The [Daley '07] Papers

The news from the mayoral campaign trail is dreadful. The incumbent is appearing only in private before his biggest contributors and in television ads before news shows as a substitute for actual campaign news; the main challenger is staying overnight with a family who may not even vote for her; and the space cadet candidate is touting the city's most sophisticated political machine he is sure is about to deliver him a landslide. Let me tell you something - Dock Walls must have the city's most sophisticated political machine because he seems to have perfected stealth campaign technology. It seems Walls is so busy writing his inaugural speech he can't be bothered to show up at his own scheduled events.

Maybe he's just practicing how to avoid debates, like the current mayor has done since, well, since becoming mayor. Where is the outrage, Tribune?

Oh, that's right. What do you care, you had your shot with the mayor in your private little editorial board meeting. So, which one of you asked who hired Angelo Torres?

You know, it occurs to me: The Daley Administration has sent more people to jail than the Todd Stroger Administration. Of course, the Stroger Administration is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Daley Administration, but still, I think you get my point.

The Tribune editorial board asks in its endorsement of Daley: "How can a mayor whose regime has been sullied by so much misbehavior among his minions deserve . . . another four years?"

The paper's answer is that Daley is to be graded on three "crucial variables."

The first variable is the reduction of racial tensions in the city. You know, the kind of tensions that arose from white politicians who couldn't abide Harold Washington. Good job being white, Mayor Daley! Turns out you were right - we needed a white - er, a wet - mayor.

The second variable is Daley's success with quality-of-life issues. For example, the schools. Apparently taking over the schools is more important than improving the quality of education for the vast majority of students in them. And public housing. Apparently knocking them down is more important than providing safe shelter for those who used to live in them. And O'Hare. Apparently forging ahead with a wildly overbudget and corruption-stained project is more important than having a coherent regional transportation policy.

And here's the one that really gets me. "Angry that Chicago was America's big-city murder capital, he empowered his police department - as well as private outreach efforts such as CeaseFire - to disrupt the bloodthirsty Chicago nexus of gangs, guns and drugs. As a result, more people live on somewhat safer streets."

Again, the mayor gets credit for a reduction of the murder rate - one that is commensurate with national trends - but escapes without criticism that it was on his watch that Chicago became the nation's murder capital in the first place, and that he was awfully late to address it.

I'm also gratified to see that he finally empowered his police department to disrupt gangs, guns and drugs. What, they were sitting on their hands until he gave them the green light to do their jobs?

And the result? "Somewhat safer streets." That's a hell of an endorsement! Vote Daley - Somewhat Safer Streets.

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The Tribune's endorsement comes with a photo of the mayor and this caption: "Mayor Richard M. Daley has not committed to eradicating corruption at City Hall, but he has committed to improving Chicago's infrastructure."

That's exactly right. And he's endorsed?

I'm sorry, but fewer potholes and cleaner alleys are no trade-off for the mayor's pals and the mob siphoning off taxpayer dollars at will while the mayor plays Sgt. Schultz.

And, unlike life under Mussolini, our trains don't even run on time.

There is no greater good - and responsibility - of government itself than clean and transparent operations. We can always fix our infrastructure and plant flowers. But when government is in itself perverted for the criminal gain of those in power, then we've lost something far more important than planters in our medians. We've lost faith in democracy, the rule of law, and ourselves. The Tribune cites variables, but the constant is corrupt government. And that ought to trump everything else.

Fran's Man
Meanwhile, Fran Spielman writes a real weeper. "Richard M. Daley has laughed and cried, apologized and cajoled before Chicagoans for so long, he's almost like a member of the family. He wears his heart on his sleeve, so we think we know him. We've anguished with him over the death of his son, mother and sister; his wife's breast cancer, his teenage son's missteps and that same, more mature son's decision to join the Army at a time of war at the age of 29."

Please. I think we have our own families to worry about. He's our mayor, not our dad.

But this is of a piece with Spielman's annual December dispatches about the emotionally difficult year our leader has just survived.

Please. It's tough all over.

Spielman goes on to say that we don't really know our mayor at all, not when he sends the bulldozers in at midnight to secretly destroy Meigs Field. I don't know about you, but that's the mayor I think we know all too well. Apparently Spielman hasn't been paying attention.

And what exactly does Spielman mean when she writes of "a mayor who once enjoyed overwhelmingly favorable coverage and now feels somewhat betrayed"?

Betrayed how? By whom?

Patronage Pal
Even more revealing is Daley's fretting that he can't even write a letter of recommendation for a fine young man with all the feds crawling around. Someone he doesn't even know.

"He wants to become [something in] biology," the mayor explained. "I sent it to him. And I had to question myself whether or not I should send it. Undue influence by the mayor. A young man from the U of I. I just met him the other day. I don't even know him."

But he sent him the letter.

New Fraud Laws
Spielman also writes that Daley remains driven in politics "even though the rules have changed."

This tired trope has been used by political defendants in trials for decades. The rules haven't changed. Even in Old Man Daley's day, his minions went to jail for fraud and corruption. The law is the law, and the Chicago Way is to ocassionally sacrifice a minion or two - and the occasional alderman - while everyone else rolls the dice and keeps keepin' on.

Daley Review
Joel Weisman asked his Chicago Tonight: Week in Review panel on Friday to name the mayor's accomplishments of the last four years.

Andy Shaw: Acceleration of public housing transformation, no improvement in education, tore down Meigs Field, got a pass he didn't deserve - are there major accomplishments? No. Corruption has been addressed at least on the surface level.

Jon Hilkevitch: Libraries. But did they bring up neighborhoods?

Trail Mix
"The forum was to have been the first debate Walls and Dorothy Brown have attended since they announced their bids to become the city's top elected official. According to his staff, Mayor Richard M. Daley was 'too busy with running the city' to attend, said Wicker Park Committee President Elaine Coorens."

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