Sure seems like he's positioning himself. On a related political note, Illinois's ambitious governor, who wants to run for president, has been involved in one helluva battle with his father-in-law, powerful 33rd Ward Alderman Richard Mell; and it all started over Christmas dinner.
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fantomas
Jan 9 2005, 06:00 PM
Would Jesse Jackson, Jr. be a better mayor than Daley Jr.? By most measures, yes, since he would start from the premise that he is a MAYOR and not a Führer/Dictator/Czar who has a country of 3+ million people, with neighboring protectorates (suburbs) to rule over.
In most other ways, they'd be about equal. Both believe in endless taxation of the citizenry. Both possess extremely liberal politics, with Daley actually having declared that he would sanction gay marriages in Chicago (and Jackson Jr. is on board for that too). Both seem to have ties to large groups of cronies who find creative ways to run through public funds as quickly as possible. And both represent a sizable chunk, but not a majority, of Chicago's population.
I'll take Jackson Jr. over Daley if he runs. Run Jesse Jr., run. But I would say that his father should especially be kept as far away from any campaign funds as possible.
Blago & Mell: I like that Blago has turned on his crony-ish Demo patron. Blago wants to shoot for the stars, and if Pa-in-Law falls in the process so be it. But he really ought to be careful, because while he has the public on his side now, burning bridges in Chicagoland politics is a very, very dangerous business.
Ft, about Blago, the weird thing is that the Republicans in northeast Illinois seem to like him, while the Democrats downstate--defined as everything south of I-80--detest him. Go figure.
I give him credit for fighting the Democratic establishment, although I still don't like what he did to many businesses in the state, costing a lot of jobs and consequently the state a lot of revenue.
Did you ever read
this column on Blago?