Todd Stroger
Posted on 07/16/2006 9:40:00 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
The ongoing two-act comic tragedy now playing at the Cook County Board dramatizes Yogi Berra's famous observation: "It's deja vu all over again." Stroke-stricken John Stroger sent a letter resigning his presidency last week. His successor is set to be selected by board commissioners on Wednesday. Within weeks after Stroger was stricken on March 14, Ald. Todd Stroger began positioning himself as the heir apparent for his father's post. That's when I began seeing deja vu, too.
After the death of Harold Washington 19 years ago, there was a power struggle among African-American politicians over who would succeed Chicago's first black mayor. As dictated by law, the City Council was charged with selecting an interim mayor from among its ranks. The always affable Ald. Eugene Sawyer became the man. For reasons that continue to elude me, Aldermen Timothy Evans, Dorothy Tillman and Bobby Rush devised, then clung to the delusion that Evans was Mayor Washington's heir apparent. An ongoing nasty, public fight broke out that split the black community and eventually resulted in the Evans faction forcing a premature mayoral election that gave us . . . Mayor Richard M. Daley.
The rest of the story is yours to read in the newspapers and watch on the nightly news. Just like the first Mayor Daley, Mayor-for-Life Richie Daley runs the city with an army of patronage workers, and buttressed by his creation of pinstripe patronage, the son has more power than the father. Tillman, who is far less critical of the current mayor than she ever was of Mayor Sawyer, is the queen of the City Council. Now Chief Cook County Circuit Court judge, Evans gets called honorable. Rush pulled off a successful coup d'etat, dethroning U.S. Rep. Charlie Hayes.
In the wake of Washington's death, there was this illogical illusion throughout much of black Chicago that since we had won the seat on City Hall's fifth floor, it was ours to keep. I had covered the Washington administration for another Chicago newspaper, but at the time the mayor died, I was a correspondent in Newsweek magazine's Chicago bureau, helplessly watching from the outside as the dumb stuff began. Believing I could help make a difference, I signed on as Sawyer's press secretary, where I helplessly watched from the inside as the dumb stuff continued.
The same silliness, different decade, has shifted a few yards east on the fifth floor to the County Building. Like street gang members wasting each other over turf that they don't own, the city's black pols are fighting for a county seat that, at the moment, they don't occupy and may not get. All this nasty, public infighting is ripping open old wounds even as it creates new splinters, chasms and community divides. It pits young against old, the South Side against the West Side, and possibly an alderman's daughter against a congressman's wife.
This renewed base-splitting is occurring because Chicago's African-American leaders are operating in an alternative political universe. Although Cook is one of the most Democratic counties in the United States, it is not even as much a black county as Chicago is a black city. The county population is 59 percent white, 26 percent black and 22 percent Hispanic. As Ald. William Beavers wheels his deals in some back room to make the not-yet-ready-for-prime-time-politics Todd Stroger president, the county's multiracial, multiethnic voters are watching and reading. They can't like what they see.
While there may be enough board votes to make the 43-year-old Stroger the interim president, come the people's election, the voters of Cook County will have their say. I don't know if it's too late, but I suggest that the city's black power brokers disappear behind closed doors and emerge with a qualified, formidable candidate who, as interim president, can demonstrate that he or she is the best person for the permanent post. Should that opportunity be missed over the next three days, then the aftermath of Stroger's legacy may look all too familiar.
And, once again, Chicago's African-American politicians will have no one to blame but themselves when the power ends up with somebody else.
CHICAGOLAND PING
Dick Mell standing on his desk in the Council chambers was pretty good, as was Bill Henry packing heat in the chamber. Dose were da days!
The '86 "LaRouche Debacle" was also a keeper; the Washington bloc decided to punish the democrat regulars so they unwittingly nominated a couple of LaRouchies to the state-wide ticket. Fun stuff!!
One of my favorite memories was channel-surfing one night and coming upon WGN - which was broadcasting live the council meeting that would pick who was gonna be interim mayor. You could almost feel the tension and hostility thru the TV set!
That was absolutely fascinating TV and it stuck with me for years. I often wondered if there were ever videotapes for sale.
Fast Eddie had a radio show for a couple of years. He may be a Dem, but he's a conservative one.
L
Weekend at Bernies that is.
re: "Fast Eddie had a radio show for a couple of years. He may be a Dem, but he's a conservative one"
He switched and joined the GOP as soon as he left the council. But he still plays well with the bi-partisan combine. He supports either R and D member of the combine, depending on which gives his law firm the most business.
His most recent embarrassment was at the hands of Dan Proft in Cicero.
Idiots controlled by geniuses. Their antics are bread and circuses for the masses.
Fast Eddie and Ty Wansley had a talk show about 10 years ago; It was great and I wish they would revive it:
http://www.wlshistory.com/WLS90/
Todd Stroger
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