Maybe J.B. Pritzker should hire Megyn Kelly
Here’s a political marriage made in heaven: Megyn Kelly and J.B. Pritzker.
Kelly will need a job now. And J.B., the billionaire Democrat running for governor, faces a public relations crisis. So she could be his spokesperson.
What could be more logical? Just call me Mr. Matchmaker. Just think, a Kelly-Pritzker political marriage could be almost as productive as that Pritzker-Boss Mike Madigan marriage.
Kelly is being pushed out at NBC for her racially charged “blackface” controversy of just a few days ago. She said blackface would be acceptable for Halloween “as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”
She stepped on the third rail and fried herself with that one. AfricanAmericans never thought blackface was OK. And NBC has wanted Kelly and her $69 million contract canceled for a while now. So, she’s off the air.
And Pritzker, the billionaire Democrat running for governor, is enmeshed in his own, related controversy, which forced him on Friday to suspend, then fire two campaign staffers.
I can’t wait for African-American Democratic office seekers to give Illinois’ big Democrat, J.B., some big public hugs as he tries to get past the “charcoal face” incident.
Toni Preckwinkle, Kwame Raoul? And what about all you AfricanAmerican aldermen who’ve been taking J.B’s political money since he said those unfortunate things about black candidates to Rod Blagojevich on FBI tape?
J.B. needs some hugs, dammit, and not private hugs either, but big public hugs on TV.
First, though, an examination of the so-called “charcoal face” issue.
Why do I call it a charcoal face issue? Because some news reports are calling what a Pritzker staffer showed up with on social media a “charcoal face mask,” avoiding the use of “blackface” which, as Megyn Kelly knows by now, is an act of white racism.
There is no proof there was racist intent. It could be that the Pritzker staffer was simply trying to cleanse his skin. But it looks terrible. And politics is about optics.
And it comes, oddly enough, just days after a $7.5 million federal racial discrimination lawsuit was filed against Pritzker by African-American and Latino political staffers. The Pritzker campaign has denied the allegations made in the lawsuit.
Long before the lawsuit was filed, Pritzker angered black voters with insensitive remarks about black Democrats in a cozy discussion with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich that was caught on FBI surveillance tape. Gov. Bruce Rauner, Pritzker’s Republican opponent, has used those comments in his campaign commercials.
The Pritzker staffer with the “charcoal face” mask was pictured wearing a blue “J.B and Juliana for Illinois” campaign T-shirt. The Instagram post showing the staffer in the mask was sent out by Carolyn Mehta, a top Pritzker campaign operative and his deputy get-out-the-vote coordinator.
The post also included the word “psycho” in a pink heart. “Psycho” is not the right word here, not after African-American Pritzker staffers filed their federal lawsuit. A better term for those who posted it would be “Ima Idiot.”
The unnamed white staffer was fired, as was Mehta. The stress must be driving J.B. crazy. I should have brought him over a couple of dozen bacon buns. They’re great stress reducers.
Charcoal face masks are often used to treat problem skin. J.B. could have made a great speech about the heartbreak of acne and the need to exfoliate.
But J.B. fired them. Why? Because he’s not a dermatologist.
He’s a candidate for governor.
If I were Pritzker’s campaign manager, I’d send him to black churches on the South and West sides, where he could show some love and fill up the collection trays, just as he did after making those remarks about black candidates on that FBI tape.
And J.B.? I don’t want to hear coins making sounds in those trays. Clergy don’t need to hear coins rattling around. All I want to hear is the silky sound of big bills.
But that’s politics in Illinois, a little faith, a lot of money, sensitivity, inclusion, throw in the race card now and then to spice things up, a little class warfare, maybe some toilets and a $330,000 tax fraud, and there you go.
Meanwhile, the main event, the race for mayor, is heating up too and that one will be just as crazy.
Mayoral candidate Bill Daley — son of one boss and brother of another boss who between them ruled Chicago for nearly half a century — is advocating term limits.
That’s right. Term limits from a Daley. What’s next? A Bill Daley ban on city trucking, asphalt and salt contracts?
Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot — one of the candidates who had the guts to challenge incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel before he decided notT to run — also made some news.
She’s upset at rumors that she’d make a deal with Boss Preckwinkle, who is also running for mayor.
“Let me just say upfront, that’s completely false,” Lightfoot said. “There’s a rumor going around that I’m going to step down and take a deal, and I’ll name it, as some person in a Toni Preckwinkle administration. Let me be clear: That’s never happening. It was false the minute it was said, and what it shows, frankly, is the kind of machine-style bullying that has no place in the future of this city.”
OK, but here’s the thing. Chicago politics isn’t a gentle game. Chicago is not Narnia.
And neither is Illinois, which is run by Boss Madigan, and J.B. Pritzker is his candidate.
Politics in Illinois is about bullying, and sharp elbows and blood on the floor. It’s an ugly, costly business.
And J.B. Pritzker understands that now, with just days before the election.
Listen to “The Chicago Way” podcast with John Kass and Jeff Carlin at www.wgnradio.com/category/wgnplus/thechicagoway.