Is Emanuel going anywhere? Do we really want him to? Who are our choices? Do they have a 'clue'?

Let’s presume for a few seconds that there’s actually the remotest of chances that we, the people of Chicago, can get Rahm Emanuel out of office as mayor prior to the 2019 Election Day.

EMANUEL: Stubborn enough to resist?

Excuse me for thinking that might be the worst possible calamity that could befall the Second City.

I’M NOT AMONG the people who think that removing Emanuel from office will somehow fix anything – particularly since we’re talking about a problem concerning police relations with the community (particularly those members who aren’t quite Anglo enough to satisfy the cop mentality) that goes back so many generations and isn’t limited to Chicago anyway!

Or have we already forgotten about Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., just to name a couple of places where police brutality turned into public violence?

Now I have written before under other circumstances that I oppose the idea of recall elections. I think it undermines the election process, and I believe that if the people are stupid enough to pick someone for office, they should have to live with their results until the next Election Day.

Those people, including if I recall correctly a large segment of the African-American electorate, who wanted Rahm Emanuel back as mayor for a second term should now have to live with the shame of what is befalling our city.

YES, I THINK those members of the Illinois General Assembly who now are sponsoring measures meant to create a recall election procedure for the Chicago mayoral post are merely engaging in political grandstanding.

It won’t be the least bit inappropriate if their measure winds up getting tangled up in political bureaucratese. Unless people like Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan or Gov. Bruce Rauner decide to let it advance as a way of playing out any grudges they may have against Emanuel these days.

Would either of these men have nerve ...

Which isn’t the best of reasons for new state law to be created under any circumstance.

“Three more years” of Emanuel, then let’s hope our city’s electorate can get its head out of its collective derriere and come up with someone more suited for the post. Let’s be honest – someone whose approach to politics is to twist arms when a pat on the back would have been just as effective probably wasn’t the person to be in charge when the police get caught strong-arming a young black male – and killing him when he wasn’t complacent enough for their satisfaction.

I DON’T ENJOY the thought of the public shame that would befall Chicago. But removing people from office in mid-term always strikes me as something akin to a coup d’ tat. That strikes me as un-American!

... to push Emanuel out?

Besides, there’s always the chance that removing Emanuel because of police brutality could give us someone ever so more incompetent.

Because the procedure is that if Emanuel were to leave prior to the end of his term in April 2019, it would be a member of the City Council who takes over on the Fifth floor.

Do we really trust any of the 50 nincompoops who comprise our city’s aldermen to be capable of resolving things?

NOW AS THINGS turn out, the alderman who carries the designation of “vice mayor” is Brendan O’Reilly of the 42^nd Ward. But he would wind up being the equivalent of David Orr – who back in 1987 was mayor for one week until the full City Council came together and picked Eugene Sawyer of the sixth ward largely because the white aldermen felt he was controllable – compared to challenger Timothy Evans of the fourth ward who would have tried carrying on Harold Washington’s memory.

Does Dick Mell wish he were still alderman?

You just know this legislative body would take the same approach in picking a controllable sort who will do what they want, rather than what the public wants.

And the answer is “yes,” the person they pick must be among their own ranks. Only the incumbent aldermen would be eligible for consideration – which makes me wonder if Dick Mell wishes he hadn’t have retired when he did.

It wouldn’t be previous mayoral challenger Jesus Garcia, because he’s a Cook County Board member. Unless you want to go for some political contortion in which Danny Solis, the alderman from his ward in the Pilsen/Little Village area resigns, Garcia fills the aldermanic vacancy, then reappoints Solis once Garcia becomes mayor.

GARCIA: Would be on sidelines if Rahm leaves

THAT’S A LOT of political maneuvering that would have to go just right for a guy who couldn’t even win the general election held last April. It would be easier for Solis just to run himself for mayor.

I look at the current aldermen and can’t really say I see “mayor” in any of them. Particularly since they’re the same people who approved the $5 million settlement (of which I’ve heard from some that the McDonald family only got $500,000, with the rest going to attorney fees) to try to make the death of Laquan McDonald fade quietly into history.

BURKE: "Mayor?" Why demote himself?

For those who’d suggest senior Alderman Ed Burke of the 14^th Ward, I suspect he enjoys being Finance Chairman so much because it gives him the authority to tell the mayor, at times, what he must do. Being the boss's boss, so to speak!

Would Burke, himself an ex-cop, really want to give up such power just to get a bigger office at City Hall? I doubt it, particularly since neither he nor anyone else on the council has a clue how to resolve the situation our city is now confronted with.

  -30-

EXTRA: Kirk to get character test in coming days on health issues

I must confess – I gained a significant amount of respect for soon-to-be former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in recent days.

GIFFORDS: Soon-to-be former



The Congresswoman who was shot in an incident a year ago says she’s giving up her seat on Capitol Hill. She wants to focus her attention on long-term recovery from the gunshot wounds she suffered.

NOW IT’S NOT that I never had objections to Giffords. But it’s just that many political people I have encountered would have gone out of their way to hold onto their political position for as long as humanly possible.

Even if they weren’t capable of fulfilling the duties, they would have wanted to keep the post – which in Giffords’ case would have run through the end of this year and early into January of 2013.

Even if they decided not to run for re-election (which Giffords would have had to do in the Nov. 6 general elections), they wouldn’t have wanted to resign.

Yet that is what Giffords is doing. By the end of Monday, she is to have completed her last duties as a member of Congress from the Tuscon, Ariz., area. She is expected to submit her letter of resignation later this week to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (a Republican) and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

I’M SURE THERE are Democrats who would have wanted her to stay in office – even though she would be an absentee member – just to keep the congressional seat within the party – instead of boosting by one the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

It has me wondering how we, in Illinois, would handle the same situation. Which could very well happen if circumstances take a turn for the worse.

KIRK: On road to recovery

Yes, I’m referring to the situation involving Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who checked himself into suburban Lake Forest Hospital during the weekend and was transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital – where on Monday he underwent surgery to relieve swelling around his brain.

He has been diagnosed as having suffered a stroke.

NOW I DON’T have any evidence that this is a life-threatening situation. For all I know, the statement from Kirk’s office that he is expected to recover in full is completely true.

A part of me certainly hopes that he’s being truthful, and can claim to being as noble as Giffords has been in recent days.

But if it turns out for the worst, I’d like to think that Kirk could contemplate making the same high-ground stance as Giffords did. Even if I can already hear the rantings of the Republicans about Pat Quinn “stealing” away a seat from them.

Avoiding that kind of rhetoric may well be the best reason to hope for a full Kirk recovery.

  -30-