Yesterday, Abraham Lincoln's birthday, the Chicago Tribune wrote a pointed editorial about the silence of Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, who like Lincoln in his day, is running for the Senate.But one will ever call the Boy Banker "Honest Alexi."
Now that Alexi Giannoulias is the Democrats' nominee for U.S. Senate, he's got an answer for everything: Jobs, jobs, jobs. That's not what people are asking about, though, and Giannoulias knows it.
Voters want to know about his role in his family's struggling Broadway Bank, and Giannoulias promised he'd provide those details after the Feb. 2 primary election. "If I'm fortunate enough to make it out of the primary, we can have that conversation," he said. His plan now seems to be to stonewall until November. Or forever. Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs…
Federal regulators have outlined a plan they hope will rescue the bank, where Giannoulias was vice president and senior loan officer before being elected state treasurer in 2007. To satisfy a consent decree, the family must raise some $75 million in capital. It also must set "well-defined and reasonable risk limits," hire an expert to assess the qualifications of its top managers and refrain from paying dividends without regulators' approval.
Giannoulias' story now is that he put everything on the table three years ago, when he ran for treasurer. Back then, though, the questions were about Broadway's loans to people like Michael "Jaws" Giorango, convicted of running a prostitution ring and an illegal gambling operation, or Tony Rezko, ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich's chief influence peddler.
As I've written many times before in this space, Giannoulias ran for treasurer touting his banking credentials. "We need a banker in the treasurer's office" he said. The Boy Banker's Bright Start program lost half of its value under his watch. And Alexi keeps avoiding answering questions about Broadway Bank's problems.
He's slippery, that Alexi. Just like the current holder of the US Senate seat he is running for--Rod Blagojevich appointee Roland Burris.
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