Mayor uses billionaire conservative Joe Ricketts to show how political pressure is applied the Chicago Way

Chicago Tribune "Ricketts' mistake? He's not a fan of President Barack Obama. So Joe Ricketts considered putting $10 million into a political campaign tying the controversial and racially charged rhetoric of Obama's former pastor — the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — to the president seeking re-election.

"Ricketts' children own the Cubs. And now their multimillion-dollar proposal to refurbish decrepit Wrigley Field — mostly with their own money but also with revenue from the city amusement tax — is in jeopardy.

"City Hall has made that clear, putting out the word that The Rahmfather won't even return their calls in the wake of Joe Ricketts considering — but deciding not to bankroll — an ad blitz against Obama.

...."I've said before that Obama will win re-election. But the way to go after Obama isn't to tie him to old Rev. Wright or to elderly revolutionaries like Bill Ayers. The way to do it is to tie him to Chicago politics. But Republicans can't risk it.

"Democrats run the politics here. But Republicans — particularly the big-money corporate types — go along and feed the Combine beast. ....

"Republicans might have businesses here. And they might live in America.

"But they eat in Chicago."

Joe Ricketts’s Retreat From Obama Attack Campaign: Are the Chicago Cubs to Blame?  "Joe Ricketts was reported to be an architect of a major anti-Obama campaign invoking Jeremiah Wright. Within hours, he’d backed off. James Warren on why the Chicago Cubs may be to blame."


Jonathan S. Tobin: Democrats have made it very clear that they will get their revenge on anyone who dares to attack President Obama