AN INTERESTING TWO WEEKS OF POLITICS

REPUBLICANS learned a valuable lesson this month.  don't ever play 'chicken' with a second term president who has nothing to lose because you can't win. the right wingers fractured their party and the american people when they forced a shutdown of the government and then were taken to the woodshed for a solid ass beating when they blinked first accepted the same basic package the president offered six months ago.

did it hurt the elephant party? national polls indicate that while the president's approval rate is below 50%, republican approval is in the teens....with an election year coming up. i hope those people who voted for the shutdown have job skills other than politics because i think they're going to need them next november.

in NEW YORK politics, private parts tweeting expert ANTHONY WEINER stated that if there was no internet, he would probably be mayor of new york right now. and if there was no gravity, i'd be flying. but there is and i can't.  go away anthony.

and on to CHICAGO.......LAURA FOXGROVER, a former park district official  improperly helped her married lover MATTHEW O'MALLEY and the father of her child secure a THIRTY YEAR DEAL to operate the PARK GRILL in millenium park. in addition, the restaurant receives free water, heat and garbage collection for the duration of the lease and operate rent free until they recoup their initial construction costs.  sweet. and the tidbit which may send some people to jail? the bid that would have given the park district the biggest slice of cash belonged to BRUCE RAUNER, a very close friend of current MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL, who is currently in court trying to break the lease and spending bunches of taxpayer dollars in lawyer fees, almost 3/4 of a million dollars to date.  stay tuned.

kudos to NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE for withdrawing his legal challenge to gay marriage, citing that recent high court decisions make it "impossible to win this battle and we have other places to spend our money." christie has become a common sense leader for the republican party although many view him as too liberal for the national platform. his lauding of PRESIDENT OBAMA after the hurricane rankled some leaders but christie's retort was 'fair is fair. his agencies did a great job helping our state."

and congratulations to NEWARK MAYOR CORY BOOKER, who won a special election and became the first black senator from new jersey. booker is a graduate of the yale school of law and a rhodes scholar. one of the first politicians to embrace the social media, he has over 1.4 million followers on twitter.  that's it for now.