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Not long ago, I wrote that the Better Government Association was amazed by Mayor Daley’s audacity to claim in an interview “I don’t know where we get this, this idea that there’s a big Democratic machine going on. Chicago and the metropolitan area is very Democratic and the state is. There’s no, this machine. I thought it was laughable.”
This is an update of that prior post because now we are happily surprised that Mayor Daley is NOT denying that there are machine politics in Chicago.
Mayor Daley is indignant that John McCain’s campaign has alleged that his brother, former U.S. Commerce Secretary and Obama advisor Bill Daley, is representative of Chicago machine politics. Amazingly, he did not dispute the heart of the ad, Chicago and Illinois politics are hopelessly corrupt.
This is a change of pace for a politician who has done more to further the myth of the Clout Fairy than any other person alive. Anytime something blows up in the Mayor’s face it is always the Clout Fairy or his henchmen, “A Few Bad Apples™,” that are responsible. Anyone but the Mayor.
Only in Chicago can someone have a reputation for being a master of detail while also claiming to be completely oblivious to an unfortunate reality staring them in the face. Kudos to Mayor Daley for pulling it off. However, his reaction to the McCain ad shows he might be walking away from the “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” approach to government ethics and integrity.
I guess recent events demonstrate the power of Presidential politics. Before pressure mounted on Senator Obama to get involved in the pay to play legislation debate in Springfield the matter was likely headed towards an ignoble defeat in court. After Senator Obama made a phone call to Emil Jones the legislation was quickly turned in to law. After denying the existence machine politics a few weeks ago Mayor Daley suddenly defends his brother, but doesn’t deny the underlying problem of machine politics.
For Illinois’ and Chicago’s sake maybe we should have Barack Obama run for President every year simply to ensure that the issue of Chicago and Illinois corruption is constantly at the forefront of our politicians’ minds rather than an issue to be downplayed, delayed and, if possible, ignored.
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