Eddie Burke. Chutzpah in the first degree.
Chutzpah is one of those Yiddish words that has crossed over into broader English usage.
The meaning translates roughly as incredible nerve.
Until now, the classic example of chutzpah was the boy who killed his parents, then threw himself on the mercy of the courts, asking for leniency because he was an orphan.
But former Chicago alder Eddie Burke, who has been under indictment for bribery for the past four years, has provided us with a very Chicago example of the meaning of the word.
Federal prosecutors want - if his trial ever actually happens - to introduce wire evidence of anti-Jewish statements Eddie made at the time of the bribes he is accused of taking.
Eddie was recorded during a scheme involving the redevelopment of Chicago’s Old Post Office.
“Well, you know as well as I do, Jews are Jews and they’ll deal with Jews to the exclusion of everybody else unless … there’s a reason for them to use a Christian.”
When Eddie’s lawyers went to the first judge in the case to have the testimony barred as prejudicial, the judge rejected their claims.
But there’s a new judge on the case which is scheduled to finally get going next month.
One of Burke’s defense attorneys, Kimberly Rhum, argued that any comment “made in the past seen as even remotely derogatory toward Jews would be” even more prejudicial now, as the “current situation in Israel and Gaza has dramatically changed.”
“Any member of the jury sympathetic toward what the Jewish people have endured might find Mr. Burke’s comments to be particularly distasteful,” Rhum argued.
Joseph Duffy, another member of Burke’s defense team, added “it is such a hot button right now, that’s not going to change in the next month, so we ask [that] you consider it.”
The judge currently hearing the case said he thinks that argument has merit and is considering the motion to suppress the evidence.
Chicago chutzpah.