Anatomy of a Swing State

Back in 1982, as this country's long slide into Conservative idiocracy was accelerating to white-knuckle speeds, the Equal Rights Amendment was still a thing.

The ERA also provided an occasion for the late Mike Royko to eloquently and succinctly explain the political dynamics of Illinois.  And I can say that 32 years later, even as political majorities have ebbed and flowed, very little has changed in the way the state is balanced between the state's Blue Chicago and it's Red Suburbs and Downstate.

In fact, if anything, between Federal Prisoner #40892-424 wrecking the economy of the state capitol by exporting thousands of state jobs to Chicago and the suburban Republicans going full, batshit Teabagger, tensions are much worse than they used to be.

John Kass: Professional "It's Never About Race" Hustler

Over the last couple of days I had occasion to be back in Chicago for a minute.

While there, I grabbed a Trib and found that John Kass -- the douchbag who runs a skeevy wingnut apologist fly dump site on the real estate formerly occupied by the sainted Mike Royko (video above) -- is still feeding your Crazy Uncle Liberty his talking points:

Garner died because he dared interfere with government reach and government muscle that didn't want to lose tax revenue to independent operators.

...

A dying man's last words become a hashtag. The political Left accepts it, so much of the media accepts it without question, and "I can't breathe" becomes an organizing tool.

The odd thing, of course, is that Garner sold black market cigarettes for a living. And cigarette smokers often say, "I can't breathe" as they die of lung cancer.

...

And while there may be elements of race and police hostility in this, there is an inconvenient truth:

Garner died because he cut in on the government's action.

He made a living of sorts selling black market cigarettes called "loosies." And the city didn't get its tax money from those sales.

...

Kass comes out of a long, Chicago tradition of meathead bungalow-belt bigots who are hardwired to reflexively insist that race never's got nuthin' to do with nuthin' -- and anyone who says otherwise is a some variation of "race hustler".

Doesn't matter how patently ludicrous this idea is.

Doesn't matter how many knots a clown like Kass has to tie himself into to pretend this isn't about race.

Doesn't matter that, if his "reasoning" were anything but mouth noise, the country should be littered with the bullet-riddled or strangled bodies of tens of thousands of people who routinely bitch at cops and about bullshit speeding and parking tickets but never end up dead.

Doesn't matter that video exists proving him to be a liar, and wouldn't matter if you pried his eyelids open and forced him to watch that video 1,000 times.

And since there is no force on Earth capable of making assholes like Kass bend a knee to reality, clearly the only alternative is to give them columns in major American newspapers.

Respectable Fish

"No respectable fish would be wrapped in a Murdoch newspaper."

-- Mike Royko

Mike Royko, who quit his job at the Chicago Sun-Times and took his column across the street to the "enemy" Chicago Tribune one day after Rupert Murdoch took over the Sun-Times.

That was in 1983.

The great Roger Ebert recounts what happened next:

... Mike Royko called Rupert Murdoch The Alien. He landed on the Chicago Sun-Times like a bug-eyed monster from outer space and extruded poisonous slime. I was an eyewitness.

Under the leadership of publisher James Hoge, the paper had won six Pulitzers and should have won another one (for the ingenious idea of opening a bar named the Mirage and baiting it to attract the flies of Chicago corruption). Hoge had just overseen a redesign of the paper that made it then (and in my opinion still) the most elegant tabloid I had ever seen.

The Sun-Times was poised on the edge of something great. The Chicago Tribune remained tethered to its hidebound past. Morale was high.

After the closing of the Chicago Daily News in 1978, Royko, the greatest Chicago columnist, had taken up residence in a corner office of the Sun-Times where he wrote his superlative daily column and smoked all the Pall Malls he wanted to. This golden age lasted until 1983. The paper was owned by Marshall Field V and his brother Ted Field. Ted wanted to cash in. Marshall couldn't or didn't choose to buy him out. Murdoch was known to be a bidder. Royko was involved in negotiations with a group of local investors assembled by Jim Hoge to buy the paper. Marshall Field, who owned half the paper, said he was willing to sell to that group, but Murdoch offered $10 million more than Hoge could raise, and Marshall's brother, the movie producer Ted Field, insisted they take it.

...

While Royko eventually snuck out to that great barbecue and softball stein-hoist in the sky in 1997, Murdoch continues to infest the planet with his multimedia fascism and his loyal army of

goons and well-poisoners.

And now?

From the redoubtable Charles P. Pierce:

...

I am not comforted by the outburst of genuine Third Wave banality slung around there by chairman Genachowski, especially when I realized that Murdoch is just a short step off stage, salivating at the prospect of gnawing what meat is left off the bones of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, two once-great newspapers currently dead in the fields because that same golden new age of wealth creation resulted in almost three decades in which American newspapers came to be owned by avaricious, bean-counting morons. Murdoch wants both papers, and the only thing keeping this horror at bay are those "outdated prohibitions" that prevent him from owning newspapers and radio and television stations in the same market. Media writer Craig Aaron has been all over this.

There is simply no reason for any country anywhere in the world ever to do favors for Rupert Murdoch ever again. His British operation has been exposed engaging in outright criminality. (And anyone who thinks that criminality stopped in the UK is fooling themselves.) His television network in the United States has turned to outright buffoonery and is starting to stagger in the ratings. He is the Bhopal in any media ecosystem in which he is allowed to flourish. There never has been a better time to break what power he has left.

Instead, it appears that we are going to streamline ourselves right into enhancing his power in minor markets like Chicago and Los Angeles. It appears to me that this ought to be of some concern to an administration on which Mr. Murdoch has painted a bulls-eye since January of 2009. Vengeance is not always a bad thing.

Were he alive today, I wonder what Royko's escape route from the clutches of Voldemurd

 would look like this time?

Professional Left Podcast #94

"Anyone who is different today faces harassment, whether it is in the way he dresses, or in the position he takes on important issues. And when the price of being different is a cold fear, with good reason, then freedom as we peddle it in our international publicity releases is gone. If and when it disappears, it won't be stolen by big government, the tax collector, or the Supreme Court. Fascism will be the people's choice. It usually is. We've managed to avoid it so far only because nobody nutty enough to give the people what they want has come along. Yet."

-- Mike Royko, May 28, 1968

Links for this episode:

• Scooter Libby ignored at the Tucker Carlson website launch party
• Jerry Brown dealing with a new Republican opposition in California.

Thanks again to Frank Chow for the graphic at the ProLeft website and Heather at Crooks and Liars Video Cafe for their help. And don't forget, our archives are available for free with no downloads at Professional Left.

Da' money goes here:

Dan Rostenkowski Dies

From Greg Heinz at Crain's Blog:

Dan Rostenkowski -- old Chicago at its best and worst -- dies
Posted by Greg H. at 8/11/2010 11:22 AM CDT on Chicago Business
Political insiders are confirming that former U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski — a decades-long fixture of Chicago's power structure — has passed away.

Mr. Rostenkowski, 82, has been ailing in recent months and apparently died overnight in Wisconsin, where his daughter lives, sources say.

Though Mr. Rostenkowski was forced out of office amid a political corruption scandal that resulted in him doing prison time, he remained a hero to Chicago's power elite.
...

To get a sense of Chicago politics as they were when Rosty towered over them, here is a video of the normally sure-footed congressman radically misreading the political and media landscapes and running smack into an AARP buzz-saw at the Original Town Hall meeting --



-- and a snippet from a 1994 Tribune article (emphasis added) about his last primary campaign before heading off to the House of Many Doors, and conducted at a time when virtually everyone in Chicago was pretty sure he was gonna to get stomped:

Netsch, Rostenkowski Win
Congressional Stalwart Rolls Over Cullerton
Election '94.
March 16, 1994|By Hanke Gratteau and Ellen Warren, Tribune Staff Writers.

U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski swept to victory in the toughest primary campaign of his life Tuesday, crushing all challengers and fending off, for now, questions about ethics and a lingering House Post Office scandal in Washington.

He did it the old-fashioned Chicago way, with a combination of strength on the street, important connections, a fat campaign war chest and constant reminders of the value of having a House Ways and Means Committee chairman from Chicago.

With 97 percent of the vote counted, Rostenkowski had 47 percent. State Sen. John Cullerton, a threat for a time, but not much of a threat on Election Day, had 29 percent. Former Ald. Dick Simpson got 13 percent; Michael Wojcik, 9 percent; and John McCarthy, 2 percent.

Perhaps more importantly, Rostenkowski made certain that Cullerton was outmanned, outspent and outmaneuvered as Election Day approached. The veteran congressman sent 700 workers into the field Tuesday, dwarfing the Cullerton effort and guaranteeing that every likely Rostenkowski voter knew it was time to go to the polls.

At the victory party, two supporters, Mike Pawlowski, 25, who works for the Sewer Department, and his brother-in-law, Mike Galichio, 32, who works for the Forest Preserve of Cook County, described a 14-hour day in the streets for the Rostenkowski effort.
...

Rostenkowski also paved his campaign with constant reminders of the federal bounty he has delivered to Chicago, underlining that connection with announcements that a new federal job training center would be coming soon, along with a Vietnam War-era helicopter for the Fire Department from the Department of Defense.

So how did he win his primary?

Read and learn, kiddies (from Wikipedia):

In his book "Naked economics: Undressing the Dismal Science", author Charles Wheelan wrote “We Chicagoans can drive around the city and literally point to things that Rosty built.”

Dan Rostenkowski did deliver federal funds for Chicago and the State of Illinois. Some of his notable projects include: securing 32 million dollars for the Blue Line of the Chicago Transit Authority which expanded travel from the loop to O’Hare Airport, $450 million to repave and expand the Kennedy Expressway, 25 Million to fix the dangerous S Curve on Lake Shore Drive[11] 4 billion dollars for the Deep Tunnel Project, which was designed to keep raw sewage from entering the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, while also protecting over half a million suburban and city home owners threatened by flooded basements.(Cohen,176)

He followed that with $42.4 million for reservoirs in McCook and Thornton Townships and by O'Hare airport, $16.8 million for downtown's State Street Mall renovation, $3.5 million for the construction of the Cook County Boot Camp, a military-style alternative for first-time youthful offenders. When the Chicago White Sox baseball team was considering moving to Florida, Rostenkowski secured a $150 million bond authority for the construction of US Cellular Field.

Once nearly abandoned and left in disrepair, he ensured $75 million in tax-free bonds for the remodeling of Navy Pier, which today has become Chicago’s preeminent tourist attraction.[citation needed]

To ease erosion that threatened Lake Shore Drive and several harbors and museums along the Chicago lake front, Rostenkowski secured $2.2 million for the Chicago Shoreline Protection Project, and laid the foundation for a coordinated partnership among the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal government and the City of Chicago.

He also was responsible for securing funding for the upkeep of Chicago area bridges including the Chicago Skyway, the Division, Cermak, and Roosevelt street bridges.

In January 1983 Plitt Theaters filed a lawsuit to obtain a permit to demolish the historic Chicago Theater. Mayor Jane Byrne and other civic leaders appealed to Rostenkowski to assist them in obtaining a federal Urban Development Action Grant to save the theater. Grants of this kind were being frozen from Chicago by housing secretary Samuel Pierce in reprisal for Rostenkowski's opposition to the Reagan administration's Urban Enterprise Zone bill. Rostenkowski considered these zones a Republican gimmick that would help businesses escape taxes without addressing chronic inner-city unemployment. Rostenkowski called his friend Vice President George H. W. Bush, “If I don’t get that grant,you're going to have one very pissed off chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for your administration's pending tax bill”.[12]

Shortly thereafter, Pierce phoned Rostenkowski to ask if he could come up and see him.

Sure, the congressman replied, just bring the papers for the theater project.

Love it or hate it, this is how things work in the real world, and you don't get to sit in one of the Big Chairs without understanding that right down to your fingertips.

But -- as the senior citizen "Wild in the Streets" clip shows -- the real world is not a static place, and when it changes, dinosaurs can perish fast and without ever really understanding why. From our great chronicler of Chicago clout, crime, politics, BBQ, softball and all things tavern-related, Mike Royko:

The Rules Kept Changing; Dan Rostenkowski Didn't

By Mike Royko

Chicago Tribune

HER name was Mary, and she was middle-aged, worked as a domestic, had little money and no medical plan, and was in need of some serious and expensive life-saving surgery.

But she had lived in her Northwest Side Chicago neighborhood for most of her life. And she knew somebody who knew somebody who knew a politician of considerable importance.

Some calls were made, the most important coming from the office of the politician.

The result was that Mary went to a good hospital, was treated by skilled physicians, was cured and went home with a bill of $0.00.

How the politician arranged this, I don't know. I assume that the hospital and the doctors owed him favors. That's the way things have always worked in Chicago, which can be good or bad. In this case, it was good.

And it wasn't the only time the politician did something like that. Using his political muscle to help people out was part of his trade. That's the good side of what used to be called machine politics.

I like to think of the late alderman Vito Marzullo, who usually placed one or two young lawyers in city or county patronage jobs. And one night every week, the lawyers came to Vito's ward office and handled legal chores for low-income people from the neighborhood. Free, of course.

In Mary's case, the politician who took care of her medical needs was Dan Rostenkowski, whose career in public service has just ended in a most tragic way.

Before anyone leaps for the phone, stationery or e-mail device, let me say that Rostenkowski and I are not pals. Far from it. We've never particularly liked each other, and our longest conversation has been about two minutes.

Many years ago, we sat together at a banquet honoring up-and-coming young Chicagoans in various fields. He was the young politician with a future, and I was the young columnist.

He was aloof and wary of talking to someone who just might stick it to him down the line. Which shows he was smart, because I later did exactly that.

That was a pity, really, because we had a lot in common besides our ethnicity. We came from the same neighborhood. My family once owned a tavern within a short walk of Rostenkowski's house. And his precinct captain never once hustled us for a fast buck.

We have mutual friends and share some of the same bad habits. But when he was grabbed for a DUI in Wisconsin some years ago, he had the good sense to be polite to the cops.
...

What I'm stumbling into saying is that nobody should be taking pleasure from Rostenkowski's misfortune. Not unless you have never, ever, broken even a minor law and gotten away with it, fudged a bit on your taxes or violated any of the Ten Commandments.

Only a few decades ago, none of this would have been happening. That's because the rules changed. Most of the things he was nailed for would have been legal and common or, at worst, nickel-dime offenses when he began his career in Congress.

That's the way it is in our society. The rules keep changing. Things we could once say or think are now taboo. And acts that were once considered gosh-awful are now embraced.

Rostenkowski's mistake was not changing. Maybe he didn't notice. Or maybe he didn't see the danger.
...

Man, I miss Royko.

In lieu of flowers, bales of money will be dropped from Chinook Helicopter

at this weekend's Air and Water show.

In Days of Old, When Knights Were Bold...

If this doesn't make you want to grab Ewick Ewickson by his greasy ankles and use him to pound David Broder into the ground like a tent stake, then pally, you got no heart inya.

(h/t Windy Citizen)