Can we stop playing pretend? The insult to the intelligence of the average Chicagoan -- the Chicagoan without a heavyweight alderman for a brother -- is overwhelming.When it comes to conflicts of interest at City Hall, one degree of separation is no separation at all, except in the make-believe world of Dan and Ed Burke.
The scam, as described by investigative reporter Tim Novak in Monday's Sun-Times, goes like this:
State Rep. Daniel J. Burke has raked in tens of thousands of dollars by working on the side as a lobbyist at City Hall, paving the way for clients who seek big city contracts. These contracts must be approved by a vote of the City Council, where Dan's brother, Ald. Ed Burke, is among the most senior and powerful members.
And Ald. Burke doesn't even bother to recuse himself from the vote because legally -- if not ethically -- he doesn't have to. Brother Ed and his pals say "aye," and brother Dan collects a fee.
If ever you needed proof, folks, that money and contracts at Chicago's City Hall are an insiders' game for the favored few, this is it.
The pathetic truth is that City Hall's culture of corruption, snaking back more than a century, is so deep-seated and strong that nobody can write enough laws to kill it. If the goo goos of reform, for instance, were to push through a new law that says the brothers and sisters of aldermen can't work as paid lobbyists in City Hall, the business would simply be passed along to nephews and nieces, or some such thing.
The eternally duped public still would fear the fix is in. And, more often than not, they'd still be right.
Not for nothing have 31 Chicago aldermen been convicted of felonies in the last 37 years.
Clean government requires that politicians and other public employees abide not just by the letter of the law, but also by the spirit. Unfortunately, the only spirit walking the marble halls of City Hall seems to be Paddy Bauler, the boodling alderman who so famously said more than 50 years ago, ''Chicago ain't ready for reform.''
If state Rep. Dan Burke sincerely cared about good government, he would not work as a lobbyist in City Hall, legally or not. If Ald. Ed Burke sincerely cared, he would recuse himself from any vote that put a dollar, directly or indirectly, into brother Dan's beautifully tailored pinstriped pocket.
As it happens, Dan Burke stopped doing lobbying work in City Hall a year ago, but not out of any crisis of conscience. He told Novak he was just too busy campaigning for re-election to the Illinois House. Burke said nothing about giving up the business for good, and we expect he'll be back at it soon enough.
In the meantime, he'll just have to get by on the $68,828 pension he collects from his years as the city's deputy clerk, plus the $85,903 he makes as a state legislator.
In a related story, Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times reported Sunday that a lot of aldermen are annoyed with Mayor Daley for saying the city's inspector general should be empowered to investigate the City Council. They say the mayor's just trying to deflect attention from his own problems with corruption.
We agree with the aldermen: Daley's doing a little posing.
And we agree with Daley: The inspector general should have complete power to investigate aldermen.
Although, unfortunately, probably not their brothers.