Verdict raises questions on what Daley's future holds
Verdict raises questions on what Daley's future holds
BY MARK BROWN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Copyright by The Chicago Sun Times
July 7, 2006
There was time Thursday evening to shout just one question to Mayor Daley as he spun on his heel and exited stage left after reading his response to the Sorich guilty verdicts, one question he would hear but not answer before reaching the sanctuary of his paneled office door. Channel 2's Mike Parker used the moment wisely.
"Mayor, will this have an effect on your decision to run for re-election?" Parker asked before Daley could complete his escape, the mayor's cheeks reddening because it's against his nature to turn tail and retreat, even at the dignified pace he was attempting to employ.
Without so much as looking back over his shoulder, though, Daley stuck to his script and disappeared through the doorway, still wearing the forced smile he'd brought into the room, the smile that says it'll take more than this to hurt me.
I suppose that leaves it to me to answer the question for him.
No, it will have no effect on the mayor's decision to run for re-election, because he must have seen it coming, and even if he didn't, he knew that the federal investigation wasn't going to end here.
Oh, he surely hoped for another outcome to the trial, one that would have allowed him to strut his stuff in front of the reporters before heading off to his private dinner with President Bush.
His statement seemed to admit as much: "While I accept the jury's decision, I am saddened by the verdict for these men and their families, because I've never known them to be anything but hardworking, and I feel for them at this difficult time," the mayor said.
These were the same notes he sounded the day after they were charged -- and it still seems to skirt the issue.
As the jury found, Robert Sorich and the others were working hard, all right, working hard to operate and protect the fraudulent hiring system used by Daley's administration to evade court-ordered restrictions on political patronage.
Just cogs in a system?
But the mayor, having previously professed to be unaware of the extent of the defendants' activities, only "accepts" the jury's verdict, which is what you say when you have a rooting interest for the opposite outcome. That's his right, but he's never said so.
It was certainly in contrast to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro saying that "everyone in Chicago should be enormously grateful" to the 12 jurors for seeing the scam that underlied this case: rigged job interviews and phony paperwork that allowed City Hall insiders to, in effect, steal jobs.
I'm both grateful and a tad saddened. I would have hated to see the federal investigation fall flat on its face at this stage and embolden those that it threatens, but still have misgivings that these four defendants were just cogs in a system that benefitted others far more than them.
A good many in Chicago won't be grateful, of course, and most of them are fully prepared to vote to re-elect the mayor, along with probably quite a few who think the jury did a swell job but would stick with Daley anyway.
But that's not the big question for Daley as he contemplates re-election either.
The big question is: if he runs and wins, does that make him a bigger target for federal prosecutors, or might they pass him by if he's no longer in the game?
Jurors sent a powerful message
A whole bunch of convicted former politicians can tell him that you don't get a pass when you leave office, not that he wouldn't have already noticed on his own. Plus, there's the possibility that the Justice Department might hold a decision to prosecute to a higher standard before indicting an incumbent who has just been duly elected. Plus, it's easier to fight back when you still have the power to initiate popular new programs -- and raise campaign funds.
So he'll run.
None of this is to say that Daley has done something for which we know he should be prosecuted. Nothing that has surfaced in this trial or any other case in the Hired Truck investigation points directly to the mayor.
There is plenty, though, that points to the mayor's trusted aides and advisers, the ones who supervised and counseled Sorich and may have dealt directly with the mayor.
The jurors were all careful to say that they weren't trying to send a message to Daley. I believe them. Juries do a better job than we realize of blocking out the extraneous stuff surrounding a trial.
But just the same, they sent a message, a powerful one. It was a message that says that regular people can be shown to understand what was wrong at City Hall.
BY MARK BROWN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Copyright by The Chicago Sun Times
July 7, 2006
There was time Thursday evening to shout just one question to Mayor Daley as he spun on his heel and exited stage left after reading his response to the Sorich guilty verdicts, one question he would hear but not answer before reaching the sanctuary of his paneled office door. Channel 2's Mike Parker used the moment wisely.
"Mayor, will this have an effect on your decision to run for re-election?" Parker asked before Daley could complete his escape, the mayor's cheeks reddening because it's against his nature to turn tail and retreat, even at the dignified pace he was attempting to employ.
Without so much as looking back over his shoulder, though, Daley stuck to his script and disappeared through the doorway, still wearing the forced smile he'd brought into the room, the smile that says it'll take more than this to hurt me.
I suppose that leaves it to me to answer the question for him.
No, it will have no effect on the mayor's decision to run for re-election, because he must have seen it coming, and even if he didn't, he knew that the federal investigation wasn't going to end here.
Oh, he surely hoped for another outcome to the trial, one that would have allowed him to strut his stuff in front of the reporters before heading off to his private dinner with President Bush.
His statement seemed to admit as much: "While I accept the jury's decision, I am saddened by the verdict for these men and their families, because I've never known them to be anything but hardworking, and I feel for them at this difficult time," the mayor said.
These were the same notes he sounded the day after they were charged -- and it still seems to skirt the issue.
As the jury found, Robert Sorich and the others were working hard, all right, working hard to operate and protect the fraudulent hiring system used by Daley's administration to evade court-ordered restrictions on political patronage.
Just cogs in a system?
But the mayor, having previously professed to be unaware of the extent of the defendants' activities, only "accepts" the jury's verdict, which is what you say when you have a rooting interest for the opposite outcome. That's his right, but he's never said so.
It was certainly in contrast to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro saying that "everyone in Chicago should be enormously grateful" to the 12 jurors for seeing the scam that underlied this case: rigged job interviews and phony paperwork that allowed City Hall insiders to, in effect, steal jobs.
I'm both grateful and a tad saddened. I would have hated to see the federal investigation fall flat on its face at this stage and embolden those that it threatens, but still have misgivings that these four defendants were just cogs in a system that benefitted others far more than them.
A good many in Chicago won't be grateful, of course, and most of them are fully prepared to vote to re-elect the mayor, along with probably quite a few who think the jury did a swell job but would stick with Daley anyway.
But that's not the big question for Daley as he contemplates re-election either.
The big question is: if he runs and wins, does that make him a bigger target for federal prosecutors, or might they pass him by if he's no longer in the game?
Jurors sent a powerful message
A whole bunch of convicted former politicians can tell him that you don't get a pass when you leave office, not that he wouldn't have already noticed on his own. Plus, there's the possibility that the Justice Department might hold a decision to prosecute to a higher standard before indicting an incumbent who has just been duly elected. Plus, it's easier to fight back when you still have the power to initiate popular new programs -- and raise campaign funds.
So he'll run.
None of this is to say that Daley has done something for which we know he should be prosecuted. Nothing that has surfaced in this trial or any other case in the Hired Truck investigation points directly to the mayor.
There is plenty, though, that points to the mayor's trusted aides and advisers, the ones who supervised and counseled Sorich and may have dealt directly with the mayor.
The jurors were all careful to say that they weren't trying to send a message to Daley. I believe them. Juries do a better job than we realize of blocking out the extraneous stuff surrounding a trial.
But just the same, they sent a message, a powerful one. It was a message that says that regular people can be shown to understand what was wrong at City Hall.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 8:43 AM
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