Sneed: Obama’s union praise directed at Rauner

Ripping Rauner . . .

Shoot the juice to me, Bruce!

Sneed is told President Barack Obama’s praise for labor unions at the Pullman national monument dedication Thursday was intended as a thwack at Gov. Bruce Rauner’s efforts to limit union power in Illinois.

Narrowing Farrow . . .

Media wunderkind no more: MSNBC host Ronan Farrow, son of actress/activist Mia Farrow (and maybe singer Frank Sinatra) has just lost his show, but will be given the consolation prize of primetime specials nobody seems to watch either.

Button up!

The button brigade. . .

It’s all about a blue button: The late Mayor Harold Washington’s blue sun button, which was later copied by President Barack Obama.

Chug-a-chug-a-Chuy? Will mayoral hopeful Chuy Garcia’s decision to copy Washington’s legendary 1983 campaign button design ignite a groundswell of last-minute support?

• Backshot: Last year supporters of Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who was eyeing a mayoral bid, resurrected Washington’s mayoral campaign button in hopes it would lead to major grass roots support.

“If Karen Lewis was smart, she’d get out those blue ‘Harold’ buttons Harold Washington used in 1982, 1983 and put her name on them,” a top Dem stalwart told Sneed in August, before Lewis dropped out of the running.

“Once they started popping up all over the city, everybody seemed to want to have one, and astute political observers knew then something was going on,” the source said.

Lewis’s diagnosis of brain cancer ended any mayoral hopes.

• Big back shot: The sun button became an inspiration for Barack Obama’s first campaign logo — a blue sun coming up over a red horizon.

Sony baloney . . .

Sneed hears rumbles one of the leading candidates to replace ousted Sony Pictures Co-Chairman Amy Pascal, the victim of a lip-slip in a hacking scandal, is a Chicagoan — Doug Belgrad, current president of Sony’s Motion Picture Group.

Belgrad grew up in Highland Park, where his family owned a furniture-making company.

Hey! Hey!

Chicago Cubs booster Grant “Bartman ball buster” DePorter, who has spent a ton of money to break the Cubs’ losing streak curse, is at it again.

Sneed hears DePorter recently placed a $2,015 bet at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas that the Cubs will win the World Series in 2015!

And he’s giving the wager receipt. . . AKA payout. . . to a randomly selected attendee at the 17th Annual Worldwide Toast to the late, great Cubs announcer Harry Caray on March 12.

Holy cow!

No free lunch!

Watch for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to remind voters they are not entitled to a free lunch.

• Translation: Alvarez, who has noticed increasing instances of aldermanic candidates offering voting incentives, er . . . freebies, has been sending out cease-and-desist notices to candidates and businesses engaged in the practice.

Sneed is told Alvarez’s Election Fraud Unit sent the letters earlier this week to a 45th ward aldermanic candidate and several 45th ward businesses after he advertised 10 percent discounts for voters who cast their votes early and showed their ballot receipt.

“This type of activity amounts to vote buying, which is an illegal act under the law,” said Alvarez.

Email hell . . .

Here we go again! A crazy virus has once again attacked the Cook County email system. Sneed hears hundreds of county employees have seen their inboxes flooded with malicious emails for the past two days.

The other side . . .

He’s pissed! RTA member Bill Coulson, hubby of former GOP state Rep. Beth Coulson, is weighing in on the abrupt resignation of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber due to the business dealings of Cylvia Hayes, his fiancee/first lady — which was perceived as a conflict of interest.

“I am saddened and angered by the resignation of my college roommate — John Kitzhaber . . . John was elected four times as governor, yet pressured to resign over acts by his fiancee which would hardly raise an eyebrow in Illinois politics.”

Sneedlings . . .

Friday’s birthdays: Patty Hearst-Shaw, 61; Gloria Vanderbilt, 91, and Tom’s beloved Sally Ward, ageless and priceless.