For 50 years, Chicago Ald. Ed Burke has projected himself as a man meticulous in all things, from his pocket squares to his use of government leverage on the way to making a fortune.
In his every public move, Burke is cautious, a man who seems to have spent his whole life trying not to be careless.
But the federal extortion charges against him say he wasn’t careful at all. Instead, the charges suggest he was terribly sloppy. And that’s dangerous.
And now he appears to have slopped all over Toni Preckwinkle’s mayoral campaign as well. She’s scrambling, and her campaign is on the edge of panic.
She’s not alone. Burke has befriended other candidates in the campaign for mayor of Chicago, from Gery Chico to Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza. He does favors for people. And people owe him.
They don’t mind a meticulous Burke. A meticulous Burke doesn’t attract the feds. They do mind a messy Burke.
And there’s nothing messier than Burke on the phone with an underling, the two of them talking about using government to squeeze the corporate owners of some 100 Burger King restaurants, denying city permits and so on until they softened up enough to use Burke’s law firm for property tax reduction work.
“All right, I’ll play as hard ball as I can,” the Burke political guy says on the phone, according to the federal complaint.
“OK,” Burke told him on the phone.
OK?
On the phone?
According to the federal complaint, Burke also called an elected official from another state who knew the company that owned the Burger King restaurants.
“I’ll let him know how important you are,” the official said, according to the complaint, on the phone.
“Well,” Burke said, on the phone, “you’re good to do that, but I’d also like to get some of his law business …”
And then in another phone call with the company, Burke kept pressing the link: an ease on city building permits in exchange for law business.
“And, um, we were going to talk about the real estate tax representation and you were going to get somebody to get in touch with me so we can expedite your permits,” Burke told an executive — identified only as Individual B — on the phone.
On the phone, on the phone, on the phone, on the phone.
On the phone. On the phone.
Burke has said he’s done nothing wrong, but ultimately, that’s what federal courtrooms are for.
And, if it ever gets that far, this is often what happens at the end:
Many letters are sent to the federal judge — including handwritten letters from nuns and priests — asking for mercy. Some are read aloud and are often quite poignant. But it doesn’t matter, and Burke knows this.
What Burke is alleged to have done could be the first chapter in a book on how Chicago really works:
A master politician picks up the government hammer given to him by the people, and he pounds business owners until they hire him in a private deal.
It’s all so lucrative and simple, capitalism squeezed through that City Hall cheesecloth.
Now just multiply that thousands upon thousands of times, year after year, business upon business, large and small, from factories to little mom-and-pop hot dog joints, decade after decade, from the days of Bathhouse John and Hinky Dink Kenna through the years of the Daleys and beyond.
All the businesses that have failed and fled to other states can tell you about the Chicago Way. All the jobs gone tell the story.
It isn’t a function of political parties. It is a function of human beings and power. When you hold government in your hands, you don’t really need a gun or a knife, do you?
That’s the reality, but a few of the politicians act as if there is no gambling in Casablanca. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in one of his last acts, on his hind legs demanding Burke be ousted from his role as chairman of the committee on finance.
All this is noise, a distraction, virtue-signaling as if Rahm and the others don’t know what kind of stew they make in City Hall.
Meanwhile, Cook County Board President Preckwinkle’s relationship with Burke is reaching the catastrophic stage, at least as it applies to her public relations.
In the complaint, Burke asks one of the company executives to attend a December 2017 political fundraiser for a “another politician.”
That other politician was Preckwinkle.
The executive kicked $10,000 to Preckwinkle to keep Burke happy. Preckwinkle’s campaign now says she returned the contribution in full. The federal complaint says the Preckwinkle campaign kept $5,600. It looks to me like the wheels are coming off the Preckwinkle bus.
“I think she’s got to answer to the voters what exactly is the relationship between her and Ed Burke,” said mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor.
“Ed Burke never does anything without expecting a quid pro quo. He’s a cunning and strategic person,” Lightfoot told the Tribune. “The fact he decided it was going to, as alleged in the complaint, strong arm and extort a contribution for her said there’s some kind of relationship and he wanted to get something out of it. She’s got to explain what is the quid pro quo.”
It’s nice to think so, that Chicago politicians should explain their relationships with Burke, especially those running for mayor, like Preckwinkle and Chico and Mendoza.
Source Article from https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-met-alderman-ed-burke-charges-kass-20190103-story.html
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