North Side congresswoman Jan Schakowsky will always have to cope with political opponents who like to remind everyone that her husband, Evanston political consultant Robert Creamer, did time in a federal prison for bank fraud.
And Creamer doesn't help matters by staying in the spotlight, in part as a highly visible blogger for The Huffington Post who is a resolute - if not over-the-top - defender of President Obama. He also has a new book out called Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win. And he attended (with his wife, of course) the same White House state dinner that was crashed by the now-infamous Salahis.
That's a recipe made in heaven for Fox News ranter Glenn Beck. On his show Tuesday night, Beck took his swings.
"The rest of the world is paying attention to the White House dinner crashers, right?" Beck said. "The woman in the red dress. The journalists apparently didn't feel it necessary to comb through the rest of the guest list. If they did, perhaps they would have noticed the convicted felon who was on the list. I just told you about that felon, Robert Creamer."
Creamer pleded guilty to two felonies in 2005 related to accusations that he swindled nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million as the executive director of Illinois Public Action Fund.
Beck also said Creamer's book, parts of which were written while he was in prison, laid the groundwork for the president's health care reform effort.
On Wednesday, Creamer struck back.
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"This is a man who lies about everything," Creamer told the Chicago Tribune. "It is important for the targets of the smear machine to push back and to use whatever kind of means we can to prevent him from continuing these kinds of reckless charges."
Creamer is not a sympathetic character.
But then, neither is Beck.
No one wins a spat like this.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
