Preckwinkle overly ambitious? Seeking fourth term while barely in third

Toni Preckwinkle fell short of her desire to be the first black woman ever elected as Chicago mayor, but still seems to have her heart set on going into history as a political first of sorts.

Preckwinkle looking toward 4th term in office

Preckwinkle, 72, has already served two terms as president of the Cook County Board, and managed to get herself elected to a third term – of which she has barely served one year.

BUT PRECKWINKLE LET it be known this week that she’s already planning her next re-election. An election cycle that actually won’t come about until 2022.

Which if she manages to carry it through and win, would keep her in office through 2026 and have her as an elected official at age 80. Not bad for a woman who previously said this year she was running her last campaign for office.

It would seem that Preckwinkle hasn’t let her political defeat earlier this year to Lori Lightfoot as mayor crush her political spirits. She’s going to be in public office as long as she can – and may very well envision herself becoming the equivalent of Richard J. Daley or Harold Washington.

Both of whom died while in office. With Washington taking that literally – he suffered a stroke while working at his desk.

NOW I’M SURE some people are completely appalled at the notion that Preckwinkle won’t just wither away into anonymity. There are those who were offended that she didn’t have to give up her county board presidency post in order to run for mayor.

Won't let Lightfoot victory set her legacy

They would have wanted her overwhelming defeat to Lightfoot (tempered somewhat by the notion that many more people didn’t bother to vote at all) to be a career-crusher. Something that would cause her name to go into the Chicago history books as evidence of her public disgrace.

Instead, Preckwinkle remains as county board president (the post known informally to some political watchers as the “mayor of Cook County”) and as chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party.

Making her political legacy one of coming close to reaching the titles (if not the actual power or influence) of Mayor Daley, the elder, himself.

Does Preckwinkle hope to last as long as Dunne or Daley?

WHICH MEANS I’M sure there are some who already are gearing up to cast votes against her come 2022.

Who knows? Maybe some people truly are petty enough to hold a life-long grudge against Preckwinkle for that pop tax measure (a penny per ounce) she pushed that boosted the cost of a can of cola upward by about 21 cents.

While some who truly carried the notion of Lightfoot as some sort of political saint may well want to hate on Preckwinkle for having the nerve to run against her earlier this year.

All I know is that there’s quite a bit of time between now and 2022. Who’s to say what will happen that will change conditions for Preckwinkle. Perhaps she’ll become politically fashionable again?

OR MAYBE SHE’LL come up with circumstances that show she won’t be able to run for a fourth term – which would be something extraordinary.

Will Preckwinkle have Washington-type ending?

Because if she truly were able to serve four terms as county board president, that would make her one of the longest holders of that office ever. You’d literally have to look back to George Dunne (who served from 1969 to 1971) to find someone who held the post longer.

The point may well be that Toni Preckwinkle isn’t going anywhere. She’s in office, and intends to carry on with her job for years to come.

The real question, one that we’ll see answered in 2022, is whether the electorate is in any mood to retain her in office. Or will voters remain as temperamental three years from now as they were back in May – and finally send her off to political retirement?

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'Mayor Lori' versus 'Boss Toni' could be awkward pairing for next four years

Preckwinkle won't disappear just because … 

Just a thought for those people who are thinking of voting for Lori Lightfoot to be mayor out of a belief that such an act will drive the political party boss Toni Preckwinkle into retirement.

Not only does she retain her Cook County Board presidential post if she loses, she also remains as chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party.

… Lightfoot manages to become mayor

MEANING IF LIGHTFOOT does manage to prevail in the April 2 run-off election, she’d have to deal with Preckwinkle as competition on two fronts. And with “Boss” Toni as party chair, she’d have to be capable of showing some sort of respect toward her.

Unless she literally wants to have the party hacks all ganging up on her mayorality in ways that would be reminiscent of the Harold Washington era. Because for all the symbolism of being the city’s first black mayor, it could be argued that he didn’t accomplish much of lasting value because of how early into a second term he died.

If anything, the Washington era was historic for the way in which the city got bogged down in partisan (as in racial) politics; it wasn’t a big plus for Chicago.

That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m saying Toni Preckwinkle is going to turn into some version of Edward R. Vrdolyak; going out of his way to thwart anything that Harold Washington tried to accomplish as mayor.

BUT THIS IS partisan politics. Anybody who thinks they’re going to “get tough” with Toni by having a symbolic Lightfoot smack her around ought to accept that she’s just as capable of fighting back.

And not just with her first campaign advertising spot – the one that basically implies she’s a “corporate lawyer” with ties to Republican politicos.

Personally, I’m not sure what to think of Lightfoot. Other than the fact she has been a federal prosecutorial-type and one-time Police Board member, she doesn’t have a government background to run on.

Could we get partisan brawl reminiscent of 80s?

Which allows many of the people currently backing her (including many of the North Lakefront types) capable of defining her to their desires – not necessarily by who she really is.

WE COULD WIND up very surprised by what a Lightfoot mayorality turns into. Whereas I’m inclined to think that a Preckwinkle mayorality is exactly who she has been during her time as an alderman from Hyde Park and as a county board president.

I’m thinking these thoughts based on a recent poll I saw – the results of which say that Lightfoot is leading Preckwinkle by roughly a 2-1 voter margin. As in this election could turn into a butt-whuppin’ of the sorts that Daleys usually administered throughout the years to the people who had the nerve to challenge them.

But it is early in the process. We still have nearly a month for various factors to come into play for people to make up their minds – particularly since the election last week showed two-thirds of those who voted didn’t want either Lightfoot or Preckwinkle as mayor.

Meaning I’m not sure what we should be thinking in terms of which of these two is the front-runner.

THERE ARE THOSE who think that some establishment types, particularly those who wanted William Daley to be in the run-off election running will back Preckwinkle. Because, or so the thinking goes, that one of the people who’d be in the running to replace her as county president would be John Daley.

Could there be a Daley family win?

As in a Daley brother – and another son of the one-time mayor Richard J. – the last person who was both mayor and party chairman simultaneously. The real establishment types would have wanted a “Mayor” Daley, but may settle for having the county board presidency.

Of course, the thought of that happening may well scare some voters into picking Lightfoot just so that the Preckwinkle post doesn’t become vacant for another Daley to have.

Which could result in Chicago politics becoming a Lightfoot/Preckwinkle brawl between mayoral opponents for the next month, and between “Mayor Lori” and “Boss Toni” for the next four years!

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What kind of ‘first’ are we going to see come the April 2 run-off election?

It’s the angle we’re being played over and over again with regards to Chicago’s municipal elections; the Second City is going to get a black woman elected as our mayor – regardless of who manages to prevail in the April 2 run-off.

The way we'll remember Tuesday. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

It’s true! Both Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle, who came in first and second amongst the 14 candidates running for mayor on Tuesday, qualify as African-Americans of the female persuasion.

WE’VE NEVER HAD that particular combination amongst our city’s mayors. Although we’ve had two black men as mayors and one woman, so I’m sure there will be some people who claim it’s wrong to make a big deal out of this particular mixture.

Of course, it’s very likely that people expressing this attitude are of the belief that picking the “best qualified” person to be mayor invariably means going with a white man.

For all I know, the people most bothered by the ongoing emphasis about a black woman being elected are the ones who also are pointing out how William Daley (with his 14.69 percent, third place finish) would have actually finished first if the 7.3 percent of the vote cast for Jerry Joyce had actually gone to Bill.

We’d have the likelihood of Daley III as mayor, with Preckwinkle reduced to third and the constant speculation about how it was her ties to embattled alderman Edward M. Burke who took her down to mayoral defeat.

I KNOW SOME are getting excited about the prospects of having a black person in the mayor’s office at City Hall. Some even like the notion of Lightfoot being lesbian and in a gay marriage. Something for everyone to pick from when they go about making a choice for mayor in the run-off election.

Did Joyce decide electoral outcome in unintended way?

But I have to admit, I think the fact that they’re women plays more of a factor into determining the strengths of each candidate.

Because in looking at the city ward maps that detail which candidates did best in each ward, I couldn’t help but notice the strong resemblance between the voter support in majority-black wards that existed back in the days of Harold Washington and that exists now for the millionaire black candidate Willie Wilson.

I don’t doubt that people who made their choice Tuesday for a mayor based on the idea of having a black person in the mayor’s office ultimately decided against either Lightfoot or Preckwinkle and were amongst the 10.77 percent who liked the idea of Wilson’s charitable cash hand-outs to the less-fortunate.

WHILE MUCH OF Lightfoot’s support seems to come in the wards that comprise the north lakefront. With Preckwinkle being predominant in the south lakefront wards.

Could this come down to something of a baseball-themed election run-off? With Lori getting the backing of Cubs fans, with Toni getting the preference of Chicagoans who realize that “real” baseball is played by the White Sox?

How weak was Latino vote? Mendoza lost … 

It might well be that the historical figure we ought to be paying attention to is that of Jane Byrne – who served her one term as mayor from 1979-83 and who was the woman who campaigned on the idea that she was going to smash “the Machine,” but wound up making her accommodations with it in order to survive politically.

Which could mean that this election cycle will most likely be decided by those individuals who went into Tuesday’s voting casting ballots for either Daley or Joyce. In short, the people who probably have their hang-ups about what is happening.

WILL THIS ELECTION wind up being decided by how many of THOSE people decide they can’t bring themselves to vote for either Lightfoot or Preckwinkle? Thereby allowing their existing support to remain significant?

… but Burke didn't

Or will this really become an election cycle decided by people casting their ballots while pinching their noses shut at the very thought of what they’re doing?

Personally, I’m somewhat saddened by the 9.02 percent voter support that Susana Mendoza’s mayoral bid received. If anything, I’d consider a “first Latina” mayor a more significant achievement than the one we’re going to get. But that will have to be a goal for a future election cycle, since we're still in an era where Mendoza couldn't win -- but Ed Burke as alderman could with 53.8 percent voter support in a ward that is about 80 percent Latino.

And I’m also amused by the 6.23 percent support achieved by candidate Gery Chico – with much of it crammed into the 10^th Ward (my own birthplace and home of many of my cousins and other relatives); making it the lone ward in Chicago that thought the one-time Chicago Education Board President would make a fit mayor for our city.

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Burke busted? Or just ammunition to be used by Election Day challengers?

Just what should we think of the fact that FBI agents showed up Thursday morning at the City Hall and neighborhood offices of 14^th Ward Alderman Edward Burke, kicked everybody out without explanation, and began rummaging through the alderman’s files. 

Ald. Burke got himself involved earlier this year in an immigration-related dispute. Will he gain political points as a result? Photo by Gregory Tejeda

Federal investigators aren’t saying anything right away about what they’re looking for. In fact, the only visual image available early on was the sight of the windows and glass doors to the office being covered over with paper – so as to keep people from peeking in and watching just what the FBI is up to!

NOT THAT IT matters much at this point, or probably not at all, what the purpose of Thursday’s raids actually is.

Jesus Garcia thinks it offensive that Burke … 

For the people interested in deposing Burke from office will eagerly use the very presence of FBI at his offices and their suspicion as ample cause for voters to get all worked up and dump him from office come Feb. 26.

The fact is that Burke, who actually will hit the 50-year mark as a member of the City Council come March 12, is going to have serious challengers for his governmental post.

The other fact is that campaigns rarely delve into the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

THAT WOULD COME at a later date if federal investigators actually think they’ve found something that would warrant a criminal investigation. For campaign purposes in Election ’19, any rumor or trivial tidbit that can be made to sound offensive to the public will do.

… has worked as an attorney for Donald Trump

My point is that Thursday’s actions, in and of themselves, don’t constitute much. Particularly since federal investigators have probed Burke’s activity in the City Council in the past. Which Burke himself admitted to Thursday. "Once again, we will be cooperating fully and I am completely confident that at the end of the day, nothing will be found amiss in this instance either."

If Burke truly has any sense, he knows how to conduct himself in ways that prevent him from getting nailed with a criminal indictment.

It almost makes him a political equivalent of Tony Accardo, the long-time boss of organized crime in Chicago who back when he died nearly three decades ago had it said of him he was too smart to ever get busted, which is why he never spent a day of his life in jail.

BURKE’S REAL OFFENSE is the fact that his ward, consisting of neighborhoods on Chicago’s Southwest Side, has changed, just like many other neighborhoods, when it comes to ethnic composition.

In Burke’s case, the ultimate white Irish politico is now representing an area that is overwhelmingly Latino – Mexican-American, to be more specific.

Which is why it shouldn’t be a shock that the other four candidates who filed nominating petitions for the right to run against Burke come Feb. 26 are people of Latin ethnic backgrounds.

While Jesus Garcia, the newly-elected member of Congress from Chicago, is publicly saying that Burke is too tied into the political and business establishment of the city to actually represent the interests of his significant Latino population. Which may be why earlier this year, Burke was eager to publicly get involved in a political dispute over the use of the airport in Gary, Ind. (to which Chicago city government provides some funding) as part of the process of deporting people from the United States.

Burke envisions himself quite the Chicago historian

GARCIA INCLUDES AMONGST those acts the fact that back when Donald Trump was merely a businessman wanting to build that ugly towering structure of his along the Chicago River, he hired Burke to be his attorney and work the deal through the political process.

Burke may not be working for Trump any longer (and I’m sure Trump would be the first to denounce Democrat Burke these days). But it’s guilt by association. When combined with his past as being an outspoken critic of Mayor Harold Washington (which he has offered mea culpas for throughout the years), there are those who’d love to see Ed go down to defeat – just as they beat up on his brother, Dan, who served in the Illinois House of Representatives for many years.

Which means this campaign will get uglier for the man who likes to think he’s the historic voice of Chicago (he often likes to give lengthy speeches filled with historic tidbits). It will be far more than the upcoming ballot lottery to determine whether Burke or Jose Torrez gets the top spot come Feb. 26.

Because I have no doubt the political fantasies will arise about people being able to keep Burke himself from being able to run a credible campaign for re-election.

  -30-

EXTRA: ‘Mayor Chuy’ after all?

It seems we’re likely to get yet more evidence of the “superiority” of Chicago municipal government, at least in the mindset of those who are a part of it.

GARCIA: Give up Congress for mayor?

For it seems that soon-to-be retired Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., has let it be known he does NOT want to be the next mayor of Chicago. Yet he definitely wants to have a hand in deciding who will succeed Rahm Emanuel.

HIS CHOICE? NONE other than Jesus Garcia, the Cook County Board member who already is on the ballot for the Nov. 6 election to move up to the seat in Congress that Gutierrez held for 16 years. Which was Chuy's way of handling the fact that he lost his bid for the mayor's post when he challenged Rahm Emanuel back in 2015

Also the post that Gutierrez was able to use to make himself one of the most significant Latino elected officials in government.

Gutierrez on Wednesday, in saying he’s not going to seek the mayor’s office himself, says he will undertake the effort to get Garcia on the ballot for the Feb. 26 municipal elections for mayor (with a possible run-off come April 2, if necessary).

As though Garcia ought to be all-too-eager to jump for the chance to become mayor of Chicago that he’d gladly give up a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

GUTIERREZ: The voice behind the mayor?

I’M SURE THAT to people outside of Chicago, such a move makes no sense. Being a part of Congress and the national scene might well seem more important and ego-satisfying than getting tangled up in the mess that is our local political scene.

Then again, many Chicagoans have such a local fixation that we believe our officials and our problems are far more significant than anything those clowns in D.C. are contending with. Particularly since it would mean having to deal up-close and personal with the people leading this Age of Trump we’re now engaged in.

In Garcia’s case, he’d be the Mexican-born official serving in the U.S. federal government. I don’t doubt that the people enthralled with The Donald as president would likely view him as some sort of foreign subversive.

WASHINGTON: Made a similar shift in '83

Perhaps they’d try to have him deported in ways similar to the harassment they’re dishing out to people born in South Texas whom they want to believe aren’t really U.S. citizens and are trying to have their citizenship status revoked.

OF COURSE, AS mayor of Chicago, Garcia would come under fire from those same ideological nit-wits for being the leader of what they insist has to be a corrupt city.

But as mayor, Garcia would have some of the perks of being able to defend himself, rather than being just another anonymous member in the mass that is Congress.

So would Garcia gladly give up a chance to be a part of Congress to make a run for mayor? We’ll have to wait and see, particularly in the period between the Nov. 6 Election Day and early December, which is when he’d have to file nominating petitions to get on the ballot for the mayoral election.

It wouldn’t be the most unusual move. Harold Washington himself gave up a seat in Congress to become mayor.

IF ANYTHING, THE real question might well be why won’t Gutierrez run for the mayor’s post himself?

EMANUEL: Now, he'll be able to relax

Some might think he just doesn’t want to endure Chicago-style weather any longer; what with his talk about how he wants to move to Puerto Rico (where his ethnic origins lie) and be a part of the island’s rebuilding following last year’s Hurricane Maria.

Or it could be a much simpler explanation; he likes the idea of being the guy who can tell the mayor of Chicago what he should do.

In some ways, a much easier task with power and influence – without having to deal with the stress of actually having to do the job. Just look at Emanuel these days.

  -30-

EXTRA: Remembering Bernie (and I don't mean Sanders) down in Florida

“Epton for mayor – Before it’s too late.”
--Campaign slogan for Republican Chicago mayoral candidate Bernard Epton in 1983 when he challenged Democrat Harold Washington, who ultimately became the first black mayor of Chicago.

“The last thing we need to do is monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda.”

--Election night statement Tuesday night by Republican governor candidate Ron DeSantis about his challenge against Democrat Andrew Gillum, who could become the first black governor of Florida come Election Day on Nov. 6.

  -0-

Didn't remainder of nation learn from Chicago example?

Some 35 years have passed since Bernard Epton (who in reality was a liberal Jewish Republican state legislator from the Hyde Park neighborhood) created the public perception of himself that he’d never be able to live down.

More than a third of a century later, some things, sadly, remain eternal. Which is why some of us will forever be suspicious of just what is meant during this Age of Trump (of which DeSantis is a strong supporter) and its campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Will DeSantis be forevermore remembered for Tuesday night?

  -30-

EXTRA: Lingering since my high school days, ERA gets approval. Or is it just Illinois asserting its “blue” nature?

Politics and government from back in the days when I was a high schooler – Ronald Reagan and Harold Washington became, respectively, president and Chicago mayor. Adlai Stevenson III gave up his U.S. Senate seat and came, oh so close, to becoming Illinois governor.

Illinois history? Or state remaining solidly blue?

And people seriously quarreled over the Equal Rights Amendment, which never became a reality in large part because Illinois failed to act to ratify it.

NOW, WE ADVANCE three-and-a-half decades to the present day, where there are those who are going about saying Illinois finally got off its collective behind and voted to ratify the constitutional amendment that says a person’s right to equal treatment should not be limited by their gender.

WASHINGTON: A mayoral dream for many

For the Illinois House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to approve the amendment – making Illinois the 37^th state to do so. Get 38 states to go along, and you have a change to the U.S. Constitution!

Yet I’m not convinced that Illinois’ action means much of anything – except showing that Illinois is NOT among the states where conservative ideologues prevail on social issues.

I actually think there’s a better chance that the head cheerleader of my high school days will suddenly pop back into my life and throw herself at me, than that Illinois’ action actually means the Equal Rights Amendment is now a part of law. And yes, I realize that's a very un-ERA type of thought to have.

IT ALL COMES back to the notion that there is a time limit on considering constitutional amendments, and the issue of the ERA far exceeded that limit.

REAGAN: The far-right fantasy

Which was March 22 1979 – although Congress voted to extend it to June 30, 1982. It still failed to get the 38 states for ratification – with Illinois’ refusal to consider the measure considered by some the move that killed the ERA.

I know of some political people who, to this day, still want to blame then-Illinois House Speaker George Ryan for the ERA’s failure and think that act is more heinous than his behavior later as secretary of state and governor that got him a six-year prison term.

So I’m not sure of the significance of the 72-45 vote the Illinois House took Wednesday, with some people who might have been sympathetic to the ERA’s goals voting “no” because they considered it a pointless action.

STEVENSON: Came so close to being gov.

I KNOW THAT from my standpoint, the General Assembly had better come up with a state budget for the upcoming fiscal year – an act it has not been able to do in any of the past three years.

If the Illinois House couldn’t sign off on a budget (which does impact state government’s daily activity) before adjourning Thursday night for the summer months but managed to find time to deal with the abstraction that the ERA has become, then there are going to be those who question political priorities.

And yes, I realize that government officials are capable (or at least they’re supposed to be) of addressing multiple issues.

But anybody who’s acting as though the Illinois House made history on Wednesday, they’re living in the past. Wednesday’s vote would have been of great historic significance for Illinois had it been done back when I was a high school junior – and not at a time when I have a nephew finishing up his high school days.

SCHLAFLY: ERA opponent rolling over in grave?

PARTICULARLY SINCE THE Equal Rights Amendment is such a simple, declarative sentence that says all people ought to be treated equal – one whose approval should not have been any kind of controversy.

All that talk by critics about how it means the genders will have to share public bathrooms is just a bunch of bunk. Which remains all these years later among the most absurd argument I’ve ever heard made against an issue.

People opposing the Equal Rights Amendment back then and still today? It says more about your hang-ups in life than anything wrong with the concept itself.

  -30-

Valerie Jarrett makes the news by not putting foot in mouth, unlike Roseanne

Valerie Jarrett has quite the life story – a former advisor to mayors Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley. A senior adviser during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Roseanne tried to insult Valerie Jarrett, ...

She’s even a former chairwoman of the Chicago Transit Board (which oversees all those CTA trains and buses) and also has held positions on several corporate boards. She even is the first female student to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That’s a lot more accomplishment than most people achieve in life.

... but wound up trashing herself instead

YET LET’S BE honest. There’s a good chance that in the eyes of the general public, Jarrett is going to be noted as significant for the fact that she took down the career of one Roseanne.

And she didn’t have to do anything directly – only conduct herself with more sophistication than the actress/comedian who seems to want to think she’s the voice of all those people who think Donald Trump represents “real Americans.”

Now keep in mind that it isn’t the least bit unusual for people to use social media accounts such as Twitter to spout out stupid things.

Will 'Roseanne'  rerun rep become as tainted ...

Which is what Roseanne did when she posted a little blurb Tuesday where she managed to use less than 50 characters (much less than the 140 maximum permitted) to defame Jarrett.

AS ROSEANNE PUT it, “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” It’s not at all uncommon for bigots to make wisecracks comparing black people to apes. Some people just have a proclivity for saying something stupid.

But when people tried responding to Roseanne by calling her out on her ignorance, she initially tried responding that calling someone “muslim” isn’t racist and that the whole thing was intended to be a joke.

As though it’s the fault of others who want to call out bigotry. Either that, or else Roseanne is like many other ideological nitwits who think that freedom of speech only applies to themselves and that NO ONE is permitted to respond.

... as "The Cosby Show" rep?

Even though the concept really means we all can retort to each other until our minds are all worn out.

BUT THE OUTCRY became intense enough that Roseanne felt compelled to send out a final twit saying, “I apologize.” While also saying she was through with Twitter.

Not good enough, as ABC has said they’re cancelling Roseanne’s self-named comedy program. The one that gave her a television legacy some two decades ago and which she attempted a reboot this year.

That reboot actually finished up its first comeback season last week and had network executives convinced she was going to be a significant part of next TV season’s programming lineup.

That is, until Tuesday afternoon, when ABC officials decided that the outcry over Roseanne’s Twitter account was so intense that they’d just as soon cancel her. Several of the Roseanne cast members are now going out of their way to distance themselves from her gag. Its very likely that when Roseanne dies and her obituary is written, this will wind up being a significant moment – perhaps even the lede.

Life's lesson; 'Planet of Apes' gags are lame

CAREER SUICIDE IN a matter of hours. And for the record, Jarrett only referred to the incident as "a teaching moment," admitting she benefits from many people willing to come to her defense. Comparable to the way some perceive a level of class and sophistication the Obama years gave our society, compared to this Age of Trump we’re now in.

Not that Jarrett needs to say anything against Roseanne. Why help your critic by doing or saying anything that detracts from their own stupidity?

The sad thing is that the show’s producers tried to make some comedic hay out of the fact that Roseanne herself is a Trump backer and might actually become a way of putting a more positive spin on those people.

Yet did Roseanne unintendedly wind up showing us a real truth with her so-called sense of humor? Which, for those of us who feel a sense of shame that anybody in our society finds these days appealing, makes this incident the ultimate punchline for use against the Trump-ites.

  -30-

Will ‘da Judge’ buy “Fast Eddie” claim his witnesses are too old to remember?

I understand that Edward R. Vrdolyak has no desire to go to prison.

VRDOLYAK: Trying to get charges dismissed

The one-time Cook County Democratic chairman and City Council member who led the vocal opposition to then-Mayor Harold Washington has already done one stint as a “guest” of the government, and sure doesn’t want to go back there ever again.

BUT I FIND myself intrigued by the line of defense that Vrdolyak is trying to put up for himself.

Vrdolyak spent the bulk of 2011 in a federal prison work camp in Terre Haute, Ind., following his conviction on charges related to real estate transactions in the Gold Coast neighborhood.

Two years ago, he was hit with another round of indictments – for his involvement in the settlement of a national lawsuit against the tobacco industry back in the 1990s. It resulted in a $9.2 billion payout by “Big Tobacco,” and Vrdolyak managed to enrich himself significantly.

So much so that federal prosecutors say he did too well, to the point of being criminal. They use the word “unauthorized” to describe it.

BUT VRDOLYAK CONTENDS he didn’t do anything illegal, and in fact had the blessing of political people (including then-Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan) for his conduct.

WASHINGTON: Eddie's legacy exceed Harold

He’s trying to get a judge to dismiss the charges, with his own attorneys filing motions claiming that the people who could testify under oath that Vrdolyak’s legal activities were truly legitimate aren’t capable of doing so.

They point out one person who was fully aware of Vrdolyak is now dead, while another suffers from severe dementia. A third would be Jim Ryan himself, although the one-time Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate suffers from his own ailments that would make it impossible for him to be called upon to testify.

All this may be true. But I will be amazed if any judge out there would be inclined to dismiss the case on these grounds.

BECAUSE IT WOULD truly create a circumstance where someone could escape the legal system and “justice” because of the passage of time.

RYAN: Could Jim 'clear' Vrdolyak?

And when it comes to Vrdolyak, I’m sure the kind of people most eager to see him obtain another criminal conviction and prison term (one most likely long enough that the 80-year-old would die in prison) will not want to allow for any reason to come up that would let him escape justice.

For the politico known as “Fast Eddie” is the man who will forevermore be remembered for the way he openly led a resistance to Washington’s election in 1983 as the city’s first black mayor.

That was something some people would want forevermore celebrated. The fact that Vrdolyak was able to tie up in knots just about everything Washington tried to accomplish during the first few years of his mayoral term is something they will forevermore be bitter about.

TO THEM, THE only true justice will be if Vrdolyak gains as his political legacy a record of recidivism. To become one of the few people in Chicago political people who wind up with multiple convictions and prison terms would be the only true justice to those individuals.

Seriously, most people with political corruption convictions wind up withering away into nothingness. It would be Vrdolyak and someone like one-time alderman Ambrosio Medrano who would have records of returns to prison.

MEDRANO: In Vrdolyak's league?

But a part of me can’t help but wonder if Vrdolyak’s attorneys have a point about the 20-year delay between the actions and the bringing of an indictment “dramatically, and even fatally hindering (Vrdolyak) from establishing that fact to the jury.”

All of which makes me think no matter how a judge ultimately rules, this is going to be a criminal case that will leave some people seriously p-o’ed about its outcome and complaining for life about the lack of justice.

  -30-

Let’s just honor everybody with statues on the Illinois capitol grounds

The “Christmas Tree bill.” It was a phrase I always particularly detested from my days back when I covered the Illinois Statehouse scene.

Do we really need Thompson ...

The term applies to a piece of legislation that gets so many people adding on their pet projects to the original idea (usually completely unrelated) – in hopes that all the other things give political support to something that might not gain political favor if it stood all on their own.

WHAT I AWAYS hated about the phrase was the cutesiness of it; as though people were trying to legitimize the idea of piling on so many unrelated items onto one bill so to force approval of something that many might detest.

But that is the reality of our government – the concept that some people feel they’re entitled to “get” something for themselves in exchange for their political votes.

If you think about it too much, it really is greedy. As well as legitimizing some fairly worthless legislation.

This was the thought that crossed my mind when I read a recent report in the State Journal-Register newspaper of Springfield – one that told of efforts to pass a bill calling for various statues to be erected on the Capitol grounds. Technically, Christmas Tree bills relate to the state budget, so this isn’t one. But it certainly shares the spirit.

... or Harold Washington along ...

THE MEASURE STARTED out with the desire by some to have a statue set up to honor the memory of one-time President Ronald Reagan. He may have lived the bulk of his life in California (and served as a governor there before moving up to the federal level).

But Reagan was born in Dixon, Ill., lived one year of his childhood in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, and attended college in Eureka, Ill. – before leaving the Land of Lincoln for an adult life elsewhere. Let’s not forget his eventual wife, Nancy, was a Chicago native (and a student at the Francis W. Parker School in Lincoln Park).

That has the ideologues amongst us determined to shove his memory down the throat of everybody. To enhance the chance that people wouldn’t vote against it for partisan reasons, there also was a suggestion that another statue be erected to the memory of Barack Obama – the one-time state senator from Hyde Park who eventually rose to the presidency.

... to get a Statehouse tribute to Obama ...

But that’s where the piling on started.

FOR IT SEEMS that some people tried suggesting a third statue – one for James R. Thompson, the man who served as Illinois governor (14 years) longer than anybody else.

That begat thoughts of honoring one-time Illinois State Federation of Labor president Reuben Soderstrom. Others tried throwing into the mix a statue of Harold Washington – a one-time state representative who eventually became Chicago’s first black mayor.

Thus far, it seems that the weight of so much bronze and/or marble is such that it is killing off the entire concept. But the legislator sponsoring the original bill told the Springfield newspaper says it’s natural to include a few extra people in the honors if it means he can get his original intent – which is to make us think of “the Gipper” himself as an Illinois native.

... or Ronald Reagan?

Even though you could argue that Reagan left us Illinoisans behind – unlike Obama, the Hawaii native, who came to us in Illinois and Chicago to achieve his greatness. Similar to Abraham Lincoln – who came to Illinois for an adult life that achieved intense success, which is why his statue on Capitol grounds occupies a prominent place up front.

BUT YOU JUST know the idea of an Obama statue solo would offend some, while others are bothered by the idea of ANY KIND of Reagan tribute.

It reminds me of when the General Assembly some two decades ago renamed a portion of Interstate 88 in the northwestern suburbs for Ronald Reagan. To get others whose memories of Reagan are less than favorable to go along, we got the renaming of the one-time Calumet Expressway for Bishop L.H. Ford. – head of the Church of God in Christ and a man of significance in certain South Side neighborhoods.

FORD: His freeway a Reagan toll road trade

Although as I remember it, even then the Legislature passed separate bills – with all the Reagan backers expected to go along and vote for Bishop Ford as well. Our state government, hard at work!

The end result being all these years of radio traffic reports every morning talking of the latest congestion on the Bishop Ford Freeway. And at least a few wiseacres responding with, “Who?”

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