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You are here: Home / Politics / Daley

Daley

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I’m no expert on Chicago politics, but I lived there for a few years while Harold Washington was mayor and still remember the day he dropped dead in office. I’m a little surprised that Richard M. isn’t going to follow in Harold and his father’s footsteps, but I will say this: there’s no way in hell that Rahm Emanuel is going to get that job. If you look at the history of Chicago mayors, they’re all local creatures. Harold’s a bit of a special case, since he had a couple of terms in the U.S. House, but he did that because he never believed that he could be mayor. The rest of them were state legislators, or city/county office holders, before ascending to the throne. Rahm just hasn’t greased enough local palms to get the job.

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  1. 1.

    shortstop

    Care to make a wager, Mister mistermix? Say, a double sawbuck to the Act Blue candidate of the winner’s choice?

  2. 2.

    DougJ

    I’m thinking that Obama may actually *appoint* Rahm mayor of Chicago. Think about it: Daley’s announcement and Orszag’s editorial on the same day. You think that’s a coincidence?

    This is all a big wind-up for an epic act of throwing liberals under the bus. As mayor of Chicago, Rahm could cement Obama’s neoliberal, corporatist legacy once and for all.

    The sad thing is there’s a great city council person in Chicago who would be next in line and who fought hard for the public option and other progressive principles. But, nope, now they’ll be stuck with Rahm. Bend over, Chicagoans!

  4. 4.

    jmy

    I’m from Chicago & X-Mas came early when I heard the news. Daley’s done some good stuff and definitely done some bad stuff for this city. And I appreciate the fact that he was passionate about the city. That’s one thing about him I respected. I don’t really see that a lot among mayors in major cities. However, it’s time for a change, a new face, a new way of thinking. I just don’t know who we could get that’s going to be good enough for the job.

  5. 5.

    Garrigus Carraig

    @DougJ:

    I’m thinking that Obama may actually appoint Rahm mayor of Chicago.

    Wait-can-he-do-that?

    #NotSureAnymore

  7. 7.

    Davis X. Machina

    Doubt ye not he has those powers? Those poor bastards in that mine in Chile would be out already if Obama had actually wanted it bad enough…

  10. 10.

    Corner Stone

    @Davis X. Machina: If only he had flown down there and slapped his mighty pen!s down beside the collapsed tunnel.
    Or maybe strung a rope down the hole and had his might fuchsia ponies pull all the miners out?

  11. 11.

    fasteddie9318

    I’m not so sure that being Mayor of Chicago is the plum gig it used to be. Daley sold off anything that wasn’t nailed down for bribe money short-term revenue, so chances are that the city is headed for some serious budgetary crises in the not-too-distant future.

  13. 13.

    shortstop

    @DougJ:

    I’m thinking that Obama may actually appoint Rahm mayor of Chicago.

    Just to be clear, I’m not on that trip. I live and work in Chicago and am reasonably active in city politics; I just think Mister mistermix is too sanguine about Rahm’s non-chances. This could shake down one of several different ways. Emanuel does have a constituency of sorts here and there is very likely to be a racial breakdown among voters if the likely suspects run. I’m not sure that history (no non-state legislators or city/county officeholders need apply) is the best guide at this point.

  15. 15.

    FlipYrWhig

    What Obama should really do is attempt to appoint 10 liberal mayors, so that way when he’s told he can’t do that, he’ll still get 5 of them. It’s negotiating 101!

  17. 17.

    Steve

    @DougJ: It’s sad that such a classic comment is lost in the, well, comments.

    I lived in Chicago for a few years and I was a Daley fan, even though he was Bushian in a lot of ways. My view is that to be an effective big-city mayor you have to be at least a little fascist.

  18. 18.

    fasteddie9318

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Well, he’d think he was going to get 5 of them, until Ben Nelson had a last-minute objection, at which point he’d have to compromise on 1 moderate, 2 conservatives, and $25 million for Nebraska.

  19. 19.

    Jamie

    probably true that he can’t be Mayor, but i wouldn’t be sorry to see him leave the white house though

  20. 20.

    shortstop

    @chopper:

    a double sawbuck? that’s what, an eighth these days?

    I heard it in a 30s movie I watched over the weekend and decided we should revive it. Also “fin.”

    @fasteddie9318:

    I’m not so sure that being Mayor of Chicago is the plum gig it used to be. Daley sold off anything that wasn’t nailed down for bribe money short-term revenue, so chances are that the city is headed for some serious budgetary crises in the not-too-distant future.

    Chances are about 100 percent. Denial is still rampant at this point, though.

  21. 21.

    paul Gottlieb

    There’s another reason why Rahm won’t make it: there is absolutely no evidence that he possesses any ability to do the job. You can’t run a big city by screaming obscenities at trembling junior staffers. The garbage actually has to be collected, the fire department and police have to actually show up when needed. When has Rahm ever demonstrated any competence at anything other than sucking up to the President?

  23. 23.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @DougJ:

    I’m thinking that Obama may actually appoint Rahm mayor of Chicago.

    Can you imagine the conspiracy theories if RE wins the election? I thought Jesse Jackson JR was considered a strong contender, and I haven’t seen his name mentioned once. Did he get too entangled with Blago?

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    @FlipYrWhig:

    when he’s told he can’t do that

    Then we’d see that Sens Maine et al will only allow a moderate in that post.
    So he’ll nominate Santorum but accept Issa.
    Welcome Mayor Issa!
    It’s the best we could possibly do given the circs.
    Why do you hate Mayor Issa?

  27. 27.

    shortstop

    @Steve:

    @DougJ: It’s sad that such a classic comment is lost in the, well, comments.

    It was hilarious. I forgot to mention that while I was scrambling to dissociate myself from Team Firebag.

  28. 28.

    stuckinred

    Originally slang for a sawhorse, fashioned iin the 18th century by lashing together two pieces of wood into an “X” shape. With an X-shaped support at each of two ends, the contraption served to hold wood for cutting.

    With the advent of the U.S. 10 dollar bill, which bears the Roman numeral X, “sawbuck” became slang for the bill, as people associated the shape with the sawhorse. The slang term “buck” originated in the mid-19th century in reference to the dollar.

    In the mid-1900s “sawbuck” became street slang, apparently originating in Chicago, for a 10-dollar bag of marijuana. Since 1985 or so, the term has referred to a 10-dollar “bag” (actual bag or any kind of package) of any street drug (heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana, etc.).

    Occasionally, addicts use the term sawbuck to refer to 10 dollars, particularly when they intend to use the money to purchase drugs (e.g., “Borrow me a sawbuck so i can get my sick off”).

    “Sawbuck” is also the name of a Chicago-based media production company that focuses on documentary films on the street-level drug world.
    “Gimme a sawbuck blow” (blow means heroin in Chicago’s street level drug market).

  32. 32.

    SteveinSC

    Look’s like the WH finally wised up, ready to give Rahm the old heave-ho. Buh-bye, you useless piece of shit.

  36. 36.

    Corner Stone

    Man, I just don’t give a shit about my Tequila bottle “pouring” me a shot. Who the F cares?

  38. 38.

    Linda Featheringill

    Okay, according to Google, Rahm has voiced a desire to be mayor of Chicago in the past.

    Has he made any recent statements to that effect?

    On the other hand, there is no need for me to defend Rahm. He is a lot tougher than I am and will probably thrive. Even if you guys dump on him for stuff he hasn’t done yet.

    Speculate away. I’m going to absorb some junk-food-for-the-brain [television].

  40. 40.

    Jewish Steel

    And with Quinn down in the polls Chicagoans will have to say good-bye to having White Sox fans at the City, State and Federal level.

    Sad.

  42. 42.

    gnomedad

    @DougJ:

    I’m thinking that Obama may actually appoint Rahm mayor of Chicago.

    Now you’re done it. We’re gonna have teabaggers yelling about this at the next rally.

    Hm, actually that would be pretty cool.

  43. 43.

    Davis X. Machina

    Now you’re done it. We’re gonna have teabaggers yelling about this at the next rally.

    Shudder….. I can just see Beck jumping up and down and yelling about Obama’s Gauleiter….

  46. 46.

    Allison W.

    @FlipYrWhig:

    What Obama should really do is attempt to appoint 10 liberal mayors, so that way when he’s told he can’t do that, he’ll still get 5 of them. It’s negotiating 101!

    HA! HA! HA! that was funny.

  47. 47.

    James E. Powell

    I don’t know if Rahm Emanuel wants the job, and I don’t know if he’s fit for it. But I do know that the flood of donations and volunteers to get him out of the White House for any reason would set records.

  48. 48.

    shortstop

    @stuckinred: Mister mistermix will let me know if he’d prefer the drugs to the Action Jackson (if he wins). Hey, I had to start somewhere.

    But now that I think about it, Keith Richards appearing on the U.S. $20 bill ties together the currency/smack motifs rather neatly.

  49. 49.

    Davis X. Machina

    Moving on the wires:

    NY Times: President Obama will rule out on Wednesday any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies.

    Mr. Obama’s opposition to allowing the high-end tax cuts to remain in place for even another year or two would be the signal many Congressional Democrats have been awaiting as they prepare for a showdown with Republicans on the issue and ends speculation that the White House might be open to an extension. Democrats say only the president can rally wavering lawmakers who, amid the party’s weakened poll numbers, feel increasingly vulnerable to Republican attacks if they let the top rates lapse at the end of this year as scheduled.

  50. 50.

    Allison W.

    So when Rahm leaves the WH and nothing’s changed to the left’s liking, who’s the new target?

  51. 51.

    chopper

    @shortstop:

    ah. back in chicago (at least the south side) a sawbuck meant a dimebag.

    edit: see someone already got to that one. teach me not to read the comments.

  54. 54.

    Corner Stone

    @Allison W.:

    So when Rahm leaves the WH and nothing’s changed to the left’s liking, who’s the new target?

    No matter how you try to deflect Strawllison, there is only one boss in the WH.

  55. 55.

    Jewish Steel

    @Davis X. Machina:

    I have suspected that Obama was content to let the Republicans win the summer and come out swinging in the fall. Because that’s, like, when the elections are? Here’s some proof.

  56. 56.

    Seebach

    So, a co-worker of my partner found out that a bunch of her family members were found in a pit in Mexico due to the drug war gang violence down there.

    Anyone know a good group to donate to for trying to get pot legalized in California? It’s really the only place to start to end this drug war madness we’re responsible for.

  57. 57.

    shortstop

    @chopper: Yeah, I got it the first time. I was just too busy grooving on potato-faced men in hats yelping, “Lissen! You got da wrong idea, see?!” and “He nicked me for a double sawbuck!” and so forth.

  58. 58.

    dmsilev

    I saw someone (forget who, sadly) suggest that Blago would make a run for the position…

    In the abstract, I’d find that amusing. On the downside, I do live in Chicago and would like it to have a vaguely functional government.

    dms

  60. 60.

    jmy

    @dmsilev:

    Lisa Madigan, maybe?

    Then again I want someone who will not have that cloud of nepotism over their heads even though her father is in the state legislature

  63. 63.

    Allison W.

    @shortstop:

    conservasymp

    is this your word or something new floating in the blogosphere?

    they best not go after Reggie. I mean, HuffPO voted him hottest in the WH.

  64. 64.

    Cain

    @Seebach:

    So, a co-worker of my partner found out that a bunch of her family members were found in a pit in Mexico due to the drug war gang violence down there.

    Damn, that’s awful. We need to end this drug war, it’s ruining lives, killing lives.. forget it. Better to try to save the junkies or let em die. We can suck the money from these gangs and then kick their ass. Mexico needs to legalize drugs, the border states as well and that should start kicking those assholes in the pants like they deserve.

    cain

  65. 65.

    Sly

    @DougJ:
    Obama should appoint Goldie Wilson as the new mayor. Progress is his middle name. Goldie Wilson’s progress platform means more jobs, better education, bigger civic improvements and lower taxes!

    You wait and see, DougJ. He will be mayor! He’ll be the most powerful man in Chicago, and he’s gonna clean up this town!

  67. 67.

    shortstop

    @Allison W.: It was a joke, Allison. They’re not going after Reggie. And yeah, it’s my word, but you may use it — with a per-use royalty of a fin.

  70. 70.

    El Cid

    Maybe Obama’s blunt opposition to extending the Bush Jr. tax cuts for the wealthy merits a front page post.

  71. 71.

    jmy

    @shortstop:

    That will be a while though, especially if Quinn gets re-elected.

    I would say Jesse Jackson, Jr., but…eh…

    There’s no one who gets me excited to vote for them.

  75. 75.

    Suffern ACE

    Whoever runs, look to the primary on February 21 to be somehow seen as a referendum on who will win in 2012. Also, if Rahm does run, look for (Emmanuel + “hand-picked candidate”) to yield many, many results, especially if he loses.

  76. 76.

    Martin

    @Seebach: You could go straight to yeson19.

    It’s not clear who will be running ads in favor of Prop 19. It’s got surprisingly broad support, but that support is pretty quiet, or its from groups that have wider interests, so any contributions will be diluted across causes.

    Another option might be LEAP. They’re working hardest here in CA/OR/WA since that’s the most likely battleground. Or NORML.

  77. 77.

    jmy

    @shortstop:

    Jeez, please don’t say that, lol. If Quinn doesn’t get reelected and Alexi Giannoulias doesn’t win his bid for the Senate, IL is gonna be fucked for a while.

  79. 79.

    geg6

    @Allison W.:

    Well, I’m not what anyone would consider “the left,” just a garden variety lifelong liberal Democrat. But would you point out for me exactly what Emmanuel has done as CoS that makes someone want to defend him and blame the left as if they would be the ones making Daley choose not to run so as to get rid of Rahm? He was never a successful legislator. He has consistently worked to undermine political initiatives and strategies that Obama has publicly endorsed. He would not have the reputation as one of the heroes of the 2006 midterm if Dean had not overruled his idiotic quest to only concentrate on the easy pickups and insisted on the 50 state strategy. He is as whorish and self-serving a leaker as has ever lived. And he has now been caught twice disparaging two of the biggest constituencies that the Dems can count on to do GOTV and close that enthusiasm gap, not to mention their willingness to put their money where their mouths are. Rahm Emmanuel sucks.

    That’s not from a firebagger. That’s simply from someone who has seen a lot of politicians in her 50-some years and who has had a lifelong interest in politics, so much so that I got one of the most useless bachelor degrees you can have as an undergrad. I just hope Obama makes a better pick for his next CoS. I’ve always felt Rahm was only a sop to the Clintonites anyway. He doesn’t need that any more.

  80. 80.

    JasonF

    I would expect Larry Suffredin and/or Forrest Claypool to throw their hats in the ring. Maybe Danny Davis, maybe Luis Gutierrez. There are quite a few Aldermen who might make a run for it.

  81. 81.

    eemom

    Has Rahm given some indication that he wants this job? Does anyone know a reason why he would want it?

    It seems totally counterintuitive to me that anyone would want to go from WH COS to mayor of Chicago, but maybe there’s something I don’t know.

    ETA: ok, I see the mcclatchey link says he “repeatedly said” he would run if Daley retired — but did he say that after he was in the WH? I still don’t think it makes sense.

  82. 82.

    morzer

    If you look at the history of Chicago mayors, they’re all local creatures.

    How long before Harold Ford discovers his long-lost Chicago ancestry and makes a helicopter-borne self-nominating tour of the city’s financial district? 24 hours? 48?

  85. 85.

    Corner Stone

    @eemom:

    “I hope Mayor Daley seeks reelection. I will work and support him if he seeks reelection,” Emanuel told Charlie Rose on the host’s PBS talk show, in an interview to be broadcast at 11 p.m. “But if Mayor Daley doesn’t, one day I would like to run for mayor of the city of Chicago,” Emanuel continued. “That’s always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives.”

    Emanuel wants to succeed Daley as mayor

    If the source is legit.

  88. 88.

    eemom

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    see, I would have thought being mayor would be more stress, in a different way. More high profile stress. In the WH, the COS is mostly behind the scenes, except when somebody finds out that he called Jane Hamsher a retard or said “fuck the UAW” — and what price has Rahm paid for any of that?

    Being mayor, it seems, would involve equivalent or worse headaches and hassles on a daily basis — and you’d be on display like a zoo animal the entire time……with all the murderous life forms that reportedly inhabit Chicago politics fastened to your jugular, teeth bared, just WAITING for their chance……

    OTOH, maybe the jungle is a more natural place for someone like Rahm. Maybe he’s BORED in the WH.

    I dunno.

  92. 92.

    Allison W.

    @geg6:

    since Obama took office, the left has consistently blamed every single decision they did not like on Rahm. As if Obama cannot think for himself. As if no one else in the administration has influence. I paid attention at first and then it just got ridiculous, now its just creepy. Those ‘show me where Rahm touched you’ jokes didn’t come out of thin air you know. So now the left thinks that once Rahm leaves the WH, everything would be so much better. My QUESTION is once he leaves and nothing changes to the left’s liking who will be the next target? who will be the next Rahm?

    I don’t give a frack who becomes mayor of Chicago. I don’t care if Rahm runs and wins/loses. I. don’t. care.

    And those two biggest constituencies? Please. The “fucking retarded” comment was aimed at the group’s strategy not the entire group. The segment of the left that is STILL hurting over that comment had no intention of doing any sort of GOTV. Anyone still complaining about that is just looking for an excuse to not do anything. As for the second group? You must be referring to the “fuck the uaw(?)” who STOOD up for Rahm, denied the claim and said Rahm played a big part in saving them. So I think its time to move on from those two non-issues.

    I’ve been around long enough to know that its not only politicians that lie, manipulate, demonize and engage in hysterics to make others come around to their way of thinking. So forgive me if I don’t care to fall in line with the Rahm bashers. I trust no one to tell me what goes on in Obama’s inner circle or in the WH.

  93. 93.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    If Rahm was truly evil he would get someone to head a Remove Rahm movement, rake in the bucks to get rid of himself and then when Rahm was ready to retire he could have that group write him a check for the money they collected as his payoff to leave.

    Win-Win, right? ;)

  94. 94.

    NobodySpecial

    @Allison W.:

    My QUESTION is once he leaves and nothing changes to the left’s liking who will be the next target? who will be the next Rahm?

    Having a CoS who isn’t actively undermining the President’s stated objectives and goals sounds like something the left would like. So which person would you want to replace Rahm to get in there and antagonize sections of the Democratic Party deliberately, since you seem to find that a good idea?

  99. 99.

    BeccaM

    Rahm is too much a douchebag. While Chicagoans actually appreciate a certain level of douchebaggery from their politicians, he takes it to another whole Six Sigma level, making that crucial transition from ‘endearingly embarrassing’ to ‘just an annoying self-entitled ass.’

  101. 101.

    Ash Can

    @Origuy: Steve Goodman FTW.

    @BGinCHI:

    The next mayor is going to be Murray Bannerman Eddie Olczyk, so just shut up.

    There ya go.

    But seriously, folks, I can see how Rahm wouldn’t be enough of an insider to get elected mayor of Chicago, assuming he still wants the job, which I’m not sure is a given. I wouldn’t be surprised if Todd Stroger were to make a lot of noise about it (and fall flat on his face), and I have to wonder whether Toni Preckwinkle might emerge as a dark horse candidate. At this point, though, my guess is that we’re still in the late-night phone-call/knock-on-the-door stage. I imagine Richie will handpick someone to run as his successor, but I’m not sufficiently educated in the inside baseball of Chicago politics to predict who that will be. I do expect to see a mad scramble, though, at least in the early stages.

  102. 102.

    Malron

    I have no idea who the would best candidate to succeed Daley. I do know that, in the same way they’re doing in this thread, progressives nationwide will be butting in with their two cents about who is or isn’t fit to hold the office, in spite of absolutely no knowledge about the Chicago political scene.

  103. 103.

    BGinCHI

    It would probably just make good sense to elect Doug Sohn mayor and be done with it. He’s already the King of Encased Meats, so he might as well come down to our level and run the city.

    He can get Vince Vaughan to be his spokesman and Oprah will pitch in.

    It’s a delicious possibility.

  105. 105.

    KXB

    I’ve had a connection to Chicago since I was a kid. In the 70’s and 80’s, I would visit my cousins in Chicago, and we’d do the old NY vs Chicago rivalry thing. In 1991, I came to Chicago to attend U of Chicago, and stayed several years after graduation. After a few years in DC, I returned to Chicago in 2002, and have been here ever since.

    To a degree unmatched by any other major American city, Chicago is a city that still has a space for middle class families. NY and San Francisco have become wonderful cities for the wealthy and corporations, not so much for families of more modest means.

    By contrast, compare Chicago to Detroit, Cleveland, or Kansas City. Those cities, for the most part, are fading. Chicago is still a strong magnet for economic development. Much of that credit goes to Daley.

    In the time I have been here and Daley was mayor, the hideous public high-rises have been torn-down. The lakefront has not been handed over to private developers for the wealthy. Millennium Park has revitilized the area along South Michigan Avenue. Midway Airport was re-born as a result of the Orange Line L train, which attracted Southwest Airlines to setup shop there.

    There are problems – accumulation of public debt (like every other American city), a government workforce that has grown faster than it should. The continuing problem of the schools reflects the poor neighborhoods the kids come from – there is only so much a mayor can do.

    Unlike other mayors, Daley has not shown a desire to use his office as just a stepping stone to higher office. That lack of personal ambition allowed him to focus on the needs of the city. He may be the last of his kind – the Big City Mayor.

  108. 108.

    rickstersherpa

    Raised a Chicagoan and still following the local news, it is my understanding that Rahm is tight with the Daleys, particularly Richard’s brother Bill, who was Commerce Secretary under Bill Clinton. I don’t think he would be doing this if he did not think he Bill’s backing, and through Bill, Richie’s. And Bill, from working the back rooms for both his Dad and brother, knows where all the bodies have been buried the last 40 years. And there are lots of bodies.

  109. 109.

    shortstop

    @KXB:

    In the time I have been here and Daley was mayor, the hideous public high-rises have been torn-down.

    Yes, they were torn down — in a ludicrously designed and laughably uncompetitive process that hugely enriched Daley developer cronies and put tens of thousands of public housing residents out without ensuring that they had Section 8 or other means of finding affordable housing. In fact, the CHA, headed by Daley’s guys, purposely did not even track these folks so they’ve now been lost in the void. Public housing crisis solved! And the city looks SO much nicer now!

    Unlike other mayors, Daley has not shown a desire to use his office as just a stepping stone to higher office. That lack of personal ambition allowed him to focus on the needs of the city.

    Are you fucking kidding us? He didn’t seek higher office not because of a “lack of personal ambition” — he’s run this city like a personal fiefdom — but because there’s no national office in which he could be immune from the scrutiny he keeps to a manageable (personally ignorable) level as mayor of Chicago while filling the pockets of his political supporters. It helps when so many Chicago public commissions and other “regulatory” bodies consist of handpicked members appointed solely by…guess who. In just one example, the totally abused TIF district initiative, which was designed to combat urban blight, now shows up in over three-quarters of the city, including the Loop, for crying out loud, and the decision on what areas should be TIFs are made solely by a three-person panel Daley appointed. It is, of course, unaccountable to the property owners whose taxes are footing Daleyite developers’ TIF sprees and the taxes they don’t generate. The city is in the middle of a gigantic budget crisis that is already axeing cops, firefighters, teachers and other public safety and education people and is going to get exponentially worse in the coming months and years…coincidentally, after Daley bugs out for the dugout after bleeding the corpse dry.

    It’s fine to compliment him on the things he did right, but pretending the guy is anything but deeply corrupt and arrogantly autocratic (I could go on for days with Greatest Hits examples from his middle-of-the-night bulldozing of Meigs Field to his parking meter fiasco) reveals your total naivete and suggests that you are unable to view this city through any perspective other than that of a well-situated white person. And that’s assuming that you’re posting this in good faith as a citizen with no personal or professional interest in cleaning up Daley’s history and reputation. Your tone and wording suggest that I may be too generous in making that assumption.

  110. 110.

    KXB

    @shortstop:

    “… reveals your total naivete and suggests that you are unable to view this city through any perspective other than that of a well-situated white person. ”

    First off – fuck you.

    You don’t know shit about me, or how I come to view this city. My parents are from India, I was raised near NY – and when it came time to choose a city to live in – NY, DC, or Chicago – I chose Chicago out of my free will, with no job lined up at the time.

    As for my financial condition – I work for a small business that has let go of 2 engineers in the past year due to the recession. I did not get a raise or a Christmas bonus last year, while my health insurance rates went up by 18%, despite the fact I have not been to a doctor in 2 years. I drive a 9 year old Civic, and have never earned more than 40K per year. So I am not comfortably well off, you obnoxious little prick.

    No one gave a rat’s ass about who profited off of the tear-downs of public housing, since the primary concern was to stop warehousing the poor into buildings that became the private fiefdoms of gangs. No one gave a rat’s ass about Meig’s Field, since the only people who used it were rich guys who owned their own planes or Sprinfield politicians who did not want to take Amtrak. It is now a concert venue – much better use of prime real estate.

    Unlike his father, who appealed to white voters fears about blacks, Daley Jr. probably did more to effectively manage relations among the city’s competing ethnic groups than any other big city mayor. Rather than appeals to cross-racial solidarity, he did it the most effective way he knew how – by handing out city goodies to political bosses of various interest groups. It ain’t pretty, but it made everyone work together.

    Over the course of 21 years, there were going to be some issues with Daley’s time as mayor. Look at the legacy Coleman Young left Detroit, and compare that to what Daley left Chicago. You want to bitch and moan about TIF financing, you go right ahead. You want to write his time as mayor as a failure, you’re going to have to come up with some better stuff than the weak shit you wrote here.

  111. 111.

    lawnorder

    Oh dear God, Rahm will come mess things up around here -.-

    I think Daley heard the whispers on the wind… With all the corrupt governors being nailed, he was next. Not that I’m saying he is corrupt **coughs ** Say, what’s on tv ?

  112. 112.

    shortstop

    No one gave a rat’s ass about who profited off of the tear-downs of public housing, since the primary concern was to stop warehousing the poor into buildings that became the private fiefdoms of gangs.

    Well, yeah, KXB, a lot of people gave and still give a rat’s ass about both who corruptly profited and the fact that the poor were released from warehousing into total fend-for-yourself status.

    You don’t, though, and what you don’t know/care about you’re quite certain that no one else knows/cares about, either. Got it.

    No one gave a rat’s ass about Meig’s Field, since the only people who used it were rich guys who owned their own planes or Sprinfield politicians who did not want to take Amtrak.

    Well, yeah, KXB, a hell of a lot of people gave and still give a rat’s ass not about the rich guys but about a mayor taking matters into his own hands in the middle of the night because he wasn’t getting what he wanted from proper channels.

    You don’t, though, so you’re comically ignoring the reams of evidence to the contrary. That move was the beginning of the end for a lot of people who were willing to cut Daley slack on his many other rank abuses of power, and it says volumes about your denial (if you’re really unaware of this rather than simply trying to brazen it out, which, gosh, still says volumes about you).

    You want to bitch and moan about TIF financing, you go right ahead.

    You may want to do a little homework on this issue before flapping your uninformed piehole. Hint: This, along with other property tax abuses, is one of the straw/camel’s back issues that is responsible for public approval of Daley dropping massively over the past several years.

    If you’re trying to demonstrate that you can view Daley’s reign from any other perspective than that of a well-situated (note that “comfortably well off” is your strawman, not my quote) white person, you’re failing miserably. I really don’t give a shit where your parents are from or what kind of car you drive. Your perspective is ludicrously blindered and you seem to be really proud of that.

    You want to write his time as mayor as a failure

    Another strawman. I didn’t write off his reign a total failure; I pointed out that he’s demonstrably motivated by large quantities of profit and power, not by the nobility you fatuously confer on him. I also noted that while it’s okay to compliment him on things he did right, an honest person who cares about both ends and means will acknowledge that even his bona fide accomplishments were achieved autocratically and deeply corruptly.

    It seems really, really important to you to staunchly resist even considering that.

    Why is that?

  113. 113.

    shortstop

    @lawnorder:

    I think Daley heard the whispers on the wind… With all the corrupt governors being nailed, he was next. Not that I’m saying he is corrupt **coughs ** Say, what’s on tv ?

    Investigations closing in, city budget in a shambles with loads of damning revelations coming, rapidly increasing shortage of cops/firefighters/streets & san guys/teachers, formerly friendly Chicagoans starting to push back hard against his and his buddies’ personal plundering…it just wasn’t FUN anymore, you know?

  114. 114.

    KXB

    @shortstop:

    Then why didn’t the Feds go after him? After all, he has been in office for 21 years, and if his conduct was so egregious. There have been plenty of prosecutions in IL against both Democrats and Republicans, yet they did not go after Daley. If Daley just that gifted a crook that he did not get caught? Perhaps you have the secret file that US Attorney Fitzgerald is missing while he was going after every other IL politician?

    As far you lament that Daley pursued profit and power, news flash – who doesn’t? Anyone who enters politics will have an ego exceeding their abilities. You don’t think that the chance to make history was just a teeny weeny bit in the back of Obama’s mind?

    I find it amusing that you setup a profile as to who I am. namely a white guy with no money worries, so as to dismiss my observations that the city is cleaner, better run, and when compared to other Midwestern cities, in far better shape now than in 1990. Yet when I tell you I’m an Indian guy with substantial money worries, you say you are not interested in my background. I can’t imagine what type of job you can get with that sort of thinking, but if I were to hazard a guess, why yes, I would like some fries with that.

  115. 115.

    shortstop

    Then why didn’t the Feds go after him? After all, he has been in office for 21 years, and if his conduct was so egregious.

    Okay, let’s assume for a moment that everything he’s personally done is non-prosecutable…and that the state and feds will never be able to bring a case against him and will have to be content with bagging most of his cabinet, as they’ve done. Are you seriously arguing that all legal conduct — particularly when it’s made legal only by the machinations of the head of local government, as it has in the example of the appointed commissions — and all illegal conduct against which a successful prosecution isn’t possible is non-corrupt behavior?

    Really? Do you possess no objective ethical standards for how elective government should work?

    As far you lament that Daley pursued profit and power, news flash – who doesn’t? Anyone who enters politics will have an ego exceeding their abilities.

    You’re really moving the goalposts now. You started out with a sycophantic ode to Daley’s selflessness; now you’re saying, yeah, he’s a greedy megalomaniac, but who in politics isn’t? Which is it? And can you really not tell the difference in degrees between a healthy ego and rank autocracy and identify the significant problems attached to the latter?

    I find it amusing that you setup a profile as to who I am. namely a white guy with no money worries,

    But, once again slowly, I didn’t; that’s your kneejerk mistranslation. You are arguing from the perspective of a well-situated (and you are in comparison to many, many Chicagoans; note that “well-situated” does not even remotely mean “has no money worries”) person who receives the benefits of Chicago residency that are disproportionately (not wholly, so contain yourself there, Nellie) conferred on white people.

    You’ve shown no ability to step outside that viewpoint and put yourself in someone else’s shoes (honestly, most Democrats and liberals don’t find this at all difficult), and even less interest in doing so, preferring instead to insist that “everyone” in Chicago shares your lack of information in and engagement with civic issues. Your being an Indian-American and driving an old Civic aren’t really the point; the limitations of your chosen bubble thinking from the perspective of a relatively privileged person are.

    I can’t imagine what type of job you can get with that sort of thinking, but if I were to hazard a guess, why yes, I would like some fries with that.

    Let me try to keep up: You’re offended because you think I think you make more money than you do, so your response is to attempt to insult me by implying that I don’t make much money.

    Got it. You’re batting 1000 on the logic front, friend.

  116. 116.

    Nutella

    One thing Daley did to keep total power as mayor was to make sure that he owned pretty much every other office. Most of the aldermen, for example, were placed in their seats by Daley and are small cogs in the Daley machine. He closed off a lot of the usual sources for opponents/successors so it’s not clear who can step up now.

    “Millennium Park has revitilized the area along South Michigan Avenue.” Heh. The South Loop is revitalized but the financial black hole that is Millennium Park had very little to do with it.

  117. 117.

    KXB

    @shortstop:

    So you’re whining that Daley failed to govern according to an ideal? You get a ribbon for participation. That is the sort of thinking that Republicans used in the nineties against Clinton, “Well, what he did may not be illegal, but it’s still questionable, and that makes him a bad president.” Nice company you keep.

    Should Daley have been more open to other opinions? Sure. But if you recall Council Wars of the early 1980s – all that time was wasted on debates in the council, while nothing got done.

    It’s interesting that you can be so blasé to dismiss the concerns of white Chicago residents. That is the thinking that helped turn Detroit and Cleveland into “Rust Belt” cities. On the other end, in NY, while I think Bloomberg is a good mayor, he seems to forget that not everyone in the city earns six figures. Daley understood that if you want a city to flourish, you have to make it attractive for middle-class families to stay put, and not move to the suburbs. Which means that middle-class concerns, such as policing, beautification of downtown and the lakefront, and tearing down housing projects.

    Compared to disasters like Ed Koch or David Dinkins, I don’t think Daley has too much to apologize for.

    Now, where are those fries?

  118. 118.

    shortstop

    So you’re whining that Daley failed to govern according to an ideal?

    No. I’m calmly pointing out that Daley has failed to govern according to the most basic threshold of ethics. I’d express concern that you can’t tell the difference between a modicum of honesty and an “ideal,” but by now, I think everyone here has a full understanding that you have zero ethical standards for government that involve the means as well as the end.

    It’s interesting that you can be so blasé to dismiss the concerns of white Chicago residents.

    Unless you actually equate caring about the concerns of Chicagoans of color and poor Chicagoans of any color with “dismissing the concerns of white Chicago residents” — and it appears that you see these as directly contradictory, given your track record of comments, which is mighty revealing — I’m going to have to put this into the Epic Fail of Wholly Binary Thinking bin. Does “middle class” only mean “white” to you? How has Daley’s significant cutting of the police force addressed middle-class concerns about policing? Does tearing down public housing without any plan for resituating many tens of thousands of very low-income folks sound like a way of stabilizing the city’s neighborhoods in order to attract middle-class families–or did you just want your poor rewarehoused in marginalized neighborhoods that don’t get police, garbage pickup, properly funded schools or your vaunted Potemkin’s village beautification?

    Your inability to reason in other than the most sophomoric Manichean terms is terribly disappointing to anyone who’s interested in a thorough or even remotely honest discussion of the events of Daley’s tenure. Even most of his diehard fans routinely acknowledge that his actual (as opposed to spun) achievements have come at substantial cost to good governance and the democratic process, to property owners (the majority of whom are white, BTW, which appears to have escaped you in your disturbingly wingnuttish insistence that defending Chicagoans of color means dissing the city’s white population) whose taxes are bearing most of the cost of Daley cronies’ enrichment while schools and services go without, to the poor who rely on social service and housing projects, and to the unfortunate residents of the distinctly unwhite neighborhoods that simply don’t receive the services you hold up as emblematic of the city’s progress.

    (This time I am going to make assumptions about not just your obviously limited perspective, but about some of your demographics. I don’t think you live within the city limits; if you do, I think you rent rather than own and you have no idea what’s going on with property taxes, the city budget in general, or any of the financial issues facing the city. Your comments read like a condensed press release from City Hall or the ruminations of someone who has quickly scanned the Tribune, not of someone who actually lives here and pays attention to the issues. Indeed, you are completely, humiliatingly ignorant of any municipal government topic that’s more substantive than “Daley planted pretty flowers” and “I don’t have to look at ugly high-rises when I visit the city.”)

  119. 119.

    lawnorder

    Heh I live in Chicago and can say Daley makes snow removal work, tourists spots pretty, cops and firefighters arrive mostly on time. He has not been a bad mayor but there is a big reason why 2 out 3 ex governors were caught being corrupt here, and it’s not the city water.

  120. 120.

    KXB

    @shortstop:

    What I will assume then is that you don’t actually do much but just study and comment, but God forbid you actually have to be in a position of accountability. Because Daley was not as ethical as you would want him to be (and I will grant you not as ethical as I would like him to be), that the results of his mayorality has to be judged through that lens. Nonsense.

    You continue to judge Daley against an ideal, your eloquent protestations notwithstanding. You cannot cite an example, within Chicago or in another city, of a mayor that has accomplished as much without running afoul of your notion of what is ethical.

    Are taxes and fees becoming excessive? Yes. But, when I visit San Francisco and New York, and see the poor delivery of public services plus high costs, I am impressed with what Daley was able to accomplish.

    Again, in 21 years, the Feds had plenty of time to come up with a case against Daley. They didn’t.

  121. 121.

    shortstop

    (and I will grant you not as ethical as I would like him to be)

    Oooooeeeee. Look what it took to get you to that.

    KXB, let’s go back to your original post and try to figure out how we traveled from there–your girlish exclamations of admiration for Daley’s remarkable “lack of ambition” allowing him to “focus on the needs of the city of Chicago”–to here: you reduced to arguing limply that other mayors have also been worthy of big criticism while grudgingly conceding that Daley’s act could have been cleaner.

    Of course other mayors have been disasters. And? That doesn’t take away from the fact that Chicago city government, including and perhaps most especially our mayor, is deeply, deeply dirty. A lot of that is endemic and won’t be magically cleaned up with a change of mayors. But we sure as hell won’t even make a start on turning things around if we say goodbye to Daley by giving him a pass on what has truly been an appalling level of in-your-face corruption. Your apparent inability to see an issue as anything but pure either-or, total If-A-then-not-B, utterly snuffs out any value you might have brought to a conversation about his tenure and what it involved.

    You’ve managed to miss yet another point in your comment about taxes, BTW: Nowhere in my posts do I complain about the level of taxation or intimate that I’m paying more than my share. (I’m the Democrat in this conversation, remember? ;)) What I have uniformly criticized–and in this I am joined by hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans who, unlike you, are not ignorant of the TIF process and of the many other originally worthwhile initiatives Daley has perverted for personal profit–is the raiding of tax revenues for Daley developer pals at direct cost to the schools and social service programs. It’s about what has and hasn’t been done with the tax money, KXB. To get that, you have to be minimally familiar with city and county finances and the tax structure, along with paying attention to the other issues at play.

    Because I now see you are on record on other blogs as complaining about city corruption and incompetence and tut-tutting over the wholesale indictments of Daley’s cabinet (minus, interestingly, any protestation of Daley’s innocence of wrongdoing), I’m going to assume that your problem isn’t just a very shallow understanding of Chicago government and current issues; even more importantly, it’s a pathological inability to back off a bad argument. Had you come back with “Yeah, okay, he’s pulled a whole lot of shady shit, so maybe my glorious endorsement should be qualified–I think what he accomplished was worth the sleaze,” you would’ve been okay–still a rank apologist, but at least supportably so. But your insistence on going to the mat in flat-out denying the validity (and popularity) of a lot of significant and perfectly legitimate criticisms–only your ignorance of Chicago finances and your astounding capacity for denial could allow you to see mass public outrage about Daley’s wholesale plunder as his not living up to my “ideal”– has put you in a totally ludicrous position and completely destroyed your credibility on this topic.

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