White Sox White House visit getting real political GM considered boycott

[wndycty]

Damn, the White Sox White visit is getting real political! LOL Mayor is pissed because Ozzie is blowing it off, GM considered boycott due to Iraq. This should be very interesting! The best is Ozzie's 21 year old son firing on Daley. . .LOL

Daley 'disappointed' in Ozzie

February 10, 2006

BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND CHRIS DE LUCA Staff Reporters

Mayor Daley can't think of any place he would rather be than the White House on Monday when his beloved White Sox get the presidential visit afforded all World Series champions.

What the mayor cannot understand is why a handful of Sox players -- and specifically manager Ozzie Guillen -- don't have the same passion for a White House visit.

"I'm disappointed,'' Daley said. "It's a great honor to be invited to the White House. I don't care who you are. Maybe you think you're too important.

"Ozzie's on vacation or something. That's up to him. But you don't realize how precious that is. Very few Americans have ever been in the White House. To me, that's a privilege for anyone. . . . I could ask . If they ever get to the White House, they'd be walking down there. They'd get there some way.''

Guillen is vacationing in the Dominican Republic with his wife, Ibis, and their youngest son, Ozney. The oldest of Guillen's three sons, Ozzie Jr., said Thursday that his father had considered re-arranging his vacation plans to accommodate a White House visit. But when he was told no wives or families were permitted to accompany the team on the visit, he chose to spend time with his family.
-snip-

Is there any chance Ozzie Sr. will reconsider and interrupt his vacation with a quick stop in Washington?

"No way. Not at all," Ozzie Jr. said. "To Ozzie, his family is more important than getting attention for himself. You have to remember, Mr. Daley is a politician. My dad is not."

No diss: 'Been there, done that'

White Sox spokesman Scott Reifert said Guillen isn't trying to diss President Bush, stressing that Guillen, then a third-base coach for the Florida Marlins, made a White House visit after that team won the 2003 World Series.

"For Ozzie, he's been there and done that,'' Reifert said. "This is a guy who was just made an American citizen two weeks ago. But he had this trip with his family scheduled with the season kind of looming on him for seven or eight months. He had scheduled this time to be down -- to be with his family, not dealing with the media and not dealing with being Ozzie. It certainly wasn't about any political statement.''
-snip-

In a recent radio interview, Sox general manager Ken Williams said he decided to make the Washington trip, but only after thinking long and hard about it because he differs with President Bush on the war in Iraq.
-end-

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-sox10.html#


My earlier thread on the subject:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x368500

[hwmnbn]

1. I saw parts of that news conference....

On Chicago Tonight. You correctly predicted a backlash, but I think Ozzie Jr. nailed it.

The problem is some people think it's an "honor" to be invited to the White House. With the Chimp inside, there is no honor anywhere near the White House.

Screw Daley, he should forego his trip also and work on cleaning up some of his administration's scandals. Who the fuck is he to talk about honor?! :grr:

(I just had to get that dig in. Teach him to diss my man, Ozwaldo!)

[Ganja Ninja]

2. I only wish Mayor Daley and the rest of the Democrats could ...

grow a set of balls like Ozzie has. Why do they keep playing nicey-nice with an administration that should be sitting in a cell in Leavenworth?

[wndycty]

3. Well to be honest Ozzie is not making a political statement as much as. .

. . .he is being Ozzie. I do think politics has come into play but what this really is, is Ozzie saying no one tells him what to do.

[Doctor_J]

11. Or just STFU

why does Daley have to weigh in on this at all?

[zbdent]

4. Oh, god, you just reminded me

"my" Steelers are going to pose with W . . .

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

[Botany]

5. "Ozzie's on vacation or something......."

Come on White Sox! Go back to back.

Bush is becoming a pariah. Kind like those Hitler youth kids who had to
pose w/ Adolph as he came out of his bunker that last time.

[400Years]

6. Look how this article is written

the article is about Guillen passing on visiting the white house but they have to have the whole first half of the article about how Daley is "disappointed" in him blah blah blah.

so biased you can taste it.

[Supersedeas]

8. my feeling exactly...kudos to the GM

[MrBenchley]

7. You might recall that during the Clinton presidency

there was a dittohead on one of the Super Bowl champions who tried to make the White House visit political by parroting a bunch of Limbaugh crap to the press, especially stressing how "immoral" Clinton was....he then went back to Wisconsin and got nabbed sexually assaulting a underage girl...

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wauk/chmura/jan01/chmura21012001.asp

[wndycty]

9. Oh Mark Chmura

:kick:

[MrBenchley]

12. He was surprisingly easy to google....

You might also recall, along the same lines, the GOP's Matthew Glavine, who got Clinton disbarred for "immorality"...and then got arrested for spanking his monkey in public on a park bench...when he pled guilty, it turned out to be his second offense.....

[Doctor_J]

13. Or the father of child-murderer Susan Smith,

member of the SC Moral Majority, who it turned out had a 4-year "consensual" relationship with his daughter.

[MrBenchley]

14. That was the case Newt Gingrich blamed on "liberals"....

Here's yet another....

Mary Kay LeTourneau, the teacher who had an affair with her underage student...whose dad was anti-sex education loon and Republican congressperson John Schmitz....

http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2000/01/27/letourneau/index.xml

[Doctor_J]

10. Williams was a radical in his day

I think his dad was a Panther or something, and Kenny is friends and soulmates with some baseball outspoken libs/Dems like Hank Aaron. I am glad that the money hasn't shaken his beliefs. And Ozzie is apparently friends with Smirk's arch-nemesis Hugo. Interesting dynamic there.

Chairman Jerry is a Repub though. But a really good one.

I wonder if the wingers on WSCR SportsRadio 670 will be ripping Kenny over this.

[KharmaTrain]

15. I Wanted Ozzie To Wear That Venezuelan Flag

First...more kudos to Kenny Williams. I'll specifically shake his hand and thank him for that stand when I see him at spring training.

Daley has become more and more of a booshie toadie. The Tribune story (and local GOOP spin) is that Daley admires boosh for his "family" and "character" (consider the source!!). Daley needs boooosh...using Hastert to get things for the city he used to go to Rostenkowski to get.

Ozzie surely had his moment in the sun when he held that World Series trophy in downtown Caracas to millions of his countrymen. But Ozzie better be careful now...he's recently become a normalized American (I've read he hold dual citizenship)...he might end up hijacked to Gitmo on his next flight back to the states.

[Ron Mexico]

16. What does it cost to bring a team to the White House? Why the hell

are we paying for that crap to begin with?

I'm sick of picking up the tab for these fucking photo ops, the pardoning of the turkey and other inane WH ceremonies. They add up, and you could feed people with that money.

Am I the only one irritated by this?

[wndycty]

17. Kick

:kick:

[Doctor_J]

18. No

"Am I the only one irritated by this?"

It's time to do away with this stoopid ritual, especially since Smirk usually makes them political.

[HuskerDU]

19. Kudos to the White Sox!

Particularly Ken Williams and Ozzie Guillen.

[Chi-Town Exile]

20. Right on Williams and Guillen!

Those two have sure gone up in my estimation! :woohoo: