20 September 2010By
Stephen Lendman
An earlier article
discussed Chicago politics under father and son Daley
- Richard J. (mayor from April 20, 1955 - December 20,
1976) and Richard M. (mayor since April 24, 1989),
both called "Hizzhonor" or "Hizzhonor Da Mare."
Last winning a sixth term
on February 27, 2007 by a 70% majority, most observers
expected he'd seek another in 2011, but not so. The
Chicago Tribune, on
September 7, announced it, headlining,
"Daley won't run for re-election: 'I have done my
best,' saying:
"Mayor
Richard Daley says he will not run for
re-election in 2011," saying it's:
"time for me, it's time for
Chicago
to move on. The truth is I have been thinking about
this for the past several months. In the end, this is
a personal decision, no more, no less. I have always
known that people want you to work hard for them.
Clearly, they won't agree always with you. Obviously,
they don't like it when you make a mistake. But at all
times, they expect you to lead, to make difficult
decisions, rooted in what's right for them."
For 21 years, that's what
I've tried to do. But today, I am announcing that I
will not seek a 7th term as mayor of the city of
Chicago."
One reason may be his
wife's health, battling breast cancer since 2002 as
well as recovering from leg surgery, damaged by cancer
and radiation treatment.
His popularity is also at
issue, summer polls showing over half of Chicago
voters saying they don't want him back:
-- 37% approve of his job
as mayor;
-- 47% disapprove; and
-- a record low 31% want
him re-elected compared to 53% who don't.
Besides crime, corruption,
and other issues, the weak economy is key. It forced
budget cuts, staff reductions, mass teacher layoffs,
and a record $655 million budget shortfall, a
combination leaving all city politicians vulnerable
and defensive. At least half a dozen aldermen won't
run again, voter dissatisfaction affecting them like
Daley.
In early 2010,
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel
expressed interest in the job, though never by
challenging the incumbent, whom he served as
strategist and fundraiser in his first campaign. He's
now unencumbered, the UK Telegraph's Alex Spillius
headlining on June 20, "Rahm
Emanuel expected to quit
White House," saying:
At issue are policy and
style differences as well as burnout from the pressure
of "one of the most high profile jobs in US politics,"
a leading Democrat consultant saying:
"Nobody thinks it's working
but they can't get rid of him - that would look awful.
He needs the right sort of job to go to but the
consensus is he'll go."
Another insider expects
he'll announce it after the November midterm elections
that look grim for Democrats. "It is well known in
Washington" that Emanuel often clashes with other
administration officials, his abrasive style "rubb(ing)
some people the wrong way," while struggling to smooth
Obama's legislative program through Congress. "Every
vote has been tough, from health care to energy to
financial reform," and some have been stalled.
"Emanuel (also) reportedly
told friends that his role as
White House chief of staff
was 'only an eighteen month job' because of its
intensity." It involves controlling and promoting the
president's agenda, enforcing discipline, and liaising
with Congress. Look for his announced decision,
perhaps shortly after
November 2
when the results are in, the new Congress is
announced, and the dust settles. According to friends,
he wants to go home, his birth city, where he served
six years in the House representing
Illinois' 5th congressional district.
On September 8, The Hill
writer Jordan Fabian headlined, "Axelrod hints Emanuel
may run for Chicago mayor," saying:
He "hinted strongly" that
he's "weighing a bid for Chicago's open mayoral"
position....(Obama's
senior advisor)
Axelrod's comments....one of the strongest
suggestions" that he plans a run. On NBC's Today Show,
he said he'll "make his decision in due time."
On September 14, Chicago
Sun Times writer
Lynn
Sweet headlined, "Rahm's pollster asking
about a run for mayor," saying:
Stanley Greeberg will
"survey Chicagoans about (his) potential mayoral bid,"
Emanuel also "activat(ing) his Chicago network of pals
to reach out to (local) political figures....on his
behalf." Last week, in fact, Obama "said he would make
an excellent mayor," but he'll need more than that, as
well as handling potential challengers. Former Senator
Carol Mosley Braun is one, signaling a comeback under
the "Carol for Chicago" banner.
Some Background on Emanuel
Born in Chicago, his
political career began in a number of capacities in
local and national politics, including:
-- Democrat Paul Simon's
1984
election;
-- in 1988, as political
director for the Democrat Congressional Campaign
Committee (DCCC), and
-- senior advisor and chief
fundraiser for Richard M. Daley's first 1989 campaign,
helping him become
Bill
Clinton's finance director in 1992.
He joined his 1991 primary
campaign, worked in his "War Room," and served as
senior advisor from 1993 - 1998. Initially he was
Assistant to the President for
Political Affairs but was fired for his
profane, abrasive style, rubbing many around him the
wrong way, earning the nickname "Rahmbo."
In the late 1980s, he once
sent a rotting fish to a pollster whom he accused of
conducting inaccurate and poorly prepared research,
and clashed often with others around him.
Nonetheless, he recouped by
lobbying Congress for NAFTA, worked to reinvent
Clinton as a centrist, and became a leading White
House strategist.
Politico
called him "a consistent voice for anti-crime
measures, welfare reform and other initiatives that
pushed against liberal orthodoxy," besides being
one-sided for
Israel and
pro-business, essential credentials for aspiring
politicians.
From 1999 - 2002, he was
managing director for the Chicago investment bank firm
Dresdner, Kleinwort, Wasserstein, earning a reported
$18 million, a near impossible feat for a newcomer
leaving some to ask how. He then left after being
elected to Congress, his first term beginning on
January 3, 2003.
In 2005, he was named
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
(DCCC) Chair, heading fundraising efforts to increase
the party's congressional representation, saying in
his new role "winning is everything." On
November 6, 2008, Obama named him chief
of staff. With the nation facing economic depression,
he told the
Wall Street Journal:
"You never want to let a
serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is
that's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do
before," and he didn't mean populist ones.
In Congress, he was the
fourth ranked House Democrat. A hawk, neoliberal, and
pro-Israeli hard-liner, now deceased Chicago
activist/investigative reporter, and founder and
chairman of the Citizens Committee to Clean up the
Courts,
Sherman Skolnick, called him the "acting
deputy chief for North America of Mossad."
His father, Benjamin
Emanuel (changed from Auerbach in 1936 by his
grandfather Exekiel), a Jerusalem-born pediatrician,
was involved, pre-1948, with smuggling weapons to the
Irgun. The terror group, headed by former Prime
Minister
Menachem Begin,
conducted regular massacres and targeted
assassinations, including the infamous 1946 King David
Hotel bombing, killing 91 and injuring dozens more.
Emanuel is as hard line as
his father, dismissive of Palestinian interests, and
in 1991, served as a civilian IDF volunteer during the
Gulf War. It's believed he holds dual
citizenships, a dubious status for a top White House
official.
In Congress and as chief of
staff, he supports Israeli belligerency and ruthless
occupation. He also backs the
Iraq and
Afghan wars, other proxy ones, America's imperial
dominance, the "War
on Terror," and as a shameless
neoliberal, drastic social cuts to pay for them. He's
for business, not populist interests, and his abrasive
style makes him intolerable of other views and people
sharing them.
He's also a prominent
Democratic Leadership Council (DLC)
member, the far-to-the-right-of center organization
Ralph
Nader calls "corporatist (and)
soulless," ideologically like Republicans. He and the
DLC are anti-populist, anti-labor, anti-welfare,
pro-business, strongly for US imperialism, militarism,
global wars, and world dominance. Nader explained
that:
"To the DLC mind, Democrats
are catering to 'special interests' when they stand up
for trade unions, regulatory consumer-investor
protections, a preemptive peace policy overseas,
pruning the bloated
military budget
now devouring (the federal budget), defending
Social Security from Wall Street
schemes, and pressing for
universal health care
coverage. So right-wing is the DLC....that even
opposing
Bush's tax cuts
for the wealthy....is considered ultra-liberal and
contrary to winning campaigns."
DLC members are hardline
against rights for Blacks, Hispanics, Latino
immigrants, Muslims, labor, the poor, consumer
protections, populism, progressivism, environmental
protection, peace and those for it, prosecuting
corporate criminals, honest elections, and democratic
governance.
Emanuel strongly advocates
these and other far right positions, leaving longtime
residents like this writer uneasy over him as mayor.
If he runs the city like the White House, Chicagoans
may yearn for Daley back, despite his pro-business,
anti-populist agenda, earning him Time magazine's 2005
recognition as "the nation's top urban executive," and
2009
Wall Street Journal praise
as "The President's Mayor, a fix-it, problem-solving
man."
Emanuel replacing him will
create, not alleviate the many now plaguing the city,
a cross ordinary Chicagoans bear most plus whatever
greater burden he'll add. Where are you
Harold Washington when you're needed? By
defeating the Daley machine, he became Chicago's first
Black mayor (April 29, 1983 - November 25, 1987) until
his premature death, remembered fondly as "Harold, the
People's Mayor," the title of Dempsey Travis' 1988
book about him.
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit
his blog site at
sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with
distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News
Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at
10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at
noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments
Save