The editors of the Chicago Tribune take another whack at Rahm Emanuel:
A police scandal has swallowed Emanuel’s mayoralty, yet it’s only one of three debacles that have cost him the trust of so many Chicagoans:
Even after a huge hike in property taxes, citizens see that his borrowing binge buries today’s and tomorrow’s Chicago under enormous debts.
Meanwhile his school system is on the verge of financial collapse. What does he tell Chicagoans? He wants $6 million in tobacco taxes to give incoming freshmen a transition program. Transition to what? High schools possibly closed by a teachers strike, a financial reckoning or both?
Once again, a mayor confronted by crisis changes the subject, answering a question nobody asked. Best to maintain the facade that all will be well — even as his Democratic allies in Springfield reject a budget deal that would begin to rescue Chicago and its children.
This yearning to control the message citizens hear is why Rahm Emanuel is losing Chicagoans. Crises that demand the constancy, competence and resolve he projected to voters five years ago instead get bluster, spin and fleeting assurances. The mayor stands behind his police superintendent, then flips and fires him. The mayor opposes a U.S. Department of Justice probe of police practices, then flips and welcomes it. The mayor says his Law Department doesn’t require third-party scrutiny, then flips and says it does.
Theatrics to win each news cycle suggest to Chicagoans that their mayor focuses on the wrong question: What would make us look good? rather than What’s the right response?
Oh, fiddle-dee-dee. Why theatrics instead of substantive responses? Because it’s all he’s got. He doesn’t have “constancy, competence, or resolve”. He doesn’t have a local constituency. All he’s got is the ability to raise political contributions from donors who don’t live in Illinois.
And by the way a little more contrition on the part of the Trib’s editors would be welcome. Why the heck did they endorse his re-election? It was obvious to a lot of us that Emanuel was an empty suit back then. I’ll close with their conclusion, addressing the mayor:
You have squandered believability. Face it. Own it. Chicagoans sense that you are not leveling with them. Latest example: When you quickly follow a big property tax hike with a request for more billions in borrowing authority, they also sense that you have no strategy beyond running from problems. That you’ve doomed them and their children to … more big tax hikes. Five years in, your City Hall still spends far more than its income justifies.
Many Chicagoans who voted for you expected a confrontation with reality — even if fixing city finances ended your political career. A private-sector CEO who answered a financial free fall with ever more massive borrowing would be long gone.
We expect, Mr. Mayor, that you aren’t leaving, that you’ll serve the last three years of this term. We aren’t calling for your head. We wish we could suggest how you can restore the credibility that got you elected. We don’t know that you can. If we had to reduce the task at hand to three imperatives that may go against your grain:
Less talking, more fixing.
Less politics, more governance.
Less fealty to other leaders in your party, more direct dealing with Gov. Bruce Rauner. You have to have his signature.
Just bear in mind, as you try to revive your city and your mayoralty, that the McDonald case alone doesn’t dictate your legacy. If you can rescue a debt-drenched City Hall, if you can save an imploding school system, if you can make peace in Springfield and stop the free fall, you can regain the trust of those who elected and re-elected you.
It sounds like wishful thinking to me but maybe it’ll catch his attention. Assuming he reads the Trib rather than the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Los Angeles Times.
