* Senate President Emil Jones continues to deny that he called Hillary Clinton supporter Delmarie Cobb an “Uncle Tom,” and there’s even a disagreement over how, exactly, he apologized to Cobb…
“He came over, sat down. A couple of people obviously had something to do with it,” Cobb said, without elaborating. “He sat down at the table with me. He said, ‘I apologize and let’s move forward.’ I accepted his apology and said, ‘OK, we will.’ It was never my intention to continue things that would hurt Barack Obama.”
Jones, however, offered a much less apologetic version of his Monday conversation with Cobb.
“I said ‘If that’s what you think I said, I don’t want to have no hard feelings, so I apologize. We’ve known each other too long.’”
Describing the latest encounter to a Sun-Times reporter on the convention floor Monday evening, Jones still insisted he never called Cobb an “Uncle Tom,” saying “But that’s not what I said”
* And one of the witnesses to the alleged event backs up Sen. Jones…
Latasha Thomas, Chicago City Council 17th Ward alderman, called the Daily Herald to say she witnessed the event and never heard Jones say “Uncle Tom.”
Another aldermanic witness, Freddrenna Lyle backed up Cobb’s version.
* Mayor Daley wasn’t exactly helpful to Jones…
“I think it’s a misuse of words. There’s no ‘Uncle Toms,’ anybody supporting Hillary, Obama. It’s just a mischoice of words,” the mayor said.
Translation: Daley believes Jones said it, but “mischose” his words. Daley has not been all that pleased with Jones lately, so this flap had to make him smile just a wee bit.
* Roland Burris wasn’t all that helpful, either…
Roland Burris, the former attorney general and the first black man to win a major statewide office, minimized the importance of the incident. He didn’t condone using the phrase “Uncle Tom” but said it was probably made in jest.
* And Rep. Monique Davis piled on…
Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, offered one possible solution, at least when it comes to Jones.
“I think Barack Obama would be wise to keep him locked up in the basement until the election is over,” said Davis, who, like Jones, is black.
* Meanwhile, the Obama-controlled convention allowed Sen. Jones to give his speech yesterday to the assembled crowd despite the controversy, but the DNC’s web masters pulled a George Orwell on Jones…
Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat, gave a brief speech at the convention, one of several Illinois officials. CSPAN ID’d Jones as an Illinois state senator, omitting the president title.
And the convention Web site has yet (8:26 p.m. Denver time) to post his speech. Those before and after are posted but not his.
Several hours later, the speech still wasn’t posted.
Jones was apparently “disappeared.”
* Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, a Tier One level congressional candidate, was reportedly apopleptic about Jones’ comments.
“She was talking to Jones outside the breakfast [meeting Monday morning for Illinois Democrats] and I overheard something about this destroying her career,” e-mailed a reporter pal.
* Related…
* Arrests made in possible plot against Obama
* Sleeper statewide candidate in 2010: Miguel del Valle
* EricV: One interesting little comment is that since Illinois is, of course, front and center they’re having a little problem with the seating. Apparently Illinois always does assigned seating and they’ve got Mayor Daley, Gov. Blagojevich, Mike Madigan, Dick Durbin, and all the big names in the front row. Usually these are the best seats in the house, but this year they’re like the first row in a movie theater. Or maybe a better simile is that of a concert because there’s plenty of fans standing at the base of the stage making those front row seats really bad… They’re trying to redo the seating behind me right now…
* At the convention, Illinois delegation split by racial, gender discord
* Alice Palmer didn’t want to be photographed
* Land of Lincoln is a house divided
* Audio of Lisa Madigan’s speech to DNC
* DNC Botches Alexi’s Name
* Lisa Madigan transcends nepotism
* PrairieStateBlue coverage
* Obama: “Oh, that’s easy. White Sox. I’m not one of these fair weather fans. You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren’t watching the game. It’s not serious. White Sox, that’s baseball. Southside.”