Like Clubbing a Drunk on the Head
Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown seems to be sympathetic to Alderman Joe Moore, the Chicago City Councilclown who has spent more time crafting legislation to protect geese and pounding pavement in others states on behalf of Barack Obama than he has in making sure there are enough trash cans on the streets of his 49th Ward. Or getting a year-old pile of gravel removed from a busy sidewalk. Und so weiter.
In fact, Brown's column is eerily similar to what Moore said in a live interview on WLS 890 AM this morning (5/15/08), well after Brown's column was printed overnight:
"That doesn't bode well for those who think the Council still might buck the mayor's intention of relocating the Chicago Children's Museum to Grant Park over the wishes of 42nd Ward Ald. Brendan Reilly and the park's neighbors." (Source)
It's as though Moore read Brown's column and cribbed from it. Or did Brown write the column for Moore, so that Moore could crib from it? It may be like asking which came first, the goose or the egg.
Perhaps Mr. Brown just recently moved to Chicago. No, I seem to recall reading one of his columns accidentally, a few years ago. He's been here long enough to know how Chicago politics work: The end usually justifies the means, and the local "Democrats" don't particularly like to act democratically, Mayor Daley especially.
Two words prove my point: Meigs Field. In the late of night, Daley bulldozed the little airstrip on the lake. No committees, no hearings, no council meetins. Just bulldozers and klieg lights. That was wrong. Brown is correct, in principle, to criticize Daley's non-democratic methods. But Daley's methods have been the stuff of legend for years.
So, the fact that Brown expresses surprised indignation is, well, surprising. Not that I disagree with his basic point: Democratic society demands democratic action. But he misses the point that Moore's foie gras legislation, and the time and effort that has gone into its creation, then implementation, and all the humiliation that Chicago has gotten because of it, and the two years of Moore and the Council wasting time debating it, the police laughing at it and rarely bothering to enforce it, and so on and on... Well, the point that Brown misses or does not care about is that something had to be done, and done now, without further adieu.
When you see a drunk staggering toward you with a gun in his hand, aimed at you, and the man does not respond to your attempts to reason with him, you have a choice. You don't have time for polite negotiation, he's not listening and he doesn't care what you say. So, you can stand there and let the inevitable happen to you, or you can club the guy over the head as hard and as fast as you can.
Mayor Daley wisely chose the latter course of action.