Rahm’s pension theft. Republicans run. Quinn hides. SEIU splits with CTU and We Are One.

The State Senate went home yesterday. Madigan tried a rewrite of Rahm’s pension theft. The Republicans weren’t buying it.

Meanwhile Squeezy went all amnesia, saying he didn’t know anything about the bill.

And SEIU local 73 continued their sellout of pension rights and their split from the position of the We Are One Coalition of city public employee unions. They raised the stakes with some sharp words directed at the Chicago Teachers Union.

For rank-and-file Chicago Democrats in the House, another issue that has given some cold feet is opposition to the plan by the Chicago Teachers Union, which has several thousand members in the city municipal fund.

The CTU nearly ousted incumbent state Rep. Christian Mitchell, D-Chicago, in an expensive primary battle last month against a union-backed challenger, Jay Travis. One of the chief issues in that race was Mitchell’s December support for legislation reeling in state pensions.

Brandon, however, tried to calm that sentiment by telling reticent city Democrats his union — and others backing the mayor’s plan — would be with them come election time if they vote for the city pension package.

“What I’ve made sure to remind the members is that SEIU Local 73, in particular, worked directly with the CTU on the Jay Travis campaign. We took staff out. We had members out. We did in-kind. We donated to her campaign. We did mailings. So it wasn’t all CTU,” Brandon said.

“What I would remind or assure the members of is that CTU’s position is not all of the unions’ positions. When all the unions, when 28 out of 31 unions, put their big-boy pants on and stand up for what they said they’d agreed to, I think it will neutralize any impact CTU or any other union could have on the people who stand up for this bill,” he said.
“Big-boy pants”?

That’s some nasty stuff.