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Moseley Braun: Sun-Times' Steinberg 'A Drunk And Wife Beater'

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Carol Moseley Braun drew applause from supporters today when she lashed out at Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg.

Steinberg on Monday wrote a column that painted the Chicago mayoral candidate in a negative light - and he suggested she lacks common sense.

During a news conference, Moseley-Braun called Steinberg "a drunk and a wife beater."

"It's the truth,'' she said, with a laugh. "The Sun-Times ought to do better by Chicagoans than to give this man a platform ... for his divisive rantings."

Steinberg was arrested in 2005 after hitting his wife, but prosecutors dropped domestic battery charges after he completed a court-ordered alcohol treatment program.

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The Monday column, titled "Carol, I Miss You Already," mocked the idea of a Moseley Braun administration, and treated a Rahm Emanuel victory in the mayoral race as a foregone conclusion.

"I'm half tempted to go into denial, after Emanuel is elected, and write columns tracking, not his advent, but the lurches and stumbles of an imaginary Mayor Moseley Braun," Steinberg wrote.

Sun-Times Editor Don Hayner said the paper stands by Steinberg's right to express his opinion.

Steinberg responded on Wednesday: "The difference between my past and hers is that I have done the hard work to change myself, while she remains exactly what she was, alas. If a person cannot tolerate one teasing column, how can she hope to be mayor of a great city?"

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