-By Warner Todd Huston
Rahm Emanuel is now officially sworn in as Chicago’s 46th mayor so we can now officially swear at him. Of course, we all know that today’s ceremony was merely a formality as he was anointed mayor months ago the second that Mayor Daley announced the end of his long reign of fiscal irresponsibility in the Windy City.
Interestingly, WLS news said that there were many seats left empty at the ceremony, even in the VIP area. One might assume that Mayor Emanuel has yet to endear himself to all the little people. With his no-nonsense, hard-nosed reputation, one wonders if he ever will?
Saying, “Our city’s financial situation is difficult and profound,” Emanuel warned the city that his upcoming term will not be an easy one.
“I fully understand there will be those who oppose our efforts to reform our schools, to cut costs and to make government more effective,” Emanuel said. “Some are sure to say, ‘This is the way we do things — we can’t try something new. Those are the rules — we can’t change them.’ … So when I ask for new policies, I guarantee, the one answer I will not tolerate is: ‘We’ve never done it that way before.’ Chicago is the city of ‘yes we can’ not ‘No we can’t.’ ”
In fact, he’s 100% correct on the change that is needed in the city. The corruption is endemic and a new direction is needed. Can Emanuel be tough enough to force that change?
Actually, I have mixed emotions about a mayor Emanuel. He’s a tough guy, he isn’t necessarily the best friend of government unions (a good thing), for a Democrat he’s remarkably business friendly (as far as Demos go, anyway), and he won’t suffer fools easily. These are signs that he might be able to get a handle on the corrupt mess that is Chicago.
The clown prince of mayors, Richard “King” Daley, left a huge mess. All the accolades that Daley has received simply for having been so corrupt that he became untouchable is nothing to celebrate. He’s left a fiscal disaster in this city and I don’t envy Emanuel (or anyone else that would have become mayor) for the mess he faces.
Whatever the case, we won’t see any garble-mouthed press conferences from Mayor Emanuel. We won’t see unguarded moments. Emanuel is tightly scripted and he won’t allow his staff to go off talking points. My guess is that the news folks will have a tough time covering this mayor. They won’t easily get inside sources unless Emanuel starts to really peeve off the corrupt establishment.
All I can say is, all signs point to a very interesting Chicago political climate over the next few years.
Will Emanuel follow through as the anti-corruption crusader he is claiming to be? If he tries it, will the corrupt establishment accept the change that will kill “the Chicago way”? Or will he just settle in as yet another corrupt Chicago politician as all his predecessors have?
It could be a wild ride, folks.
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
Comments are closed.