FAREWELL, DICK MELL…SORT OF

7/6/13

Dick Mell announced last week that he will be leaving his post as 33^rd Ward alderman after 38 years on the job.  The Chicago media, generally hostile toward guys like Dick Mell, are, predictably, falling all over themselves with accolades for the City Council’s second longest serving member and something of a living relic of a bygone era, a time depicted in my books, The Chairman and The Chairman’s Challenge.  The press’s apparent hypocrisy, though, is understandable; gentlemanliness, or gentewomanliness, is almost always to be applauded and one of its manifestations is finding something nice to say about people at such milestones in their lives.

As you might guess, yours truly has some thoughts on Dick Mell who, despite being a self-made millionaire even before entering politics and despite running one of the most effective ward machines in this most political of cities will always be known first and foremost as Rod Blagojevich’s father-in-law.  (See my 6/19/13 post MIKE MADIGAN, JOHN CULLERTON, AND PENSIONS:   SOMETIMES A CIGAR IS JUST A CIGAR? for some background on the relationship between Dick Mell and his infamous son-in-law.)

First, Mr. Mell would like his daughter Deb Mell, who is currently a state representative, to replace him.   Mayor Emanuel has instituted new procedures for selecting replacement aldermen that are made to look fair, transparent, and representative.  But one suspects that Mr. Mell would not have left without the fix being in for his daughter, so Ms. Mell will probably have no trouble ascending to the post her father has held since she was seven years old.   She does have at least nominal competition for the job, however, in the person of State Senator Iris Martinez.

Note that I used the verb “ascending” when describing a move by Deb Mell from the state legislature to the city council, and that was no mistake.  Perhaps only in Chicago would a move from state representative or state senator to alderman be considered a promotion.   But this follows a proud tradition.   For example, back in 1973, when Roman Pucinski was effectively moved from the United States Congress to alderman of the 41^st Ward, he, probably rightfully, considered it a promotion and thanked Mayor Daley, and not at all disingenuously, for moving him up the ladder.   We take our aldermen seriously in Chicago.   Sometimes one wonders why, but I digress.

Second, the Chicago Sun-Times should have been more careful in its article about Mell’s retirement (“On way out, Mell talks family ties,” 7/6/13, page 6).   Deep into the story, the Sun-Times says

Mell operated (emphasis mine) one of the strongest ward organizations in Chicago, one that relied on precinct captains even after court rulings loosened the stranglehold the Democratic Machine had on government hiring and weakened other ward organizations.

Even though he is leaving his aldermanic seat, Mr. Mell will remain Democratic committeeman of the 33^rd ward and thus will continue to operate “one of the strongest ward organizations in the city.”   The post of committeeman isn’t what it used to be for a variety of reasons, but a ward’s committeeman controls the party apparatus in that ward.  Mr. Mell is not giving that up, at least not yet.

Third, in his parting comments, Mr. Mell had a few, and one suspects as few as possible, things to say about his infamous son-in-law, to wit…

“People loved him on the campaign trail.  He was phenomenal.   But when it came to actually governing, he was a problem.”

Hear, hear, despite the understatement in the second sentence.

Mr. Mell also said that if he could do it all over again, Blagojevich

“…would have never gotten out of state rep.  He would never have went (sic) to Congress.  He would have been a state rep until he decided to quit or be a lawyer or whatever.”

That’s great sentiment in retrospect.   But you can’t tell me, or anyone remotely sentient, that Mr. Mell only discovered the deep character flaws in his son-in-law only after Blago was elected to Congress and then to the governor’s mansion, both of which would have been impossible without Dick Mell’s help.   Many of us could see what a popinjay Mr. Blagojevich was long before he got to the governor’s office.  (In a later post I will tell you of the time yours truly and then Congressman Blagojevich sparred for an hour on a talk radio program…and will especially note Blago’s parting words to yours truly.  It’s a good story, but not as good as it sounds.)  Dick Mell is no fool and he was far closer to Blago than any of us who followed Blago’s career, so he had to be aware from pretty much the get-go of the poltroonishness of his son-in-law.  Yet Mr. Mell still used all of his powers and all of his abilities to put Blago first in Congress and then in the governor’s office.  For all his hemming and hawing now, and for all his other accomplishments, Mr. Mell’s foisting his son-in-law upon the people of Illinois (And I am by no means absolving our misinformed or simply uninformed, voters; anyone who has read just about anything I’ve written knows that.) will remain his most salient “achievement.”

Fourth, Mr. Mell went out of his way to be not all that uncharacteristically sycophantic toward Mayor Emanuel:

“Of all the mayors I worked with, I really like this guy (Emanuel) because he’ll make a decision based on what he believes is right.”

Mell went on to laud the Mayor’s “courage” in reworking the parking meter deal (See RAHM EMANUEL AND THE PARKING METERS:   “GOT TO MAKE THE BEST OF…A BAD SITUATION”, 4/30/13)…

“You think if I were mayor I would have touched those parking meters?”

It could, of course, be that Mr. Mell genuinely likes Mr. Emanuel and has enjoyed working with him, or at least that he has liked working with nominal north sider Emanuel more than he liked working with south sider Rich Daley.  But one suspects that Mr. Mell is following a not so proud tradition of the supposed tough guy aldermen, committeemen, and other pols around this town:  being shameless suck-ups to whoever happens to be occupying the Fifth Floor at the time. 

Perhaps the esteemed aldermen have no choice.   Beginning with Richard I and continuing with Richard II and Rahm Emanuel, Chicago mayors have almost completely emasculated the ward organizations, so the aldermen have to beg for the crumbs that fall from the Mayor’s table.   In this case, Mr. Mell really needs something from Mr. Emanuel:  the appointment of Deb Mell to the 33^rd ward city council seat.   One wishes, however, that these Chicago pols would stop masquerading as tough guys when, in reality, they have been reduced, and more or less willingly, to lap dogs and lickspittles.

Last, readers of my books, the Chairman and the Chairman’s Challenge, liked to try to guess who Chairman Eamon DeValera Collins is in real life.  When they aren’t guessing Ed Burke, Mike Madigan, Ed Vrdolyak, Bill Banks, or Rich Daley, they are guessing Dick Mell.  People ask me frequently if Collins is one of the aforementioned gentlemen, and Mell’s name comes up a lot.   My answer is the same for Mr. Mell as it has been for any other suggestion:  Chairman Eamon DeValera Collins is nobody in Chicago politics and he is (almost) everybody in Chicago politics.  He is one man who embodies the characteristics of many men.   Collins, as Don Vito Corleone was for the New York Mob of the mid twentieth century, is an amalgam of characters in Chicago politics of the latter part of that century.   Chairman Collins, like Alderman Mell, is an intriguing, enduring character, but, unlike Dick Mell, Eamon Collins is fictional.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

MIKE AND LISA MADIGAN: WHAT’S A DAD TO DO?

6/19/13

A poll commissioned by Bill Daley’s gubernatorial campaign (See, inter alia, most recently my 6/17/13 post BILL DALEY’S GRASP OF FINANCE AND ECONOMICS:   WAS I MISINFORMED? and more saliently my 6/13/13 post BILL DALEY AND THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE:   THE BROTHER ALSO RISES? and my 6/6/13 post “GOVERNOR BILL DALEY…SENATOR BILL DALEY.   THERE JUST WASN’T THE TIME…”) has shown that Lisa Madigan’s being Mike Madigan’s daughter will hurt her if (when?) she runs for governor.  

The poll showed that Lisa Madigan would defeat the only formally announced GOP candidate for governor, State Treasurer Dan Rutherford, by 11 percentage points.  However, when voters were reminded that Lisa Madigan’s dad is House Speaker Mike Madigan, the capo de cappi tuti of Illinois and Chicago politicians and were asked how they’d vote if Mr. Madigan stayed on as speaker, the race between Ms. Madigan and Mr. Rutherford becomes a dead heat.

Hmm…

Several things come to mind.

First, Bill Daley ought to look in the mirror; how does his being Rich Daley’s brother, and Dick Daley’s son, play downstate or in the ‘burbs?   The aforementioned poll did not explore this question.

Second, poll participants had to be reminded that Lisa Madigan’s dad is Mike Madigan?   And these people get to vote?   Remember this the next time someone pontificates on the wonders of democracy.

Third, let’s leave aside for a moment the near fact that if Lisa Madigan were not Mike Madigan’s daughter, she would not have served in the Illinois House and Senate, never been considered for Attorney General, and certainly not now be the governor in waiting.  Let’s instead buy blindly into the silly supposition that Ms. Madigan’s being Mr. Madigan’s daughter actually hurts her.

What could Mike Madigan do to help his daughter if his being Speaker of the House and chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party really is a disadvantage for young Lisa?

Some have suggested that Mr. Madigan could step down as Speaker but retain chairmanship of the Party, where they claim the real power lies.   But those who make this argument are stuck in the ‘60s or ‘70s.  As has long been the case, and as is illustrated, for the careful reader, in my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, the days of the power lying in the party office rather than the public office are long gone.  Rich Daley knew this when he was elected mayor in 1989 and eschewed the post of Cook County Regular Democratic Chairman, which his father held even longer than Richard J. held the mayor’s office.  Young Mr. Daley even left his post as committeeman of the 11^th Ward, giving the post to his brother John.   Rich Daley knew that, largely through the efforts of his father, power had shifted from the Party to the Fifth Floor of City Hall.   To the extent that holding a Party position, even THE Party position, might imperil holding onto the Mayor’s office, young Mr. Daley wanted no part of that party office.

If you don’t believe me, first read my books.   If that doesn’t work, ask how much power the following men, who held the office of Cook County Regular Democratic Party Chairman after Richard J. Daley, wielded.   You might even honestly ask yourself if you remember some of these names:

George Dunne

Ed Vrdolyak

Tom Lyons

Joe Berrios

Fast Eddie Vrdolyak had some power, but he would have had that power even if he weren’t Party Chairman.   A few people remember George Dunne, but largely as something of a Daley lackey or as a guy who got into a little trouble with some comely female county employees in his twilight years.   Does anyone remember Tom Lyons?  I could describe him; nondescript northwest side committeeman who wanted a job no one else wanted.  But even I had to look up his name.   Does anyone think Joe Berrios was or is nearly as powerful as Richard M. Daley or Rahm Emanuel?   Or even Ed Burke?

It’s no different at the state level; the Party is largely toothless in this media age.   Mike Madigan’s power derives not from his heading the Party but, rather, from his having been Speaker for all but a few of the last thirty years, his thus being constantly cultivated by people who know how to return favors, and his therefore having the ability to make or break virtually any Democratic member of the legislature.   Retaining the chairmanship of the Party means little or nothing; ask, if you can remember, the following gentlemen who preceded Mr. Madigan in the post:

Gary LaPaille, who was something of a Madigan lackey who stepped aside for his boss

Vince DeMuzio

Cal Sutker

Mike Madigan, being a good dad, might resign from the Speakership, or even the House, if Lisa becomes governor, and promise to do so during the campaign.   In the opinion of yours truly, however, he would be crazy to do so.   For Mike Madigan, the Speaker’s office is a permanent, lifetime job.   The governor’s office, on the other hand, holds no such employment security.   If Ms. Madigan does run and win, and both are still highly likely, she might serve for eight years; Even if she manages to match Jim Thompson’s 14 year tenure, that would leave her in power only half the time her father has been Speaker. 

Mike Madigan, even as a good father, is highly unlikely to give away the permanent job of Speaker so his daughter can be governor for a relatively few years.   I realize he’s 71 years old, but that isn’t old and I am quite sure that Mr. Madigan doesn’t consider himself old and/or anywhere near the twilight of his career.   I’m not making a prediction here; I don’t know Speaker Madigan and, even if I did, he wouldn’t tell me what he is thinking.  I am saying, however, that to give up the Speaker’s job would be silly and Mr. Madigan is not given to doing silly things; see today’s other post MIKE MADIGAN, JOHN CULLERTON, AND PENSIONS:   SOMETIMES A CIGAR IS JUST A CIGAR?

One supposes that Mr. Madigan could stay in the House but replace himself with some stooge (There is no lack of stooges in Illinois politics.) who would serve as a placeholder until Governor Lisa Madigan either loses office or moves to Washington (or possibly replaces another major Chicago political figure whose ultimate goal is moving to Washington, but I digress) in some capacity or another and Mike Madigan feels safe getting his old job back.  But stooges sometimes start to think that they aren’t so stoogish after all and get comfortable in their old jobs.   The consequences can be dire; see yesterday’s post THE LEGEND LIVES ON FROM THE TEAMSTERS ON DOWN OF THE BIG GUY THEY CALL JIMMY HOFFA.  Mr. Madigan is not likely to take such a chance.

Those who haven’t ignored the obvious in their pursuit of today’s story realize that Lisa Madigan is helped a heck of a lot more than she is hurt by her being Mike Madigan’s daughter.   Mike Madigan is highly unlikely to give up his post as Speaker so that his daughter can become governor for a few years.   Ms. Madigan’s lineage will not hurt her in a Democratic primary, especially a three-way Democratic primary.   And, given the state of the GOP in Illinois today and its, er, lack of credible candidates, her being the Speaker’s daughter might hurt Ms. Madigan, but not fatally so.  Mike Madigan’s having been Speaker more or less continuously for the last thirty years did nothing to stop him from winning a supermajority in the House in 2012, despite pathetic GOP efforts to the contrary.  Either the voters are not as appalled by Mr. Madigan as some people seem to think…or they simply don’t pay enough attention to express their disdain in the voting booth.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

ANTAGONISM BETWEEN THE DALEYS AND THE MADIGANS?

6/9/13

Now that Bill Daley looks like he might be making a run for Illinois governor (See my already seminal 6/6/13 piece, “GOVERNOR BILL DALEY…SENATOR BILL DALEY.   THERE JUST WASN’T THE TIME…”), bollixing up the plans of House Speaker Mike Madigan and his daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who both assumed the governor’s mansion was Lisa’s for the asking, much is being made among the punditocracy about the “antagonism” between the Daley and Madigan families.  

Hmm…

I’ve followed Chicago politics for a long time, longer than most of the punditocracy has been alive, and, until the last few months, I had never heard of a Daley/Madigan family feud.   Perhaps I haven’t been paying attention, being distracted by other things, but it always seemed to me that the Rich Daley worked well with Mike Madigan.   If there is any personal antagonism between the two, or between any members of the family, it is news to me, though I’m not in a position to know of such things; I know neither man, have met Rich Daley only once, and have never met Mike Madigan.

But even if there exists between the families some personal animosity, or simply professional rivalry beyond that which normally exists between ambitious families, it doesn’t matter.  Mr. Madigan and all four Daley brothers who hold or held power in one form or another in this town know how to put personal feelings aside when there is business to be done, as evidenced by the sterling, one might even say warm, professional relationship between Mr. Madigan and Rich, Bill, John, and Mike Daley.

Speaking of being able to put personal antagonism aside, it is said by elements of the media, including Monique Garcia in this morning’s (i.e., Sunday, 6/9/13’s, page 1) Chicago Tribune, that the “Daley-Madigan family antagonism,” as she puts it, dates back to the 1980 State’s Attorney’s race in which Mike Madigan backed Ed Burke in the primary against Rich Daley.  

Hmm…

The famous rivalry (antagonism might, and only might, be too strong a word) between the Burkes and the Daleys goes back to at least 1953, when Ed Burke’s father, Joe Burke, was part of the 14^th Ward cabal, that included Clarence Wagner and James McDermott, that teamed with the 19^th Ward cabal, that included John Duffy and Tom Nash, to try to deny Richard J. Daley the post of Chairman of the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization, which Dick Daley assumed was his when placeholder Joe Gill stepped down.  When Mr. Wagner died in a car crash in Minnesota, the 14^th and 19^th Ward forces faded and Dick Daley took his rightful place at the head of the Party.   Mr. Daley, like most of his fellow Irishmen, including yours truly, suffered from Irish amnesia…we forgive, but we don’t forget.   Still, Dick Daley worked well with Joe Burke, who succeeded Wagner as 14^th Ward Alderman, and served as alderman and committeeman until his death in 1968, when he was replaced by his son, Ed. 

When the Burke/Daley rivalry came to a boil again in 1980 with the State’s Attorney’s race between scions Ed and Rich, the Daleys came out on top.   Richard II  shared Richard I’s case of Irish amnesia, and probably harbored some lingering bitterness toward Ed Burke, and vice-versa (again, I’m not in a position to know; I’ve met Rich Daley only once and know Ed Burke only to say “Hi,” if that well any more).   But that didn’t stop the younger Mr. Daley and Mr. Burke from working very well together as, respectively, Mayor and Council Finance Committee Chairman and all around uber-alderman and committeeman.

Pros know how to put aside whatever personal piques that may exist.  And if the Daleys and the Burkes were able to put aside anything that may have been between them, the Daleys and the Madigans would surely be able to do the same, especially if the origins of the Daley/Madigan feud lay in the Daley/Burke feud, as Ms. Garcia suggests in today’s Tribune.

Further, the suggestion is that the Daley/Madigan “antagonism” that exists today has its roots in the Daley/Burke 1980 race for State’s Attorney.   This makes very little sense.  If the Daleys were antagonistic toward everyone who opposed Rich in the 1980 State’s Attorney primary, they’d be antagonistic toward a lot of people.  As I recall, of the 50 Democratic ward organizations in Chicago, only two, the 11^th Ward and 19^th Ward Organizations, backed Rich Daley for State’s Attorney.   If the Daleys really despised the pols that backed Ed Burke over Rich Daley for State’s Attorney, they harbored 48 grudges for a long, long time.  That’s a lot of grudges for a long time, even for an Irish clan.

I don’t know how the Daleys feel about the Madigans.  But I do know that, even if there were some “antagonism” arising out the 1980 State’s Attorney’s race, or anything else, Rich Daley, John Daley, Bill Daley, Mike Daley, and Mike Madigan were able to put it aside in the interest of doing business for a long, long time.  If both Bill Daley and Lisa Madigan run in the Democratic primary for governor in 2014, which I doubt (See, again, my seminal 6/6/13 post.), the professional rivalry between the families will arise or be resurrected.   But one, or neither, of the families’ representatives will win the primary, and both families will go back to doing business.

We Irish have our faults, but a distorted sense of priorities generally isn’t one of them, especially when money and/or power is at stake.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

HOW DID CYNTHIA BRIM GET ON THE BENCH…AND STAY THERE FOR NEARLY TWENTY YEARS?

2/5/13

Cook County Judge Cynthia Brim was found not guilty by reason of insanity of battery charges arising from an incident back in March, 2012 in which she shoved a sheriff’s deputy after tossing courtroom keys at the deputy and his cohorts working security at the Daley Center.  It was quite clear that the insanity defense would work.    On the day of the alleged battery, Judge Brim, meaning to go downtown to protest an online article criticizing a fellow judge, got off the bus at 47^th Street and apparently walked the six miles downtown and showed up at the Daley Center in hospital scrubs, a fur coat and hat.   This obviously aroused the suspicion of the Daley Center security detail, who had no idea she was a judge since she worked out of a courtroom in south suburban Markham and judges, even in Cook County, don’t normally come to work in scrubs and a fur coat.   Deputies who testified at the trial described her as “irrational” and “catatonic” that day, but, given the state of the judiciary in Cook County, one suspects that such traits did nothing to add to their suspicions that Judge Brim was not, indeed, a judge, but I digress.   At any rate, the Judge’s bizarre behavior led to the alleged battery and also to her ultimate conditional legal absolution.

The bigger question for Cook County residents and taxpayers (Judge Brim has been relived of her duties since the incident but continues to collect her $182,000 per year salary.  Hey, such stellar legal talent doesn’t come cheap, but, again, I digress.) is why Judge Brim was ever on the bench.  She has been hospitalized five times for psychotic episodes, once before and four times since her election to the bench in 1993.  At the time of her election, she was 35 years old, ten years out of law school, and had a resume bereft of private practice but featuring a series of jobs with Mayors Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley and Attorney General Roland Burris.   She was reelected in November, 2012, eight months after the alleged battery and while on the paid leave that resulted from that incident, with the support of the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization.

Judge Cynthia Brim appeared unqualified at the time of her original slating for, and perfunctory election to, the bench in 1993.   She did nothing while on the bench to dissuade anybody of that notion.   She has been a very sick person for her entire tenure as a judge.  And yet she has been on the bench for nearly twenty years.   But she was, and remains, a judge because, in Cook County, judges are elected, Chicago style.   Voters don’t pay attention to the judicial ballot; even yours truly, who follows politics more closely than does the average bear, doesn’t pay attention to the judicial ballot unless I know one of the candidates personally or through friends.   But instead of simply not voting for judges, like I do, on the theory that an uninformed vote is far worse than no vote at all, people randomly fill out their judicial ballots or simply vote for the candidate endorsed (slated) by the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization.

Given that few people vote for judge and many of those that do are politically motivated to do so, slating for the bench by the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization is tantamount to election.  That slating is, and has been for years, dominated by 14^th Ward Alderman and Committeeman Ed Burke.  Consequently, judicial candidates are not chosen based on their legal acumen or experience but, rather, based primarily on their political affiliations and loyalties, which, in most cases, must run toward the Organization, Mr. Burke, and the few other pols who have some hand in the process.

Is this any way to select a third branch of government?  

The obvious argument is for appointment, rather than election, of judges, as is done in most other jurisdictions in this country.   This course of action is also fraught with peril, given that, like everything else in and around Chicago, that selection process would be dripping with politics.  But the current system of electing, and slating, judges is tantamount to appointment with the mere façade of an election, so how much worse could actual appointment be?

Even though it is not known as one of the nation’s stellar systems, it’s a miracle that the Cook County court system works as well as it does.   But we can’t count on miracles forever.  It would seem that the system of slating, for certain election, political hacks, lackeys, toadies, and hangers-on, along with a few random and largely coincidental fine legal minds, has to come to an end.   Or would the alternative be just as scary?

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on this subject.