The Chicago Way Comes to Washington

The media is peddling the sense of inevitability for their Barackstar, already engaging in speculation about who will be there with him, and writing puff pieces to ensure their access. But it's not Mr. Smith comes to Washington, it's the slimy pay to play Chicago Way writ large. Sanitizing domestic terrorists because their daddy has money. David "Astroturf" Axelrod, Mayor Daley's man from way back, a lobbyist who pretends otherwise, the bland face for Barack Obama. Valerie Jarrett, slum landlady, the successor to Tony Rezko. Rahm Emanuel, well:

Mentioning men who held the seat before him, Emanuel said, "Members of Congress, representatives in that district were Dan Rostenkowski, Frank Annunzio, Rod Blagojevich, and they took a bet on a kid called Rahm Emanuel.

Yeah, he didn't live there, but the Mayor supported him and shunted a nice lady aside. This seems to be a pattern among these guys. And of his predecessors Rostenkowski went to jail and Rod Blagojevich, our current governor, is on his way there. Lynn Sweet in the Sun Times describes Rahmbo this way:

If Obama leaves him where he is, Obama will have a pair of powerful, trusted enforcers in Congress: Emanuel in the House and Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 man in the Senate.

"Enforcers", how poetic. And Durbin was second only to Barack Obama as the most liberal in the Senate in the last ranking--both to the left of Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist.

Then there's Bill Daley, the eminence grise behind the scenes.

Obama probably would need Axelrod to come along--to run interference for him on Tony Rezko's latest hit song, hitting the top of the charts with the Feds...

The Chicago Way.