Tribune | Call it rebellion, or pent-up resentment based on legitimate grievances. Whatever you call it, he's weak now.
After
decades of hibernation under Daley, black political Chicago has begun
to reassert itself. Young African-American leaders push for recognition.
Black politics isn't the Rev. Jesse Jackson's show any longer.
One
of the casualties of the old order appears to be Cook County State's
Attorney Anita Alvarez. Rahm's buddy, David Axelrod, publicly criticized
her for not charging Van Dyke with murder sooner, just as black
activists were calling for her political head.
Now black
politicians who supported Emanuel and said nothing about how he sat on
the video are busy directing African-American animosity Alvarez's way.
Many of them won't say Emanuel should resign, they're still worried
he'll bite. But Alvarez? They want her out.
Alvarez was left without a chair when the music stopped. And now she's their offering.
Is
it fair? No, but then there's nothing fair about Chicago politics. It's
a power game. There's arithmetic and technique in getting out the vote,
but great swells of emotion help too, and those who win know how to aim
all that pent-up animosity at their targets.
It's all taking
place before the March primary, as Cook County Board President Toni
Preckwinkle pushes her candidate for state's attorney, Kimberly Foxx.
What's
unsaid in polite circles but understood by all is that Foxx is black
and Alvarez isn't. So the campaign for state's attorney becomes an
exercise in political redemption and black political expectation,
directed by Preckwinkle, who didn't have the steel to stand and
challenge Rahm herself.
