TODD STROGER: "STUPID AND LAZY"

Photo via StrogerisaCrook.com

I cannot believe I have only uttered the name Todd Stroger but once on this blog. Lest you think I save all my hate for Mayor Daley, here is my Todd Stroger Post.

Get Ready for 4 More Years of Todd Stroger:

Ask anyone, even Cook County President Todd Stroger's closest pals, and they'll tell you Ol' Todd has bumbled his way through his first term.

Stroger has rankled reformers and regular folks by raising sales taxes and padding the payroll with friends, family and a certain steakhouse busboy.

His last budget proposal was so riddled with errors it had to be reprinted three times, though his staff read Government Budgeting for Dummies just before he took office.

County insiders swear Stroger spends more time shooting hoops at the East Bank Club than tending to county business. He's had trouble keeping his personal affairs in order. The IRS put a lien on Stroger's house because he didn't pay his personal income taxes.

Even some of his top supporters aren't too happy with the guy.

"Todd's problem is he's a little stupid and a lot lazy sometimes," one of Stroger's top 8th Ward lieutenants whispered to me during my days on the county beat.

And for that, Stroger's the Rodney Dangerfield of Chicago politics -- the guy gets no respect, as he fights rumors he won't run for re-election.

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I'm certainly not looking forward to another 4 years of Todd Stroger. I still cannot believe how he was shuffled into office after his father, former Cook County Board President John Stroger, suffered a stroke. And, in addition to all the issues mentioned above (you know - the busboy, the tax lien, the sales tax increase, the error-filled budget, the patronage), the idiot Cook County Board President also spent $24,999 of county taxpayer money to print but never distribute a wonderful publication known as Cook County Magazine:

Last November [2007], the Stroger administration gave $24,999 to a publishing company to produce Cook County magazine, which would provide "regular, positive press -- to counter-balance negative press often found in the mainstream media." As the Sun-Times notes, $24,999 is "one dollar under the amount that would have required the approval of the full Cook County Board."

Unfortunately for Stroger, the magazine's first issue -- which features a profile of his father and predecessor John Stroger -- will never see the light of day. The administration has opted not to release Cook County because it contains too many spelling and grammatical errors:

Stroger spokesman Eugene Mullins said he has 5,000 copies of the issue in his office -- and that's where they'll stay.

"I was asked to review it and decided not to distribute it -- not because of content, but errors and omissions in the article" about John Stroger, Mullins said. "Judging on grammatical stuff -- something misspelled or that's not a complete sentence -- falls back on the president. And this is a Cook County magazine. I have to find a way to get rid of them. I'm not distributing them."

Money well spent once again, Todd.

Like the time you spent $5,000 of taxpayer money on an embroidered carpet.

Or the time the state of Illinois froze federal grant money for your job training program because of questionable spending and accounting practices.

For more fun at Stroger's expense, see ToddStroger.com.

Even better - check out Todd Stroger's very own blog.
I really liked this post: Being Todd Stroger Is Not Easy.























photo via NatalieDee