Carol Felsenthal

With one Illinois governor in prison and another waiting to go, the current gov, Pat Quinn, seems remarkably tone deaf to charges that he is rewarding his political benefactors with cushy board jobs. His appointment on Wednesday of 41-year-old attorney Jennifer Burke—daughter of Alderman Ed Burke, next to Rahm the biggest foot in city politics—to the Illinois Pollution Control Board seems utterly over the top, even reckless... Read more

It's often said that Washington is "Hollywood for ugly people.” With that caveat, and given the agonizing stalemate over lifting the debt ceiling, it’s a nice distraction to look at the "50 Most Beautiful People in Washington" list, published annually since 2004 by the oh-so-serious The Hill, which covers D.C. in minute detail. At number five, the highest ranking local is... Read more

The president turns 50 on August 4th, and plans for his party on the day before have been in the works for months. Still, with Obama in the throes of the debt-ceiling crisis, there’s the possibility that the whole thing may get canceled or delayed... Read more

The mayor goes with the University of Chicago's elite private school, getting testy when asked about it... and perhaps reveals his greater political ambitions. Read more

When President Obama’s re-election team released the list of his top campaign fundraisers last week—about 20 were from the Chicago area—I noticed that Mesirow Financial Vice President Les Coney was back on this year’s roster of big bundlers. Here, an edited transcript of our conversation, where he talks about meeting Obama, fundraising for the president... Read more

There may be scores of reasons why Michele Bachmann shouldn't be president, but her migraines—the latest hot topic in campaign news—are not one of them... Read more

Fred Karger, 61, has lived in and around Los Angeles since 1972—mostly now in Laguna Beach—but he grew up in Glencoe and graduated from New Trier. He’s about as likely to become president as I am—his campaign slogan is “Fred Who?”—but the pundits are beginning to notice the first openly gay candidate to run on a major party ticket, especially as the issue of gay marriage heats up... Read more

Center stage in the debt limit/government default drama now playing in Washington is House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Here in Chicago, Rahm Emanuel may be busy with the latest weekend tragedy of street gangs’ bullets missing their targets and hitting children, but he is surely keeping his eye on Capitol Hill, his old stomping ground. Were he still there, he'd be playing the Cantor role on the other side of the aisle... Read more