In the category of closing the gate after the horse has bolted from the pasture, Mayor Rahm fired Ed Burke as chair of the all-important council finance committee after the feds indicted the 14th ward alderman on charges of shaking down a Burger King franchisee.
In the aftermath of Burke’s indictment, Mayor Emanuel put on his sad and somber face—as though he were really hurt and surprised by what went down—and told the Tribune that public servants must have “a moral and ethical compass that informs your judgement of right from wrong [that] must be informed by a moral sense and an ethical sense of why we do what we do and what is our purpose in serving in public life.”
And yet Burke’s the guy who waved through the parking meter deal—with O’Connor’s assistance as mayoral floor leader—with no legitimate oversight after a day or two of hearings.
As the federal indictment points out, Burke runs a law firm that specializes in winning tax breaks from wealthy and well-connected property owners (like Donald Trump).
Back in the `80s, Burke and his pal—former Alderman Edward Vrdolyak—led a Trump-like, white nationalist uprising against Mayor Harold Washington. The purpose was to exploit white fears and prejudices about a black mayor to sabotage the Washington administration and gain more power for themselves. Burke has never accounted for his role in Council Wars, much less apologized for it.
If you recall, Rahm also offered sad and somber lectures on ethnics when the feds indicted Byrd-Bennett for her role in a $20.5 million contract scandal.
