By Steve Rhodes
1. The way campaigns used to be covered.
2. “Asked if he would run his campaign any differently now [without Jackson or Gutierrez in the race], Daley didn’t miss a beat,” the Tribune reports. “‘I have not announced whether I am running or not,’ he shot back.”
So it could be Dorothy Brown vs. Bill “Dock” Walls? Hmmm, maybe I dismissed Dock Walls too hastily . . .
3. And then Daley picked the corned beef out of his teeth from the fundraiser for a campaign he pretends doesn’t exist.
4. Connect the dots.
* Harold Washington fired Donald Tomczak.
* Richard M. Daley re-hired Tomczak.
* Tomczak was just sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the Hired Truck Scandal.
* Tomczak testified in the corruption trial of the mayor’s former patronage chief, Robert Sorich, who was found guilty along with three other Daley aides of a massively corrupt City Hall hiring system.
* Tomczak said he took his orders from Daley advisers Tim Degnan, Victor Reyes, and John Doerrer.
* The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce has just hired Doerrer to start a new political machine on behalf of the mayor.
* The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce is the new HDO.
5. The Republicans don’t even control the Chamber of Commerce? Wow, that was a tsunami.
6. “Under Mayor Daley’s leadership, the business community had, effectively, ‘one-stop shopping’ in City Hall,” the chamber states in an internal presentation cited in the Tribune account.
7. Tomczak’s lawyer said his client was part of an Old Chicago that doesn’t exist anymore. If it doesn’t exist anymore, why do so many people keep getting convicted for participating in it?
8. “Clearly, some of Mr. Tomczak’s crimes were condoned, they were facilitated and I believe in some respects they were honored by high-ranking portions of the City of Chicago,” prosecutor Patrick Collins said.
Hint, hint.
9. So we won’t be able to get rid of Daley or Blagojevich until federal prosecutors drag them out of office kicking and screaming. Not necessarily a worse alternative than beating them at the polls.
So, who is the lieutenant mayor?
10. “Tomczak also admitted he commanded a 250-strong army of water department employees who did political work for Mayor Daley, Al Gore, Rahm Emanuel and others in exchange for promotions, pay raises, and overtime.”
“Emanuel In Line For No. 4 Dem Spot In House.”
Meet the new boss . . .
11. “The Truth About Rahm Emanuel.”
12. George W. Bush politics in Cook County.
13. “My church beliefs taught me that – never be vindictive against people,” Daley said of Tomczak.
Too bad the mayor fell away from the church.
I wonder how many politicos spit up their coffee this morning when they read that.
14. “What a quiet race for mayor won’t answer, though, is why a clean city can’t have a clean government,” the Tribune editorial page says today.
15. Miguel del Valle has fallen into line nicely. His plan to televise City Council meetings comes straight out of the Tass playbook.
“Aldermen have privately complained that a camera free to pan the floor could paint an unflattering portrait of inattentive aldermen,” the Sun-Times reported on Thursday. But del Valle learned how to deal with that while in the General Assembly.
“The primary concern of legislators was how will the camera pick up the individual. We have it so it only picks up the speaker. You certainly don’t want to be seen reading the paper or sleeping. But the camera shot can be tight enough to zero in on the speaker.”
In other words, the solution to sleeping legislators isn’t to wake them up and make them work but to make sure they don’t get caught on camera.
16. “As giddy as local Democrats are following the elections, voters have to be feeling a bit queasy after seeing the status quo confirmed at the polls in a year in which City Hall, the Cook County board and the governor’s office have been targeted by the feds for corruption,” the Sun-Times editorial page says today.
The same editorial page that endorsed the status quo at the Cook County board and the governor’s office, with City Hall on the way.
17. More from The Smartest Columnist in the World.
Steinberg: “The armies of English speakers in India demand no payback for British rule.”
History: Pakistan, Kashmir, post-colonialism. For starters.
Steinberg: “The millions of Mexicans heading north to work don’t want California returned.”
Reality: For starters.
So it’s no wonder that his take on affirmative action is ignorant and racist. I mean, obviously somebody lowered the bar for him, and looking at the rest of the paper he works for, a bunch of white guys got some kind of affirmative action as well, because management is all white guys and most of the reporters are white too, and look at the bang-up job they’re doing.
18. Sun-Times front page: “Tribune Trouble: Cubs For Sale? Page 55.”
So I’m on page 55. Is the Cubs story the secret message in Beetle Bailey or Family Circus, because Page 55 is the comics.
Somebody’s lowering standards again.
19. Product Placement of the Day: Garmin.
20. Pelosi lunches with Bush. We have the transcript.
The Beachwood Tip Line: Where Old Chicago meets New.
Posted on November 10, 2006