 |
| EMANUEL: Number 26, says GQ |
Almost
as though Rahm were “his holiness” himself – the pope.
FOR
EVERY BIT of attention paid to Rahm Emanuel these days by people determined to
spin his story into the ultimate master-minded criminal conspirator, that’s one
bit less time spent contemplating the fact that we’re nearly halfway through
Illinois Fiscal ’16 without a budget.
And
that some people are seriously having their livelihoods threatened because of
the inability of certain state agencies and programs (the ones that don’t have
the clout of a federal judge insisting they remain operational) to continue without
impediment.
Yes,
eventually we’re going to get the tale of someone who died because of the lack
of state services that they relied upon to remain alive. The sheer stupidity of
it (it may already have happened, yet we just don’t know about it yet) is
amazing.
So
I don’t want to hear that the Rauner/Madigan dispute is purely political while
Emanuel’s alleged inaction nearly covered up a police killing.
NOT
THAT I’M trying to defend anyone It’s just awesome this era we’re in during
which we really despise our elected officials whom we picked o the last
Election days.
Who
do we hate more – Rauner or Emanuel? Or is the eternal despising of Michael
Madigan by everyone who doesn’t actually live in his Southwest Side legislative
district overcome all of them?
 |
| RAUNER: Is he falling into background? |
The
simple answer to those questions is that we hate Emanuel more. Because he’s “da
Mare,” the head of city government, which is the only one that really matters
(to the quintessential Chicago mindset).
The
state and its officials are supposed to be subservient and go along with what
they’re told to do. So naturally any hostility toward Emanuel (particularly by
those who have never been able to defeat him at the ballot box) is more
intense!
I
DON’T SEE GQ magazine declaring any of our state officials amongst the worst
people in our society of 2015 (Rahm ranks number 26, higher than football
player Johnny Manziel but not nearly as bad as Kim Davis or Bill Cosby).
 |
| MADIGAN: Overshadowed?!? |
Although
I can’t help but think all of this will wither away into a generic sense of
loathing that will linger, although we won’t be able to remember any of the
details (“Gee, why do we ‘hate’ Rahm?,” we’ll wonder to ourselves a few months
from now).
It’s
our short attention span – it makes it tough for anything to linger. Heck, many
of us probably can’t remember the details of why we’re upset with either
Madigan and/or Rauner – only that they must have done something wrong because
they’re elected officials.
Which
usually is a good rule of thumb for us to follow, regardless of who the
official is or what political party they’re allied with!
OF
COURSE, THERE also is the fact that our mayor has a wonderfully-timed sense of
vacation. He’s in Cuba with the wife and kids on what his staff insists is an
educational sojourn – he’s not just enjoying the Cuban beaches and cigars (he
probably doesn’t care about Cubano beisbol, getting his fill of it on the rare occasions he sees the White Sox play ball).
With
all the government rigamarole involved, a trip to Cuba has to be plotted out
well in advance. No one, not even a former White House chief of staff, can just
catch a flight out of O’Hare International (or Midway, if they’re looking to be
cheap) straight to Jose Marti Airport in Havana.
The
sarcastic side of me wonders if Rahm Emanuel is considering going into exile
now that he’s in Cuba – just like all those revolutionaries of the early 1970s
who fled the U.S. to escape the hostile environment that existed in this country
toward their activities.
Although it wouldn’t shock me to learn that with the worldwide spread of this story, that even in Havana there are those who’d want to run Rahm out of town for his inactivity!
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