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| Cook County Commissioner John Daley at "work" with his South Side county board colleagues. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda |
The
real old among us will go back to “J.” While the bulk of us will be more likely
to think of “M.,” as in the son who actually wound up surpassing his father’s
stint as longest-serving mayor by just over a year.
FOR
THOSE OF us who like to think we’re a little more politically astute, we’ll
probably bring up William – the Daley son (and brother) who has been a
presidential cabinet member (under Bill Clinton) and chief of staff (under
Barack Obama).
He
even likes to talk periodically about how he’d like to run for governor – even though
he never seems to have the will to actually put together a campaign and run for
the post on Election Day.
It’s
only the most hard-core of parochial political geeks who will bring up John.
Yet
he was the one who was celebrated on Tuesday.
FOR
JOHN DALEY is the political person who serves on the Cook County Board –
representing the Southwest Side and some surrounding suburban portions. And
now, he’s been in that position for 20 years.
The
county board on Tuesday gave Daley the political equivalent of a “surprise
party.” They put together a resolution praising him, and arranged for his
family to be present – all without him knowing (although he admits he should
have suspected something when he saw his wife and daughter leave the house
early on Tuesday).
Which
led them to give him an emotional shock, then partake in an endless round of “debate”
that seemed to be a competition amongst county board members to see who could
plant the biggest rhetorical smooch on the Daley cheek.
Personally,
I got a kick out of Commissioner Larry Suffredin, of suburban Evanston, calling
him the “stealth Daley.”
WHICH
IS TRUE enough. His political brothers are the ones who tend to make it onto
the front pages. Plus the fact that Cook County government often gets ignored
when it comes to the public perception. Everybody seems more interested in what
happens on the west side of the block-sized building that houses City Hall AND
the county government.
But
hanging on to a county board post for two decades (and presiding over the board’s
finance committee for 18 of them) is a way to get familiar with the gritty
details of how government works.
Where
the bodies are buried, so to speak. Although I’m not implying that Daley has
buried any of them.
Some
got amusement from the irony of listening to Commissioner William Beavers (from
the far Southeast Side and suburbs such as Calumet City), who faces criminal
indictment these days on federal tax charges.
BEAVERS
IS THE one who claims the only reason he’s being prosecuted is because he
refused to wear a wiretap for federal investigators to gain evidence against
John Daley himself.
On
Tuesday, Beavers offered up a brief “congratulations” for enduring the “back
and forth” of 20 years at the county building, to which Daley quipped back, “You
always try to advise me.”
Personally when I regard the Daley political people,
I realize that they’re hard-core Democratic Party types. But I have also
realized that these aren’t flaming liberals – no matter what trash-talk the
ideologues try to spew.
Which
is why I thought it accurate of Commissioner Timothy Schneider of suburban Elk
Grove Village to say, “Your left toe leans a little bit right. You always try
to reach a compromise on issues.”
PERSONALLY,
I FIRST dealt with Daley back at the beginning of my stint as a Statehouse
reporter in Springfield – he was still in the Illinois state Senate
representing the Bridgeport neighborhood and surrounding communities.
He
admits his wife has enjoyed having him back in Chicago, rather than having to
live part-time each year in the Illinois capital city.
Although
that desire to be “back home” seems to be why John Daley has never sought the
higher political offices that his brothers aspired to.
As
Daley put it himself on Tuesday why he didn’t run for higher office, “I enjoy
sleeping in my own bed.”
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