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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Daley illness evidence of our cynicism?

I shouldn’t be shocked at the level of cynicism that crops up when our political people – or even ex-pols – become ill.

DALEY, M.: In recovery?

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley spent the past weekend at Northwestern Memorial Hospital suffering from what some are saying are stroke-like symptoms (although no one will come right out and say the 71-year-old suffered a stroke).

YET WHEN ONE turns to the Internet to see the ramblings of those people who insist on posting anonymous tidbits, there are more than those share of people who are convinced this is some sort of plot.

Daley is trying to avoid criminal prosecution in the future. For what, those people don’t specify. But I literally found one individual who says that this illness is fake – and is meant to provide cover in the form of him being able to testify under oath that he doesn’t remember anything about whatever it is that he is accused in the future of doing.

I’m not saying that there aren’t people professionally ambitious enough to try to prosecute a case that dredges up some past action of government during the Daley administration.

I’m sure there are people who would like Daley to suffer legal consequences for the mess that was made of our parking meters! There are times when I could be counted amongst them.

BUT PEOPLE WHO are taking Daley’s physical condition and trying to score politics are just striking me as being a bit too callous to take seriously.

Even though I’ll agree with those who think that there’s something funky about the amount of time it has taken to get a diagnosis – or that some of the details we have heard don’t seem to be fleshed out.

DALEY, J.: Died while in office

This is a story that is most definitely incomplete. While I comprehend that Daley is no longer a public official (he chose retirement in 2011, rather than dying as mayor like his father, Richard J., or at his desk like Harold Washington), there is still enough interest in him for people to want to know what happened when he supposedly became disoriented Friday while attending a legal conference in Arizona.

Because Daley is who he is, he got rushed back to Chicago – rather than trusting a Phoenix-area hospital to deal with his condition.

I WILL ADMIT to being amused by the fact that he was hospitalized the same day that his nephew, R.J. Vanecko, pleaded guilty and got that 60-day county jail sentence for his involvement in the death of a young man a decade ago.

WASHINGTON: Died literally in office

Mainly because Daley aides felt compelled to immediately say that word of his nephew’s legal predicament had nothing to do with his medical condition. Which is what many people would have presumed, had nothing been said.

It makes me wonder what statement is being concocted for dissemination on Tuesday – which is the day that both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times newspapers say will be when a 162-page special prosecutor’s report on Vanecko’s case will be made public.

Will somebody be a little too eager to find some physical downtown for Daley that occurs Tuesday, then try to make a connection?

OF COURSE, ALL of this brings back memories of Daley’s father, who himself suffered a stroke a couple of years before his death in December 1976. He recovered, and actually got re-elected to his final term in office as a result.

Daley, by comparison, is now an attorney who doesn’t have the stress of running for any office. His time in public policy is past.

Unless some people are determined to use this incident to somehow dredge him back into the public eye.

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Birth before death to start off 2013

We’re in a new year, yet the cycle of life continues as it always will.

St. Anthony gave us a birth ...

For in the early hours of Tuesday before the bulk of us had even woken up for the day, Chicago experienced its first birth.

AND JUST A few hours after completing a year in which the homicide total shot above 500 for the year, the body-count clock was reset and we’re already at 1 for ’13 (the year, that is).

I have ranted before on this weblog about how much I can’t stand the story about Chicago’s first-born baby.

Which ought to be a trivial note of little real significance. Is this child’s life really going to turn out any more important than that of someone born a few minutes earlier, or later, on the same day?

Besides, I also recall the first-born in Chicago for 1989 – when I was working for the now-defunct City News Bureau right at the new year and recall the politicking that the hospitals engaged in as they tried to convince us that “their” kid was the one who came first.

EVEN THOUGH THE reality is that they all came within seconds of each other and any rational human being would have acknowledged that. Some people take this particular “first-born” status way too seriously!

So for the record, Aydan Alvarado is Chicago’s first-born human being for 2013 – coming out of the womb at 12:08 a.m. at St. Anthony Hospital. As it turns out, he was due on Saturday – but wasn’t actually born until the first few minutes of Tuesday.

Just about 3 ½ hours after Aydan’s birth, Chicago experienced its first death due to homicide.

... while Northwestern started off a death tally

It was shortly before 4 a.m. that police received a call in the West Town neighborhood, and wound up finding a 20-year-old on the ground, bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to his throat.

OCTAVIUS DONTRELL LAMB wound up being rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police as of Tuesday morning didn’t have a suspect, or any idea what provoked this particular shooting death – which in all likelihood will only be noted because it was Number One for 2013.

If anything, it reinforces the attitude I expressed last week upon learning that Chicago Police Department officials were trying to keep the homicide total for 2012 under 500.

To the point that a previous killing was reclassified from “homicide” to “death investigation.”

IT DIDN’T WORK!

That killing eventually was shifted back to homicide, and there were five more slayings in Chicago during the final weekend of the year – including three on Sunday.

Although oddly enough, none on Monday.

So the death-by-homicide tally for 2012 tops out at 505 – unless someone who has been lingering in a hospital winds up dying in the next few days. In which case, the ’12 total will inch up all the more.

NOT THAT IT really matters that Chicago had more than 500 homicides for the first time since 2008. Death is more about the individuals than the raw numbers – which are an ongoing cycle.

Like I cited before, we’re already at “1” (and counting) for the current year. The “505” figure is now just a line in the record books – for those individuals who feel compelled to count such things.

So let’s hear it for Aydan. Here’s hoping the new resident of the Little Village neighborhood winds up having a lengthy and healthy life on this planet – and that his birth won’t be the only time his existence comes to the public’s attention.

Just as the real shame of Lamb’s death is that his life came to its end before he could accomplish much of note. What a waste!

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EXTRA: Kirk upgraded to “good”

Why do I suspect this will be the high point of the news cycles this week?

Seriously, it is encouraging to learn that Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., was upgraded to “good” condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, within just a couple of weeks of suffering the stroke that has caused him to undergo a few rounds of surgery.

IT MAY WELL be sometime this month that he gets to go home to continue his recuperation, although doctors indicate his recovery is a long-term process and one that could result in paralysis to one side of his body.

And no, I don’t have a clue who Kirk was rooting for Sunday night while watching the Super Bowl from his hospital room.

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