Rahm’s ‘bosom’ buddies?!?

It’s safe to say that Mayor Rahm Emanuel knows how to make enemies.

It seems no matter where he looks or what he does, there will be someone more than willing to take a pot-shot at him.

TAKE THE FACT that Emanuel presented a city budget proposal for the municipal upcoming fiscal year. Much of the news coverage focused on the fact that the budget doesn’t try to do anything to resolve the city’s problems in providing for adequate funding for its pension programs.

As in they will be dealt with in the future – specifically some point following the February and April municipal elections. A newly-elected City Council will wind up having to address the issue; in hopes that enough time will pass between their actions and the 2019 elections that voters won’t hold it against them.

Although I couldn’t help but notice that Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey was quick to trash Emanuel for a budget that they contends favors the wealthy interests of Chicago rather than regular citizens.

“This budget continues a top-down imposition of two distinct cities, one for the privileged and one for everyone else,” Sharkey said. “Balance comes through savage cuts to public service and accounting trickery, as there is only minimal revenue generation in this budget.”

HE GOES ON to say, “The reality on the ground is that neighborhoods on the South and West sides of the city continue to struggle with daily violence. Budgetary allocations for police only cover positions lost to retirement and are nowhere near what the mayor promised during this first campaign.”

The tone of the rest of Sharkey’s comments is just as hostile. It seems that the loss of Karen Lewis at the top of the Chicago Teachers Union is not going to result in any more favorable body of people for Emanuel and city officials to deal with when trying to address issues related to the Chicago Public Schools.

It also is written in such a tone that I wonder how much it is inspired by the rhetoric of Gov. Pat Quinn – whose own campaign talk is now on auto-pilot to imply that Republican challenger Bruce Rauner is just a rich guy who doesn’t care about average people.

It’s no wonder that Emanuel and Rauner are actually friends on a certain level, and that perhaps deep down Emanuel wouldn’t object to a Quinn defeat come the Nov. 4 election cycle – even though he’ll never publicly admit to that fact.

BUT IT’S NOT just the teachers union that’s bad-mouthing Emanuel these days. There’s also William J. Kelly, a Beverly neighborhood resident who is running a fringe campaign for mayor and differentiating himself by claiming to be the lone Republican in the race.

Kelly wants to be taken seriously by pointing out that he has come up with $100,000 for his campaign, which actually has caused the limits on self-spending for campaigns to be shot to pieces.

Emanuel can now come up with as much cash as he wishes to drown out anyone who has the nerve to challenge him come next year’s municipal election cycle.

Although I’ll give Kelly credit for one bit of honesty – he says he’s hoping that the national Republican organizations will see his campaign and flood his coffers with so much cash that he could compete with Emanuel’s millions.

ADMITTEDLY, THERE ARE GOP political interests that would like to see Emanuel suffer a political humiliation. Then again, when they tried to beat him when he ran for Congress and for mayor the first time, their efforts just weren’t all that successful.

I suspect they’ll conclude that Kelly is too insignificant on his own to warrant their help. Besides, I suspect they like the idea of gaining political majorities in other places to try to drown out the influence of Illinois and Chicago led by Democrats.

Which may well be the reason that our local people should focus on being as strong as they possibly can be. And why the upcoming elections for state offices are probably way more important than anything that happens at City Hall beginning next May.

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Will anyone challenge Emanuel?

We know that Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis “is recovering well” following surgery Wednesday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. But common sense would indicate that her “serious illness” puts a serious crimp in the thoughts of those people who want her to challenge Rahm Emanuel for mayor.

So is 2^nd Ward Alderman Robert Fioretti the ultimate winner of the past week’s activities? Or is he too ineffectual to benefit; making Mayor Emanuel the top dog – on account that a potentially strong challenger is down for the count, and it’s getting close to “10.”

NOW I’M NOT about to engage in another diatribe about Lewis being overly secretive about her health.

In fact, I suspect that union Vice President Jesse Sharkey was correct earlier this week when he told reporter-types he suspected that most of the questions about Lewis’ health were really attempts to figure out what would happen in the Feb. 24 municipal elections.

Which, to be honest, is the matter that impacts the bulk of us who will be put in a position in that election, and a possible April run-off, to decide who the mayor of Chicago ought to be for the next four years.

I’ll be the first to admit that there is a sizable number of Chicagoans who want to Dump Emanuel. I don’t think they really care who winds up in office, except they just don’t want Rahm.

ALTHOUGH IF WE’RE to be completely honest, nothing that Emanuel has done since becoming mayor in 2011 ought to be regarded as a surprise. We basically got what the majority of us voted for the last municipal election.

I’m also sure there are those people who are satisfied that Emanuel has maintained a status-quo, of sorts, in the way city government operates. So I’m sure some people will turn out to vote for him, regardless of who has the nerve to challenge him.

That issue involving the closing of several facilities in the Chicago Public Schools is a harsh one because of the way it seemed to focus on neighborhoods of African-American residents.

Even though it should be said many of the schools that got shuttered were struggling facilities that really didn’t have much to offer and that we probably are better off without. But rather than fix those facilities to make them useful, the city chose to sweep the problem under the carpet.

THAT’S WHY EMANUEL blew any goodwill he had amongst black voters as Barack Obama’s one-time chief of staff. But the reality is becoming that there simply isn’t anyone credible for those discontented voters to vote for.

There will be other names on the ballot, but they will be candidates with their own baggage or lacking in the resources to get themselves known to the masses so they could get enough votes to actually win an election.

It will be interesting to see one-time Alderman and county official Robert Shaw try once again to be on the campaign trail. Although to be honest, since the death of his twin brother Bill (himself a state senator and suburban Dolton mayor), the Shaw brothers seem like a relic of the past.

As for Fioretti, I was amused to see some campaign signs erected in the Pullman neighborhood touting his mayoral desires. Then again, he grew up there. Could Fioretti be the guy who will get the votes of a few cousins, and nobody else?

OR IS HE the one positioned to be able to become the new ‘flavor of the month’ for those people who want Anybody But Rahm on the fifth floor come May?

I’ll be honest. I’d like to see a competitive mayoral campaign (just as I’m hoping that Lewis herself fully recovers and is able to resume her duties with the teachers’ union).

Seeing Rahm rise to re-election with ease and becoming more entrenched (Emperor Emanuel?!?) in his political post is something that benefits none of us.

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