Pension Bill Getting Attention

Hopefully, to be derailed during the veto session:

• City employee union leaders reacted furiously Thursday to a new bill in the Illinois General Assembly that would give Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle control over public employee pension funds.

  House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego is leading the effort to dissolve the city and county worker pension boards and alter the balance of power by allowing Emanuel and Preckwinkle to appoint a majority of new board members.

  While Emanuel aides said the recently elected mayor was weighing his position on the bill, Preckwinkle’s spokeswoman told the Chicago News Cooperative that the first-term board president favored it.

Rahm is weighing his position? There's a fucking joke if we ever heard it. And here's another:

• But Cross said neither the mayor nor his aides in Springfield had asked him to introduce the new proposal.

  “I think the suggestion by some is that the mayor’s office called me and is trying to get more power,” Cross said. “That’s not what happened. This came out of our shop. I want to be clear about that. He didn’t call me and say, ‘Do this.’”

No, Rahm's too smart for that. He'd have his people do that. Or allies like Madigan. Rahm isn't like Blago getting caught on a wire. But in reality, there's no reason we can think of for an Oswego politician to be introducing Chicago Pension bills. Readers?