Sun-Times Columnist Neil Steinberg Under Fire for "Racist" Column Mocking Carol Moseley Braun

Supporters of Chicago mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun call commentary written by Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, racist and demands his firing.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg is under fire for a recent article he penned, entitled,  "Carol, I Miss You Already," mocking the possibility of a Carol Moseley Braun administration as mayor of Chi-Town. Talk about stifling free speech. A group of protesters gathered outside the newspaper's office to voice their complaint that the article was "racist."  Steinberg wrote, "she represents the egomaniacal muddle that Chicago black leadership has slid into, where calls for imaginary and self-destructive racial solidarity trump minor concerns like reason or history." Er, isn't that a fact? We now have a bigger moron Rep. Danny Davis, who considers himself a longtime friend of Bill Clinton, warning him that his "long and fruitful relationship" with the black community will be jeopardized if he campaigns for former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. So, it's okay for black leaders to pull the race card, but when a white person takes offense to a black candidate or elected official then he or she is branded as a racist? Give me a break.

We all know that Carol Moseley Braun is a joke and not worthy to represent the city of Chicago as their mayor. Let's not forget her one-term as a senator was riddled with scandals and controversy. She was no Mother Teresa.  Her Senate tenure was highlighted by a dust-up over whether she misspent $249,000 in campaign donations. She was never charged with any crimes, but it left a bitter taste in the mouths of many who remember her quite well.

Moseley-Braun had some close calls with the law. The first occurred during her 1992 Senate campaign, when it came to light that three years earlier, she had deposited a check for $28,750 into a personal money-market account. The check in question actually belonged to Moseley-Braun's mother, who owned a property in Alabama on which she'd sold the timber-harvesting rights; the $28,750 was a royalty payment. Edna Moseley was staying in a Chicago nursing home at the time and relying on Medicaid to cover her expenses, something ostensibly reserved only for the near-indigent—not people with $28,750 checks to their name. The royalty should have been used to reimburse Medicaid; instead, Moseley-Braun divvied up the money with her two siblings. When the situation came to light, she apologized and paid Medicaid $15,240. The Illinois Department of Public Aid declined to launch a criminal probe.

Moseley-Braun's post-victory honeymoon was brief. Even before she arrived in Washington, she was blasted for rewarding several campaign workers with cushy jobs at her old office, the Cook County recorder of deeds. Her campaign manager and then-fiance, Kgosie Matthews, was accused of sexual harassment by several Moseley-Braun campaign staffers; the newly minted senator stood by her man, to whom she'd been paying a salary of $15,000 per month. To celebrate their '92 victory, the pair jetted off to Matthews' native South Africa on a 27-day vacation, making use of the Concorde for one leg of their trip; several aides, meanwhile, complained that they hadn't been paid. Source: Slate

For all her supporters who want to give Neil Steinberg grief over his column, please do some research on your girl. She isn't the person she's now portraying herself as. If she couldn't free herself from all the scandals that marred her senatorial tenure, what exactly will she do for the people of Chicago, particularly the people living in the inner cities whose children attend schools with horrible records? Newsflash -- not every white person who criticizes a black politician, celebrity or business leader, is a racist. That woe-is-me attitude is getting really old.