BRUCE RAUNER CONFIRMS MEMBERSHIP IN A $140,000 WINE CLUB: ELITIST, POMPOUS POPINJAY, OR SHREWD BUSINESSMAN?

9/3/14

Yesterday, GOP candidate for Illinois governor Bruce Rauner confirmed that he belongs to the Napa Valley Reserve (“NVR”) wine club.  NVR is a rather exclusive club; it reportedly costs $140,000 to join.   Mr. Rauner’s membership in NVR was hinted at in an article in last Sunday’s (i.e., 8/31/14’s) Chicago Tribune’s front page headline article entitled “Emanuel and Rauner.”  Yours truly found that article especially interesting, coming in the wake of my 8/18/14 post, PAT QUINN TO BLACK VOTERS:   BRUCE RAUNER = RAHM EMANUEL?, in which I argued that it might be a good idea for Pat Quinn (no relation) to try to convince black voters that a vote for Bruce Rauner is a vote for Rahm Emanuel.   One wonders how many people at the Tribune read my posts and/or are (not so) secretly working for Pat Quinn.  But I digress.

The immediate knee-jerk reaction to Mr. Rauner’s belonging to a “wine club” that cost $140,000 to join is to argue that it confirms Mr. Rauner’s elitism and consequent unfitness to be this state’s governor.   The Pat Quinn (no relation) camp has, to absolutely no one’s surprise, taken up this narrative with near childlike vigor.

The second, more thoughtful reaction would be to question Mr. Rauner’s judgment.  It is, of course, his money and he can do what he wants with it, but what sort of narcissistic, compensating popinjay feels the need to pay $140,000 to join a wine club?

While the second aforementioned reaction is more sound than the first, and might very well be the correct reaction, there is a good possibility there is more to Mr. Rauner’s belonging to NVR than an odd, but not uncommon, combination of ego and insecurity run amok.

Mr. Rauner is reportedly a partner with Bill Harlan, who runs NVR, in a venture called Promontory Vineyards, which owns 480 acres of real estate in the Napa Valley.   At current prices, that property is worth something in the $130mm-$150mm range.   That’s a lot of money even by Bruce Rauner’s standards.   Further, given the current enthusiasm of the bleating sheep who sadly constitute America’s new elite for outrageously priced wine, Promontory may turn out to be a very lucrative investment for Messrs. Rauner, Harlan, and their partners.  Perhaps the $140,000 membership in NVR was a means for Mr. Rauner to curry the favor of Mr. Harlan and thus get in on the Promontory deal.  If this was indeed the motivation behind Mr. Rauner’s joining NVR, that $140,000 could turn out to have been a relatively trivial, and very shrewd, investment.

Or maybe Bruce Rauner’s just an egomaniac who wants to brag to his friends that he belongs to a club that charges $140,000 for access to snooty wine that is often barely distinguishable from the swill yours truly used to buy in the generic aisle at Jewel in the early ‘80s.  One never knows.  But don’t discount the possibility that the seemingly foolish NVR membership was a small cog in a larger plan.  That’s the way business is done.   Pat Quinn (no relation), of course, would know nothing of such matters since he has spent his life suckling on the public mammary gland rather than actually conducting business.  But I digress…again.

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. 

CHICAGO’S DAY FOR THE JACKIE ROBINSON WEST LITTLE LEAGUE: HAVE THE POLS ANY SHAME?

8/27/14

Today was a glorious day in Chicago, the day when my home town honored the U.S. Little League champion Jackie Robinson West kids with a parade and other festivities.  The parade kicked off at Jackie Robinson Park on 105^th and Morgan and proceeded north on Halsted Street, passed Comiskey Park (er, sorry, U.S. Cellular Field), turned east on 35^th to Indiana and eventually made its way over to Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park.   It was supposed to be a glorious day and, for the most part it has been, except…

At the kickoff of the parade, at 105^th and Morgan, an observer, casual or otherwise, could not be faulted for wondering who was being honored by the event.   The kids made a cameo appearance, as did their parents.  But who was there, front and center, seizing the limelight?    This is Chicago, Illinois, so you know the answer…the politicians.

There they were, a cast of blowhards that is drawn to such events like hungry dogs to prime steak…Governor Pat Quinn, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Congressperson Robin Kelly, Alderman Carrie Austin, et. al…the usual suspects, turning what should have been a great day honoring some great kids into yet another occasion for self-aggrandizement.

Have these people no shame?  

They have spent our state and our city into bankruptcy.  They have made careers of shaking down the (admittedly, in many instances, not all that uncooperative or put upon) private sector for their nefarious ends.  They have been largely responsible for our city and state having become less and less livable.  They have ruined what was perhaps one of our nation’s greatest states, which combined the bustling, vital, and exciting city of Chicago with a downstate that serves as a vital component of the nation’s breadbasket and an exemplar of the type of small town values that made this country what it once was.  They have stolen and pillaged everything that wasn’t, and much of what was, nailed down. And now they have stolen the well earned limelight the citizens of our great city would like to have cast on a much deserving crew of magnificent kids.

How can one describe these poltroonish politicasters?   They are popinjays, professional narcissists, barnacles on the ship of state.   They are empty suits, carnival barkers, entitled, whimpering no-accounts.   Shameless leaches.   Self centered snakes and scalawags.  Benighted bindlestiffs on an endless, undying quest for the next microphone and/or camera.  Bleating, bumptious boors.  Contemptuous caitiffs.  Jejune jackasses.

Seizing the glimmer of glory granted to a group of great kids, not being able to envision anybody but themselves and their fellow professional narcissists getting any glory…is there any depth to which these despicable human beings will not sink?

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. 

PAT QUINN TO BLACK VOTERS: BRUCE RAUNER = RAHM EMANUEL?

8/18/14

Bruce Rauner, according to the polls, holds a big lead in the 2014 Illinois governor’s race.   My asking around, and my instincts, tells me that the polls are right.  Even natural Pat Quinn voters (liberal women, union members, even friends of mine who know Mr. Quinn and voted for him out of a sense of Fenwick affinity in 2011) have told me they won’t, even can’t, vote for the Governor this time around.   One would be a fool to write off Pat Quinn’s chances in any election; he is a great campaigner and a very clever politician.  (See, inter alia, 2014 Illinois Gubernatorial Election Year Rag:   “Hand Me Down My Bulletproof Vest…” (Rant Lifestyle, 1/20/14) and PAUL VALLAS ON THE TICKET:  PAT QUINN MAKES ANOTHER BRILLIANT MOVETOWARD RE-ELECTION, 11/8/13.)   Plenty of former politicians got that way underestimating Pat Quinn.

But Pat Quinn is clearly in trouble.  If he is to win, he has to do a lot of things, and one of those is to shore up his loyal base among black voters, primarily in Chicago.  How can he do that?

Black voters, if one believes the polls, don’t like Mayor Rahm Emanuel.   Rahm Emanuel has endorsed Pat Quinn but he is a close friend of Bruce Rauner.  Mr. Rauner helped Mr. Emanuel become wealthy during the Mayor’s brief stint as an “investment banker,” the two have done business together, and they even vacation together.   So at least one strategy would appear to hold some potential for Pat Quinn:  convince black voters that a vote for Mr. Rauner is a vote for Mr. Emanuel.

This will be difficult, especially when Mr. Emanuel is publicly, if not all that enthusiastically, endorsing Pat Quinn and Mr. Quinn is doing nothing to deflect that endorsement; after all, Mr. Quinn needs all the votes and financial support he can get.  But this is what political operatives of an especially Machiavellian, some might say sneaky, variety are for.   Somehow, the back channels have to be cultivated.  The word has to get out on the street, but only on some streets, that Mr. Emanuel is secretly backing his old pal Bruce Rauner and that support for Mr. Rauner is de facto support for Mr. Emanuel.

Can Pat Quinn pull off such a feat?   Despite his much vaunted, but now tarnishing, reputation as some sort of Mr. Clean, he has not survived nearly forty years in Chicago and Illinois politics by being some kind of choir boy.  One can be confident that Mr. Quinn has plenty of dirty tricksters in his indirect, or maybe direct, employ.   One can be confident that Mr. Quinn will try, or is trying, such a Rauner=Emanuel tactic, if only because he is almost at the point at which he will need to try anything.

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. 

QUINN ON PRECKWINKLE VS. EMANUEL, TRIPLE J, JEB BUSH, AND THE PENSION BILL

4/10/14

I took a hiatus from writing last week; I was just too busy to write and was harboring a few doubts about the whole point of the exercise.  But I was at a party last Saturday night and talked to several people whom I hadn’t seen in a while who told me how much they enjoyed my posts and asked me to assure them that I wouldn’t quit.  No coincidences, as they say, but I digress. 

At any rate, I found some time this week to write a few posts.  Almost all my musings this week were on Chicago politics; I did that because it seems like my writing on the politics of my hometown for Rant Lifestyle, a site about which I still have my misgivings, seems to sell my books…if an uptick in sales since writing for Rant is any evidence.

THE 2015 CHICAGO MAYOR’S RACE:  TONI, TONI, PLEASE BACK DOWN, YOU’LL NEVER BEAT RAHM IN THIS TOWN

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/10/2015-chicago-mayors-race-toni-toni-please-back-youll-never-beat-rahm-town/

Some of Toni Preckwinkle’s fans are delusional, but I hope she isn’t.  And I think I came up with a new expression for the political situation in Chicago:  Pax Rahmana.  Pretty good, eh?

TAKE IT TO THE BANK:  CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL WILL GET HIS TAX INCREASE…AND MAYBE HIS CASINO

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/09/take-bank-chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-will-get-tax-increase-maybe-casino/

Those who say that this whole pension bill is a stalking horse for a casino may be partially right, but property taxes are going up in Chicago anyway.

JEB BUSH IN 2016:   MOTHER KNOWS BEST

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/09/jeb-bush-2016-mother-knows-best/

Yes, I know the Wall Street Journal editorial page has gone into the tank for this guy, but the GOP can’t be that suicidal.  Or can it?

JESSE JACKSON JR. GOES TO A NICER JAIL:  “THAT’S (NOT) THE SOUND OF THE MEN WORKING ON THE…CHAIN GANG…”

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/07/jesse-jackson-jr-goes-nicer-jail-thats-sound-men-working-chain-gang/

Once the glare of publicity faded, Triple J got to go to the federal housing he wanted all along.   So it goes.  But couldn’t the Jackson family have come up with a story that wasn’t quite so insulting to our intelligence?

Have a great weekend, everybody.   Blessed Holy Week and Passover.

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. 

QUINN ON THE GOVERNOR’S RACE, GIANT PUPPETS, PUTIN, GM, AND HIS NAMESAKE’S HOUSING PLAN

4/24/14

The busyness, if you will, of my schedule combined with the events of the Triduum, ruled out sending you one of these heads-up announcements last week.   But I did manage to find the time to write a few things since we last communicated.  Most were on local and state politics for the simple reason that writing on these topics sells books.  But I did touch on world politics and the car business.

WHO DOES CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL WANT TO BE ILLINOIS GOVERNOR?

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/23/chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-want-illinois-governor/

I’m not one to complain about editing, but the editor of this piece dropped the “Who” at the beginning of the title, changing its meaning entirely.   Be that as it may, the punch line is that Mr. Emanuel may be telling the truth in this instance, and it has little, but not nothing, to do with Mr. Rauner’s ill-advised robocalls.

RAHM AND THE GIANT PUPPETS

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/22/rahm-giant-puppets/

Yet another attempt by our yuppie mayor to make us a “world class” city.  Such grotesqueries make one pine for the days of the old Stock Yards, the aroma of which my father would alternately call “fresh air” or the “smell of money.”

THE GENEVA AGREEMENT ON UKRAINE:  PUTIN HORNSWOGGLES THE WEST…AGAIN

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/17/geneva-agreement-ukraine-putin-hornswoggles-west/

I often wonder what Mr. Putin thinks, or thought, after meeting with the likes of Barack Obama and George Bush.  It had to be something along the lines of “This guy is the leader of the free world?  Maybe freedom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“PRODUCT INTEGRITY ORGANIZATION”?  NEW GM INDEED!

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/16/product-integrity-organization-new-gm-indeed/

There is nothing new under the sun…especially in Detroit, it seems.

ILLINOIS GOVERNOR PAT QUINN’S HOUSING PROPOSAL:  PINING FOR ’08 AND ‘09

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/04/15/illinois-governor-pat-quinns-housing-proposal-pining-08-09/

Shows what a short memory and an utter lack of understanding of economics can do.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend, everybody.

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. 

PAUL VALLAS ON THE TICKET: PAT QUINN MAKES ANOTHER BRILLIANT MOVE TOWARD RE-ELECTION

11/8/13

Regardless of what you think of the guy’s ideology, background, or performance on the job, you have to admit that Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (no relation) is running a brilliant campaign for re-election.  (See my 9/16/13 post ILLINOIS DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY:  DALEY IS OUT; IS LISA BACK IN? for only the most recent of my comments on the campaign.)  The latest manifestation of this brilliance is his selection of Paul Vallas as his running mate.

Mr. Vallas’ being on the Quinn ticket makes sense for all the obvious reasons.  Originally a budget wonk in Springfield who caught a lot of important people’s eyes, he was appointed budget director for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley early in the reign of Richard II, when the scion was a good mayor and fiscal manager, before Mr. Daley became a living, breathing argument for the wisdom of term limits.  After leaving that post, Mr. Vallas did a great job, or at least as good a job as anyone could do, given the circumstances, as the CEO of the Chicago Public School System.  After a failed run for governor (against Rod Blagojevich; how would you like to have that vote back?), which was partially Mr. Vallas’s fault but was at least partially engineered by the bosses in Chicago who ran Roland Burris to siphon the black vote from Mr. Vallas in the primary, Mr. Vallas went on to run the public school systems in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and, currently, Bridgeport, Connecticut.  His performance in all three tough jobs has been admirable.  So Mr. Vallas has expertise in the areas of education and budgets, the first of which is always important and the second of which is beyond critical at this point in Illinois’ history.

Some can argue that Mr. Vallas had made enemies among the teachers’ unions in his tenure at the helm of the CPS.  But so what?   Mr. Quinn has already enraged the public employee unions with his aggressive push for a solution to the state’s public pension problems.  And where else are the public employee unions going to go?  

So Mr. Vallas is a great candidate for the obvious reasons.  But yours truly also finds merit in the selection for what it says about Governor Quinn.  Mr. Quinn’s Republican opponents, who are supposed to eschew such things as racial, ethnic, and gender quotas out of principal, go about selecting running mates who just happen to be women, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, or some combination thereof.  Mr. Quinn, however, eschews such tokenism and selects a running mate based on the man’s merits.  This refusal to kowtow to the conventional wisdom is a mark of character on Mr. Quinn’s part. 

Don’t think voters don’t notice Mr. Quinn’s good sense…and his opponents’ hypocrisy lily-livered obeisance to pollsters, conventional wisdom, and addle-brained political correctness.  Don’t misunderstand me; Mr. Quinn has made a career of obeisance to pollsters, conventional wisdom, and addle-brained political correctness, but voters have short attention spans and hence politics becomes a game of “What ya done (for me or to me) lately?”

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. 

ILLINOIS DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY: DALEY IS OUT; IS LISA BACK IN?

9/16/13

Now that Bill Daley has dropped out of the Democratic primary race for Illinois governor, we have to consider the ramifications of that move both for the state’s politics and for the state’s fiscal survival.

First, the politics.  We roughly six months will transpire before the March primary, so there is plenty of time for another candidate or two to enter the race.   Could one of those candidates be Attorney General Lisa Madigan?   Recall that Ms. Madigan dropped out in July claiming that her father’s remaining as House Speaker would make it difficult for her to win the race, and, if she did, to govern   She said this with a straight face as if it came as a surprise to her that her dad would not give up his job for life in order to make it easier for his daughter to take the next transitory step in a political career that the press has repeatedly assured her is heading to the very top.   See my 7/16/13 piece, LISA MADIGAN WON’TRUN FOR GOVERNOR:  WOULD YOU WANT THE JOB?

It’s easy to reflexively say “No way” when the question of Ms. Madigan’s re-entering the race comes up, but her potential re-entry deserves more thought than that.

Recall that in the aforementioned 7/16/13 piece, I gave two real reasons for Ms. Madigan’s hasty exit, or non-entrance.   First, as I explained it…

Lisa wanted a coronation, not an election.  Bill Daley made it a fight.

Whenever one is facing the incumbent office-holder in a primary, one is in for a fight.  The last person to win such a brawl in this state was Mike Howlett, the jovial but limited then Secretary of State who was able to topple Dan Walker in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1976, but only with the last major demonstration of the raw, dominant power of the Richard J. Daley Machine.   To say that Mike Howlett’s primary victory was Richard J. Daley’s last hurrah would not be an overstatement.  But I digress.   Daley went on to let the ever likeable Howlett hang out to dry once the bothersome Dan Walker had been dispensed with, but that is another story and another digression.  

A three way race involving the incumbent Pat Quinn (no relation), Bill Daley, and Lisa Madigan would have been tough to the point of impossibility for both of the two challengers; incumbency, even an inept incumbency, is almost always strong enough to face down two strong challengers.  Yes, Ms. Madigan had the advantage of being the only woman in the three way race and a press that simply can’t get enough of their imagined incarnation of Wonder Woman, and those factors might have been enough for her to prevail against not only the long odds against the incumbent but also Ms. Madigan’s “daddy problem,” but it would have been a long shot.  Once Daley got in, Madigan had little choice but to stay out unless she wanted something she had never experienced before…a very difficult, arduous election.

So does Daley’s leaving open a door for Lisa Madigan?   No.   Now it is not Bill Daley who is making it a tough fight; it is Pat Quinn who is making it a tough fight.  As I said only most recently in my 8/15/13 piece, PAT QUINN PUTS PAT FITZGERALD ON A VESTIGIAL COMMISSION:  IS THE GOVERNOR RUNNING THE TABLE?

Pat Quinn (no relation) may have a deserved, or otherwise, reputation as a reformer, but he is showing he didn’t get this far in Chicago and Illinois politics by spending an inordinate amount of time consulting the Marquis of Queensberry.

Pat Quinn has made some brilliant political moves which, no matter what Bill Daley says (see below), went a long way toward convincing Mr. Daley that this race was unwinnable or very close to unwinnable.  It would be equally nearly unwinnable for Lisa Madigan; she’d prefer to wait around for a coronation.

The second reason I gave in my 7/16/13 piece for Ms. Madigan not entering the race was, as I put it

The better reason is not quite as political but very simple:   Would you want to be governor of Illinois right now?   This state is in a hell of a mess, with bankruptcy looming over the fast approaching horizon.  In all likelihood, nothing will be solved before the next governor takes office.  One does not blame an ambitious pol like Ms. Madigan for not wanting to tie her dinghy to such a sinking ship.  It would be much easier, and conducive to obtaining that big job that every politician ultimately wants, to become a U.S. Senator, and that job may become available, albeit not necessarily for the asking, in 2016.

The state of Illinois is in a hell of a mess.  The daughter of the man who cannot deny a good measure of the responsibility for getting us in this mess was not the person to get us out of it.   Maybe (probably?) no one can get us out of it.  

So Lisa Madigan’s real reasons for dropping out—that it would be too difficult to win the primary and that the state is in such a fiscal mess that no sane person, and especially no sane, politically ambitious person, would want the job—remain valid.  So I don’t anticipate a dramatic Madigan re-entry into the race.   But anything can happen, and Ms. Madigan tends to believe the hagiographic press she gets.

The second aforementioned reason for Ms. Madigan not getting into the race gets us beyond the politics to the fiscal prospects for Illinois:  they stink.  Bill Daley, who, despite looking really bad for deciding to get out of the race after saying that he got into it after a great deal of thought, is no dummy.   In giving the reasons for his taking his leave, he stated

“To be honest with you, losing it wasn’t the worst of my fears. In many ways, winning it and having the commitment of five years to nine years was something I struggled with. You know, the dog catches the tire and, boom.”

A point of useful digression:   Whenever anyone uses the term “To be honest with you…” or something like it, and especially when a politician uses that term, yours truly immediately assumes that s/he is lying the rest of the time, probably all the time.  If s/he weren’t lying all the time, why would s/he have to preface anything with “To be honest with you”?  To do so is to indicate that one is not being honest when one does not use that preface.   So I believe and so I advise my students.   They need someone like me to balance this starry-eyed optimism fad.

His campaign manager, Pete Giangreco, said that Mr. Daley dropped out after considering “what it’s going to take” to dig Illinois out of its fiscal hole.

So Bill Daley, by his own words and through his campaign manager, is telling us that the state is in such bad shape that Mr. Daley can’t fix it, or at least not without an exertion of time, effort, and will that he is unable to provide.   This is coming from a man with no shortage of ego.   What does that tell you about the fiscal state of the Land of Lincoln?

 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. 

TIO HARDIMAN IS IN THE ILLINOIS GOVERNOR’S RACE: HEY, HE’S NOT A CONVICTED FELON

8/17/13

Former Cease Fire director Tio Hardiman has announced he is throwing his hat into the Illinois gubernatorial ring.   Mr. Hardiman is likely to have a hard time gaining traction; his past includes a guilty plea to a misdemeanor domestic batter charge and an arrest for another domestic battery.  His wife dropped the charges on the latter, along with her plans for a divorce, saying she “want(ed) to work on her marriage.”   That was enough to keep Mr. Hardiman out of the hoosegow, but not enough to allow him to keep his job; Cease Fire announced just after his arrest that his contract would not be renewed and his wife’s dropping charges apparently has not persuaded them to reconsider.

When asked about his troubled past, Mr. Hardiman came up with a reply that both clarified things and drew a distinction between Mr. Hardiman and our two most recent former governors:

“The media, they like to bring up things from my past.   But I’m not a convicted felon; let me make that clear.”  (Emphasis mine)

Only in Illinois is not being a convicted felon considered a salient qualification for governor.  And only in Illinois does such a non-status make one a breath of fresh air.

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. 

PAT QUINN PUTS PAT FITZGERALD ON A VESTIGIAL COMMISSION: IS THE GOVERNOR RUNNING THE TABLE?

8/15/13

Governor Pat Quinn (no relation) has appointed a commission to “review oversight at the Regional Transportation Authority” (“RTA”).   Appointing a commission is, from a genuine managerial standpoint, one of the most flaccid moves one can make.   Commissions, whether in the private or public sector, do nothing other than waste time and money producing reports few read, none remember, and all ignore.   From a governance standpoint, commissions are a sign of cowardice; pols and private sector managers don’t like to make decisions for which they might be held accountable and thus pass the buck to a “commission” of, usually but not always, has-beens, never weres, and people who make a living selling their once vaunted reputations.

However, from a purely political perspective, forming this particular commission is the latest of a series of great moves on Pat Quinn’s part.   This is mostly because one of the panel members is none other than Patrick Fitzgerald (pictured), our former U.S. Attorney who had the integrity, work ethic, fearlessness, and courage to go after corrupt pols and their gangster pals in and around Chicago.  Mr. Fitzgerald is a rare exception to the “has-beens and never weres” rule for staffing commissions I referred to in the last paragraph.  Let’s hope he hasn’t joined the legions of “people who make a living selling their once vaunted reputations,” but, given my general sense of realism, which some foolishly choose to label cynicism, I can’t be confident in that hope.   But I digress.

At any rate, putting Pat Fitzgerald on this commission is great politics because Mr. Fitzgerald has such a great reputation for rooting out corruption, of which the RTA is a cesspool.   While this commission, like just about every commission formed since, one supposes, the commission formed to investigate the death of Abel, will accomplish nothing, appearances are all that matter in modern politics.

As I said earlier, this is just the latest of Pat Quinn’s brilliant political moves.   First, there was the withholding of lawmakers’ salaries until they get something done on the public pension problem that is bankrupting, or has bankrupted, our state.  (See my 7/10/13 piece, PAT QUINN SUSPENDS LEGISLATORS’SALARIES:   FOUR MORE YEARS?.)   This move was probably silly, perhaps counterproductive, and yet another example of Mr. Quinn’s insatiable penchant for grandstanding, but it was GREAT politics. 

Then there was the appointment of Frank Zuccarelli, the Democratic kingpin of the south suburbs, to the CTA Board.   (See my 8/9/13 piece BILLDALEY IS SHOCKED, SHOCKED (!) THAT PAT QUINN WOULD MAKE A PURELY POLITICALAPPOINTMENT TO THE CTA BOARD.)   This move was made even more brilliant by Mr. Zuccarelli’s declining the seat in light of the stink Bill Daley made about putting Mr. Zuccarelli on the board.   Why was Mr. Zuccarelli’s declension so salubrious for Mr. Quinn’s efforts to keep his job?   Pat Quinn has already ingratiated himself with Mr. Zuccarelli, which was the point of the whole exercise.   The governor has also created some, er, distance between Mr. Zuccarelli and Mr. Daley.   Finally, Mr. Quinn now has the chance to appoint someone else to the CTA Board, and you can be sure he will appoint someone who, like Mr. Zuccarelli, can help the governor in his primary race against Mr. Daley.

Mr. Daley now has to realize he is in a fight.  (See my 7/16/13 piece, PAT QUINN VS. BILL DALEY:  “THIS GUY DOESN’T THINK THIS IS A SHOW; HE THINKS IT’S A FIGHT!”) Lisa Madigan is probably happy she stayed out of this race; it is proving to be far from the coronation to which she felt she was entitled.  (See my 7/16/13 piece, LISA MADIGAN WON’TRUN FOR GOVERNOR:  WOULD YOU WANT THE JOB?)   Pat Quinn (no relation) may have a deserved, or otherwise, reputation as a reformer, but he is showing he didn’t get this far in Chicago and Illinois politics by spending an inordinate amount of time consulting the Marquis of Queensberry.

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. 

BILL DALEY IS SHOCKED, SHOCKED (!) THAT PAT QUINN WOULD MAKE A PURELY POLITICAL APPOINTMENT TO THE CTA BOARD

8/9/13

More on the governor’s race, which has been neglected, until today (See today’s other post, THE MADIGANS, THE SPEAKER’S OFFICE, AND THE GOVERNOR’S RACE:  “YOU SEE,THAT’S WHERE MY ARGUMENT FALLS APART…”), since our trip (See 8/2/13’s seminal CLARK GRISWOLD, MR. PEABODY, AND ME), partially because I have been writing about more important matters (See 8/7/13’s THE NATION’S GREATEST PARTY SCHOOLS: THE I’S HAVE IT!)…

Governor Pat Quinn (no relation) has appointed Frank Zuccarelli to a spot on the board of the Chicago Transit Authority (“CTA”).  Mr. Zuccarelli does not live in Chicago; he lives in the south suburbs.  Mr. Zuccarelli is also holds the “job” of Thornton Township Supervisor, one of the many vestigial sinecures we in these parts provide our public servants.  More importantly, for purposes extending beyond the subject of this post, Mr. Zuccarelli is the Democratic Committeeman of Thornton Township, which produces more Democratic primary votes than any other township in the Cook County suburbs.

Bill Daley, Mr. Quinn’s sole, up to this point (See my 7/16/13 piece, PAT QUINN VS. BILL DALEY:  “THIS GUY DOESN’T THINK THIS IS A SHOW; HE THINKS IT’S A FIGHT!” for the reasons I think the words “up to this point” are vital.), opponent in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, is upset with Governor Quinn’s appointment of Mr. Zuccarelli to the CTA Board. 

Mr. Daley points out that Mr. Zuccarelli, while probably qualified, doesn’t live in Chicago and, after all, this is the CHICAGO Transit Authority Board to which Mr. Zuccarelli has been appointed.  This is true, though, while not being certain, I suppose that there have been, from time to time, CTA Board members from outside the confines of the city itself.

Mr. Daley also points out that holding a part time job on the CTA Board would result in Mr. Zuccarelli’s double dipping, since he already holds the job of Thornton Township Supervisor.   This is the sort of double dipping that so recently helped get former Metra Chairman Brad O’Halloran in so much trouble.  (See my 8/4/13 piece, WHO WOULD WANT TO BE ONTHE METRA BOARD?  WELL… for only my latest commentary on that sordid yet par for the course in these parts affair.)  Mr. Daley’s argument also rings true in this instance.

Mr. Daley also argues that Mr. Zuccarelli was appointed by Mr. Quinn for blatantly political reasons; i.e., to secure Mr. Zuccarelli’s very formidable support in the upcoming Democratic primary race for governor pitting, for now, Mr. Daley against Mr. Quinn.  Mr. Daley is also absolutely correct in this contention.

But so what?

Mr. Daley’s criticizing Mr. Quinn for engaging in the type of raw, nearly bare-knuckled politics that results in the likes of Mr. Zuccarelli winding up on the CTA Board is surely a case of (excuse the hackneyed metaphor) the pot calling the kettle black.   Appointing political allies to posts in which they could wield power and double dip is the type of thing the Daleys have been doing since Richard J. Daley started climbing the ladder in the ‘30s.  It is also, by the way, the type of politics that Mr. Quinn, while clearly not identified with, has not eschewed in his long career in, er, “public service.”   He may have a much vaunted reputation as a crusading reformer, but he didn’t survive, and prosper, this long in Chicago and Illinois politics by spending inordinate amounts of time at choir practice.

So, yes, Mr. Daley is right; Mr. Quinn’s appointment of Mr. Zuccarelli to the CTA Board was pretty much raw, naked, largely unabashed politics.   But, to use another hackneyed metaphor, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander…and Mr. Daley had better get used to it.  See, again, my 7/16/13 piece.

This is going to be one heck of a race.

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. 

THE MADIGANS, THE SPEAKER’S OFFICE, AND THE GOVERNOR’S RACE: “YOU SEE, THAT’S WHERE MY ARGUMENT FALLS APART…”

8/9/13

I haven’t commented on the Illinois gubernatorial race since going off on our trip.  (See my already seminal 8/2/13 piece, CLARK GRISWOLD, MR. PEABODY, AND ME.)   I, and doubtless my readers, feel deprived; it is time to address this deprivation.

A few days ago House Speaker Mike Madigan indicated that his daughter, Attorney General and former Governor in Waiting Lisa Madigan, knew all along that he would not resign from his post as Speaker if Lisa were to run for governor.  According to the Speaker, they had discussed this topic and he had made it clear to her that he intended to keep his job.  As I pointed out, to leave what is for Mr. Madigan a lifetime job so his daughter could be governor for a few terms while she prepped for bigger things would have been ludicrous (See my 6/19/13 piece, MIKE AND LISA MADIGAN:   WHAT’S A DAD TO DO?), and Mike Madigan isn’t The Man in this state’s politics because of a propensity to do ludicrous things.  

Mr. Madigan’s statement of the obvious, however, destroys Lisa Madigan’s cover story that

“…the state would not be well served by having a governor and speaker of the House from the same family and have never planned to run for governor if that would be the case. With Speaker Madigan planning to continue in office, I will not run for governor."

See my 7/16/13 piece, LISA MADIGAN WON’T RUN FOR GOVERNOR:  WOULD YOU WANT THE JOB?.

When the Speaker was asked why his daughter considered a race for governor knowing that he would remain as Speaker when she supposedly had such strong objections to such an arrangement, Mr. Madigan replied in his usual pithy manner “Ask her.”  Wow.

Someone is lying here, and it looks like it’s not the mean old ogre Mike Madigan but the Fair Maiden, the darling of the Chicago Press Lisa Madigan.  The very notion that “our Lisa” may be prevaricating is doubtless offensive to those on all points of political spectrum who seemingly adore Ms. Madigan while abhorring her father.

The exposure of the Attorney General’s cover story for the crock that it was also provides further evidence of an argument I made in my 7/16/13 piece concerning the real reasons Lisa Madigan opted to stay out of the governor’s race, to wit,

The good reason is Bill Daley’s wise and either gutsy or artful political move in entering the race and thus making Lisa’s path to a promotion for more problematical.  Lisa wanted a coronation, not an election.  Bill Daley made it a fight.

The better reason is not quite as political but very simple:   Would you want to be governor of Illinois right now?   This state is in a hell of a mess, with bankruptcy looming over the fast approaching horizon.  In all likelihood, nothing will be solved before the next governor takes office.  One does not blame an ambitious pol like Ms. Madigan for not wanting to tie her dinghy to such a sinking ship.  It would be much easier, and conducive to obtaining that big job that every politician ultimately wants, to become a U.S. Senator, and that job may become available, albeit not necessarily for the asking, in 2016.

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. 

PAT QUINN VS. BILL DALEY: “THIS GUY DOESN’T THINK THIS IS A SHOW; HE THINKS IT’S A FIGHT!”

7/16/13

Now that Attorney General Lisa Madigan has opted out of the Illinois governor’s race (See today’s other post, LISA MADIGAN WON’TRUN FOR GOVERNOR:  WOULD YOU WANT THE JOB?), we are left, for now, with a one-on-one Democratic primary race featuring Governor Pat Quinn (no relation) and ex-White House Chief of Staff, ex-Commerce Secretary, ex-corporate bigshot, ex-everything Bill Daley, who also happens to be the son and brother of Chicago’s two longest serving mayors.

Mr. Daley’s chances in the upcoming primary have increased markedly, some might say infinitely (See 6/6/13’s “GOVERNOR BILL DALEY…SENATOR BILL DALEY.   THERE JUST WASN’T THE TIME…”), with Lisa Madigan’s exit, which was more or less forced by Mr. Daley’s entry into the race; again, see today’s other post.   While yours truly would certainly not argue that Bill Daley’s chances of becoming governor are a heck of lot better than they were yesterday, I would not count out Governor Quinn.  (See my 7/10/13 piece, PAT QUINN SUSPENDS  LEGISLATORS’ SALARIES:   FOUR MORE YEARS? and the posts to which it will refer you.)   Don’t misunderstand me; I am not predicting a Quinn victory.  I am simply NOT, for a number of reasons, among those who are saying the man has no chance at re-nomination or re-election.

Cousin Pat (not really, but I like saying that more of late) is the incumbent governor.  In the first quarter, he raised more money than either Bill Daley or Lisa Madigan.   Further, he is running a populist campaign that, while loaded with what some might consider silly, or irresponsible, stunts, like suspending legislative salaries, seems to be striking a chord with the typical voter.  Further, if Mr. Quinn can get the appropriate inspector general off the dime and quickly conduct a review, both of which are big “if”s, he can pull another such maneuver by firing the entire Metra board.  (See another post from yesterday, WE ARE SHOCKED…SHOCKED!...TO LEARN OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE AT METRA and the posts to which it will refer you.)   If you think the voters liked suspending legislative salaries, think how they will react to firing the legion of toadies, lackeys, hacks, has-beens, and wannabes that comprises the Metra board.   And Quinn just might to it.

Further, everyone speaks of Bill Daley’s fundraising prowess, but I wonder.  Now that his brother is no longer mayor and thus cannot deliver a near instant return on donors’ investments, is Bill Daley the “prolific fundraiser” that he is made out to be and indeed once was?   One suspects that Mr. Daley would not embark on this race unless he was confident he had the ability to raise a lot of money, so I might be wrong here, but even Mr. Daley has made miscalculations in his career.  Further, people don’t give political donations in this state, or just about anywhere, because they like the candidate or the party to whom they are giving.  They give because they expect a return on their investment, and the return here is not immediately obvious unless the donors are certain Mr. Daley will go to Springfield.  But they can’t be certain of that unless he gets a LOT of money; you can see the chicken and egg problem here.  While this problem is faced by just about all political candidates, it might be especially acute for Mr. Daley, given his background and his reputation as a “prolific fundraiser.”

One person that I have heard nothing about in regard to the governor’s race is the Mayor of Chicago, that idol of the consanguineous media, Rahm Emanuel.  Mr. Emanuel may protest publicly that he is not taking sides in the gubernatorial primary, but, c’mon, Mr. Emanuel staying on the sidelines of any political race?   And if you were Rahm Emanuel, would you want a potentially very strong Bill Daley to be governor?   Wouldn’t you prefer the weaker Pat Quinn?   Don’t try to argue that Mr. Emanuel has, or feel he owes, some sort of loyalty to the Daley family, which went a long way toward making him what he is today on a number of fronts.   Loyalty counts for little for Mr. Emanuel, unless it is to himself.  Ask the Clintons.

So suppose that Mr. Emanuel, secretly or perhaps not so secretly, puts out the word that he would rather not see Bill Daley in the governor’s office.  What will that do to Daley’s ability to raise money?

All that having been said, one can never factor out two things…the electorate’s general level of disappointment with Governor Quinn or the deal making skills of the Daley family.  On the latter, I smell what one might call a rat, or two rats, if I didn’t have some genuine admiration for what some might call underhanded political tactics.  See, for example, chapter 8 of my first book, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics.  What such seemingly malodorous tactics might one be seeing in the upcoming gubernatorial primary?

As of now, the Democratic gubernatorial primary is a two person race.  However, as soon as Lisa Madigan opted out of the race, talk of two other potential candidates started.  The first is state Senator Kwame Raoul of Chicago who is a something of an up and comer among black politicians.   The other is state Senator Dave Koehler, who is from Peoria.  

Hmm…

Pat Quinn’s strongest, most loyal constituency is black voters, primarily in Chicago.   Wouldn’t it be nice for Mr. Daley if Mr. Raoul, who has been known to play political ball, were to enter the race and take at least some, and probably more, of the black vote from Mr. Quinn?

Mr. Quinn is also expected to run well downstate in the primary, not so much because the Governor is so well liked in the “other Illinois” but, rather, because the Daley name is like a pox down there.   Wouldn’t it be nice for Mr. Daley if, say, Mr. Koehler or another downstater were to run and take some of that downstate vote from Mr. Quinn?

I am starting to smell something like current ward of the federal government Rod Blagojevich’s first run for governor in 2002.   His main opponent in the primary, Paul Vallas, had great strength in the black community, largely due to the relatively good job he had done as head of the Chicago Public Schools.   A third candidate, Roland Burris, an at times amiable hack from the south side, emerged to drain Mr. Vallas’ strength in the black community and thus hand the primary to Mr. Blagojevich, who eventually repaid Mr. Burris by appointing him to Barack Obama’s U.S. senate seat when Mr. Blagojevich’s back was against the federal wall, but that is another story.  Did Alderman Dick Mell (See my 7/7/13 and 7/6/13 posts, respectively, DICK MELL USED OUR MONEY TO PAY PEOPLE TO SLEEP: “THEY’RE GONNA SAY…WHAT A GUY!”  and FAREWELL, DICK MELL…SORT OF) have anything to do with Mr. Burris’s entry into the 2002 gubernatorial primary?   Are the White Sox a lousy baseball team?

Similarly, should Mr. Raoul, Mr. Koehler, and/or someone else who is black and/or from downstate enter this race, would Mr. Daley or his minions have had anything to do with his sudden desire to be governor?   Are the Cubs a lousy baseball team?

This is going to be a far more interesting race for governor, even without Lisa Madigan, than most people think.

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. 

PAT QUINN SUSPENDS LEGISLATORS’ SALARIES: FOUR MORE YEARS?

7/10/13 

Governor Pat Quinn (no relation, but my happiness at not sharing a bloodline with the man seems to decrease on a daily basis) announced today that he will use his line-item veto power on the budget to suspend lawmakers’ salaries until something is done on the pension crisis that is fast driving the Land of Lincoln to bankruptcy.  (A re-read of my 6/15/13 post, WAS PAT QUINN “PUT ON THIS EARTH” TO SOLVE ILLINOIS’PENSION PROBLEMS? May be helpful in assessing Mr. Quinn’s motivations here.)

This is an absolutely brilliant move on Cousin (again, not really) Pat’s part.  

Yes, this is little more than a bit of Mr. Quinn’s customary demagoguery.  The suspension is highly unlikely to survive; either the courts will overrule Mr. Quinn, citing the Illinois Constitution’s prohibition on changing lawmakers’ salaries mid-term, or the legislature will override Mr. Quinn’s line-item veto.   And even if the suspension does survive, the impact on the budget will, of course, be virtually undetectable, and even it may not get our esteemed public servants off the dime.

However…

The symbolism is brilliant here, and symbolism is, usually sadly, very important in politics. 

As I said over a month ago, in my 6/3/13 post, THE PENSION DEBACLE IN ILLINOIS:  MR. MADGIAN AS MACHIAVELLI, MR. EMANUEL LOSESA ROUND, OR MR. QUINN GOES TO SPRINGFIELD?,

Mr. Quinn is a pretty decent politician and a smart guy.   He can, and probably will, conduct a sort of Mr. Quinn Goes to Springfield type of campaign in 2014, in which Mr. Quinn, a lifelong politician who has played “get along, go along” for the last 40 years, will be cast as a sort of St. George who battles the dragons of Mike Madigan and his minions.   The voters of Illinois might go for it; they have certainly gone for much more preposterous notions; see, as only the most salient example, the governorship of the man whom Mr. Quinn served as Lieutenant Governor, Rod Blagojevich.

In my 6/5/13 post,  PAT QUINN, PENSIONS, ANDTHE UPCOMING ILLINOIS GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY: WHAT WOULD JIMMY STEWART DO?, I followed up with

Mr. Quinn’s efforts to blame the legislature for the failure to enact pension reform and to set up the fast approaching 2014 primary as a Jimmy Stewartesque battle between the forces of sweetness and light vs. the dark side may be working.  

Governor Quinn may not be very popular, but the legislature is far less popular.  Mr. Quinn is no fool and realizes that the way to win this race is to run against the legislature and its Democratic leadership.   This latest move ramps up that campaign theme.

As I also said on 6/5,

Whether Mr. Quinn attacks subtlety or engages in a full frontal assault, he will be going after the legislature and “politics as usual” in his upcoming campaign for re-election.  It’s his only chance, and it’s a better chance than most people think.  (Emphasis mine.)

As I said then and even way before then (and, of course, even before Michael Sneed of the Sun-Times reported today (7/10/13, page 2) on the Governor’s first quarter fundraising advantage over Bill Daley and Lisa Madigan), don’t be so quick to count Mr. Quinn out of this race.   And don’t misunderstand me; I am not predicting a Quinn victory in either the primary or the general election.  But I am cautioning against dismissing the re-election chances of a politically clever incumbent, especially if this turns out to be a three way primary race.

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. 

A MADIGAN FAMILY FEUD?: “DON'T EVER TAKE SIDES WITH ANYONE AGAINST THE FAMILY AGAIN. EVER.”

6/20/13

Michael Sneed reported in yesterday’s (Wednesday, 6/19’s, page 4) Chicago Sun-Times that there is some “tension between House Speaker Michael Madigan and his daughter, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, over the state’s pension crisis.”  Lisa Madigan will need union support in her presumed run for governor and the unions, or at least the public employee unions, don’t like Mike Madigan’s proposed solution to Illinois’ existential unfunded pension liability problem.  See my 5/2/13 post,  MIKE MADIGAN’S PENSION REFORM PLAN:  “THE BEST THAT (WE) CAN HOPE FOR IS TO DIE IN (OUR) SLEEP.” for more background on the Mike Madigan plan.

Ms. Sneed may be making more of this than really exists.  Yes, Lisa Madigan needs union support in her run for governor.   But where else are the public employee unions going to go?   Both Governor Pat Quinn and Bill Daley have endorsed Mike Madigan’s pension reform plan.   As of now, Lisa Madigan is the ONLY Democratic candidate, or presumed Democratic candidate, who has NOT endorsed her father’s pension plan.   Yes, it’s difficult for anyone to distinguish Lisa from Mike Madigan, given that the Speaker has made his daughter’s career (See one of yesterday’s posts, MIKE AND LISA MADIGAN:   WHAT’S A DAD TO DO?), but the facts remain:  Pat Quinn has endorsed the Madigan plan.  Some even say that the Governor is pursuing a strategy of courting private sector unions through his generous, at least for the times, public works programs while writing off the public sector unions as lost due to his efforts to address the public pension problem.  Bill Daley has endorsed the Madigan plan.   Lisa Madigan has not endorsed the Madigan plan.

This supposed Madigan family feud may be a case of a head fake on the part of the Madigans, one of those situations in which a Potemkin feud is concocted in order to distance, in the public’s eye, two politicians who are normally figuratively conjoined at the hip.  Unlike some much-hyped arguments of the present and past that appear to be or were genuine, this intramural Madigan tussle may be a situation in which the supposed disagreement is indeed a complete work of fiction (See yesterday’s other post MIKE MADIGAN, JOHN CULLERTON, AND PENSIONS:   SOMETIMES A CIGAR IS JUST A CIGAR?), meant to allow Lisa to cultivate the public unions who have nowhere else to go.

This would not be the first time political operations have planted stories in the newspaper, and especially in Ms. Sneed’s column; I highly recommend Golden: How Rod Blagojevich Talked Himself Out of the Governor’s Office and Into Prison by Jeff Coen and John Chase for examples of Ms. Sneed’s column being used in this manner.

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 MADIGAN, JOHN CULLERTON, AND PENSIONS: SOMETIMES A CIGAR IS JUST A CIGAR?

6/19/13

The Chicago Sun-Times today ran a page 6 story, trumpeted on page 1, asking a question I asked back on May 8  (See my post of that date, THE CULLERTON PENSION PLAN:  “THE (PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS) FAMILY DON’T EVEN HAVE THAT KIND OF MUSCLE ANY MORE”???):  Is the House Speaker Mike Madigan/Senate President John Cullerton disagreement over the solution to Illinois’s public pension problem a genuine “feud,” as the Sun-Times put it, or, as I called it on May 8, “part of some Machiavellian dance to avoid doing anything about our pension problems” in order to somehow give Lisa Madigan a boost in her run for governor?

 

Not knowing either Mike Madigan or John Cullerton, and being quite sure that even those who know either gentleman are not privy to such inner thoughts, I don’t know whether the two legislative leaders genuinely differ on pensions or are trying to pull some sort of elaborate maneuver to discredit Pat Quinn and help Lisa Madigan.  I suspect, however, that the disagreement is genuine.   Mr. Madigan is too smart to try to pull something so likely to backfire in his face and that would seemingly involve too many people (more than one) to keep very far under wraps.  Furthermore, perhaps I am naïve, but I genuinely don’t think that Mr. Madigan is so callous, so uncaring about the direction of the state, and/or so silly that he would further imperil our state’s nearly broke finances in order to hand his daughter an even more hopeless set of circumstances should she run for governor and should he be able to deliver the office for her.

The speculation that the whole Madigan/Cullerton thing is a Potemkin feud, though, gives me the opportunity to tell a story about the last time I thought two Chicago pols were putting on a fake fight worthy of the WWE….

In early 2005, Governor Rod Blagojevich shut down a landfill operated by Frank Schmidt, a cousin of Blago’s mother-in-law, Marge Mell, the wife of Dick Mell, one of Chicago’s then and now most powerful aldermen and committeemen.  The Governor contended that the landfill was taking illegal material while Mr. Schmidt was assuring shady customers who thus violated that law that there would be no trouble because of Mr. Schmidt’s connection to Mr. Mell.  This set off a public feud between Mr. Blagojevich and his father-in-law, and political Godfather, Dick Mell that reached epic proportions.

I suspected that the Mell/Blago feud was an elaborate ruse, designed to distance, for the naïve, the Governor from his father-in-law, whose reputation as a take no prisoners, old time ward boss from Chicago didn’t play well in the suburbs and downstate.   Blago would be running for reelection in 2006 and a charade of a crusading environmentalist young governor standing up to an old time, favor dispensing ward boss at enormous personal and political cost to himself would enhance his chances downstate while not hurting him in the city due to the winks, nods, and “say no mores” that would be part of such a ruse.

However, I started to hear from people who knew and worked with Mell in the 33^rd ward that the father-in-law vs. son-in-law feud was very real.  I sort of brushed off these assurances as part of the play.  One evening shortly after the fireworks started I was at a function at my old high school and heard from a Jesuit priest who was active in politics on the northwest side that the Mell/Blago feud was very real.   While this claim had more credibility, I have long adhered to my trusted formula of not trusting anybody whom I have not known for at least twenty years, and then not completely, and still thought Blago and Mell could be jerking everyone’s chains.

When Dick Mell several weeks later accused his son-in-law’s new best friend, Chris Kelly, a corrupt contractor who ultimately committed suicide at least partially due to the troubles that grew out of his association with Blago, of trading commission appointments for “$50,000 campaign contributions,” we all knew, or soon would know, that Messrs. Blagojevich and Mell were not playing some game of three card monte.   All doubt was removed by Mr. Mell’s comments regarding Mr. Kelly, which Mr. Mell doubtless regretted later and which ultimately led to his son-in-law’s taking up residence in federal housing.

That incident may have nothing at all to do with what some, including the Sun-Times, are labeling the Madigan/Cullerton “feud.”  But that quick, and wrong, presumption of Machiavellian machinations did reinforce for me something I have long known but that the more sensationalist among my fellow Chicago politics aficionados can’t seem to grasp:   sometimes things are as they seem, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…even in the labyrinthine world of Chicago politics.

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.