Politics: PJS deeply, deeply concerned that Police chief posed for a pic with the pres
OK … so let’s set forth the facts.
President Bush was in town at a fundraiser. He was charging well-to-do Republicans $5,000 to have their picture taken with him.
While in town, he had his picture taken with Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard.
Ooooo … what a scandal.
The Journal Star is deeply concerned.
“As is very common for presidential visits, the Secret Service offered the opportunity to local law enforcement to be able to meet the president,” Settingsgaard said in an e-mail to the Journal Star. “I shook his hand, said a kind word and they snapped a picture.”
What we’re not sure about, though, is whether the chief paid the $5,000 asking price for the picture, if he got to keep the photograph for free, or if he even walked off with a photograph. Plus, who was “they?” He declined to answer follow-up questions we had about the picture.
The Journal Star is deeply concerned. Trouble is, I don’t know if they are deeply concerned that Settingsgaard paid $5,000 or if he DIDN’T pay $5,000. If he did pay, then it’s a case of a public employee being overly political, I suppose. If he didn’t, then his posing for a picture may constitute some form of a gratuity from the Bush administration to Settingsgaard.
I believe that I am speaking for a great majority of Peorians when I say: “Oh, get a frigging life.” I’m sorry all to hell that Settingsgaard’s reply wasn’t as specific as you would like, but it seems clear that the chief got his picture taken with the president because politicians like to have their picture taken with police officers. At this point in Bush’s career, posing for a picture with Settingsgaard did more for GW’s reputation than the other way around.
Feh. I’m willing to bet the “concern” being expressed anonymously comes from those who are overly worried about the money the city spent providing security during Bush’s visit.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:16 am
I dunno Billy, there could be more to all of this than we see at first glance. Its typical that when you hold a fundraiser other higher level elected officials of your party are invited and given complimentary tickets out of courtesy. For this event, a number of the “higher up” officials got snubbed by the Schock campaign like when the President was greeted by the mayors of East Peoria and Eureka, not Ardis or Risinger or Leitch (who both serve with Schock and certainly of slightly more significance than whoever the mayor of Eureka is). So if Schock is shutting out all of these other individuals why would he let the Chief get a $5k picture for free?
And I realize that the Chief of Police is a salary position and out of necessity doesn’t have a standard work schedule, but still there is something that feels a little wrong about the Chief PAYING (has that part been verified?) to go to a noon political fundraiser. If he didn’t have to pay and was attending in an official capacity then that’s one thing (then again if he received a complimentary ticket why did everyone else get stiffed). If it were an after hour event I probably wouldn’t feel that way. I dunno maybe its just me but I don’t think an apolitical public servant should be spending a couple hours in the middle of the day going to political fundraisers. I also assume that he took a City of Peoria vehicle to the event as well…
And as to the Chief’s reply he would be pretty stupid not to give a full and complete response to the paper. If he has nothing to hide than he has nothing to hide, why give a hint of impropriety unless…
September 29th, 2008 at 7:09 am
I sometimes wonder if the Peoria Journal Star feels like if they are going down they are gonna take Peoria with them!
September 29th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Talk about being desperate for a scandal. This is just a cheap gossip piece with less facts than an alien story in the Enquirer.
September 29th, 2008 at 8:30 am
The Mayor of Eureka is Scott Punke….He is on Schock’s Election Committee….
September 29th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Lets see, the Chief of Police busts his butt to work with the Secret Service to pull off a Presidential visit in a couple of weeks, something that normally takes a couple of months of planning, and somewhere along the way, while his officers are assisting with security, he gets a picture snapped and a handshake. If he did get it for free, which I assume he did, such a courtesy can hardly be considered the stuff of controversy can it? I agree wholeheartedly with Billy, this is a “who cares” from the “so what” file except in the minds of people with an ax to grind. The fact that the other “dignataries” didn’t get any “freebies” sounds like sour grapes and if their feelings are so hurt then they can hold their breath until they turn blue. That or else 11 Bravo is stirring a pot that isn’t boiling.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I’d call this one inconspicuous. Sorry, witch hunters.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:30 am
wow….dumb
September 29th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Hey, Ian, you coming to the Bloggers bash??
September 29th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
When? Oh…I’ll check Billy’s post. Also…I don’t have a blog. Does this exclude me?
September 29th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
It’s simple to verify. Schock has to report contributions of more than $200. He has to file on Oct 15 and Oct 23. FEC website
September 29th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
All are welcome to the blogger bash.
September 29th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Tell Jen to come too!
September 29th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
The Secret Service has a long standing policy of insisting that each unit of local police, sheriff’s dept, fire departments, first responders, be allowed a small group photo with the President as a token of their appreciation in cooperating with the Secret Service in protecting a president. This has been a policy through Democrat and Republican presidents alike.
In the case of a fundraiser, the candidate a president raises money for gets so many photos for major contributors and the Secret Service gets a mandatory number of photos for local police, fire, first responder units etc that were helpful to them in protecting the President on that event.
Even when an event is non-political, the Secret Service ensures that local law enforcement and fire and rescue personnel who were helpful on the event get photos with the President.
As such, Chief Settingsgaard did not attend the fundraiser lunch. He had no contact at all with the Schock campaign about the event, rather he professionally cooperated solely with the Secret Service. He and many other law enforcement and first responders were simply invited by the Secret Service to get their photos taken with the President before the event began.
This is the case no matter where a President goes. This case was standard operating procedure.
September 29th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
PJS has made scandals out of councilwoman asking a frat to be quiet and now this. Do they know our country is on the verge of economic collapse and people are very worried?
September 29th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
PJS didn’t make the Bradley incident a scandal. It had plenty of its own steam on that one. I didn’t see the Chief at the Bush event either.
September 29th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Our Police Chief can’t win. He has done s great job in this community . Some people don’t want him here .. My, my , i see a person who likes to rattle cages.. Great work Chief keep it up and your head up… Our community is much safer now .
September 29th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
As someone who always enjoys watching Republican officials get skewered for one reason or another, I have to say in fairness here that the chief getting his pic taken with the President is NOT an issue. The amount of responsibility he has taken on in his position coupled with the responsibility of having the leader of the free world (like him or not) visit this community was probably more than any of us could handle. If something God forbid went wrong, he would be one of the officials wearing the blame shirt. Whether he paid for the photo or not is a non issue. Let the guy have a little extra reward for all of his hard work. He will have a pic (albeit with the worst President ever) that he can still share with friends and family for years to come and it’s pretty darn cool to be able to look at that pic and say “I worked with the secret service”. PJS missed the point once again. Leave this one alone.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Punditry, ever notice the differences between how lefties approach these kinds of things versus wingnuts dancing over everyone’s intelligence… they are simply staggering, aren’t they?
September 30th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Isn’t Word on the Street something of a gossip column anyway?
Why are all of you making a big deal out of it? Had it received it’s own article – okay. But it’s a paragraph is Word on the Street… chill y’all.
Do I care about it either? No, but I didn’t blog about it.