied, bullied, and manipuated his way into this boondoggle, and Ms. Malkin makes it seem as though Obama did it. He did nothing. If anything, he’s hurting the bid by not going to Copenhagen himself. Every other city is represented by the leader of the nation. Malkin insinuates it’s a scandal that Michelle Obama is going when the President of Brazil, the Premier of Japan, and the King of Spain are all going. yet, America is sending the first lady.
This is the sort of shotty reporting that happens when an outsider with an agenda begins to report on a complicated issue.
Michelle Malkin makes Valerie Jarrett the face of the Olympics. The face of the cronyism in the Olympics are Pat Ryan and Michael Scott. I doubt that Michelle Malkin has the first clue who either are.
If the Olympics end up being in Chicago does that mean dead Democrats can compete in the events?
The Olympics are a huge money drain. All the city ends up with are a bunch of sports venues which will never show a profit. Watch the construction contracts, that’s where the action will be. And be very sure that Da Mare will get a cut.
I see Brazil wants to host the games too. The problem there could be the violence in Rio. Well, that would make Rio and Chicago tied in the running. Neither city would interest me.
The way Obama’s running things, are they sure there will be a Chicago in 2016? Hell is anybody sure there will be a United States of America then.
@Mike Volpe:
Having no clue what they are talking about has never stopped anyone here from foaming at the mouth with Obama Derangement Syndrome. The fact that the Obamas have had little/nothing to do with the bid just doesn’t register. There are lots of reasons to oppose hosting the Olympics in Chicago – I live here, too, I’m very familiar with what makes Chicago operate – but the involvement of Barack Obama is not one of them.
Chicago should notget the Olympics.
As a Chi-burbite I can’t say it enough.
Well at least he has his priorities straight! /sarc
Now if he could just get off his azz and send McChrystal the troops he asked for.
Salt Lake City was an Olympic sized hot tub of corruption for the mere bribing of IOC officials.
Surely the shining city of Chicago can run a multibillion dollar event without the filthy messes that the nasty hotbed of corruption – Salt Lake City had.