Thank you, Gov. Bruce Rauner, for helping us feel something we never thought possible — pangs of sympathy for Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The mayor, after all, has certain quirks that don’t lend themselves to empathy. He lectures us, for instance, enumerating his talking points as though we should be taking better notes. He plots his every move, it seems, to align with a planned “narrative arc.” (This being Beltway-speak for an ideal storyline, though it’s a contrivance most Chicagoans can spot a mile away.) He turns peevish and argumentative in situations where a smile might better disarm a challenger.
Even so, it was hard not to feel bad for the guy when our rookie Republican governor, a fabulously wealthy multimillionaire, declared he’s been “very disappointed” with the way Emanuel has handled Chicago police misconduct in the wake of the 16-shot killing of Laquan McDonald. The implication being that our down-from-Winnetka governor would have handled the situation in a way more acceptable to aggrieved African-Americans now calling for Emanuel’s ouster.
Then, while he was at it, Rauner excoriated Emanuel for not helping him win passage in Springfield of “structural reforms” — like union busting right-to-work zones — he wants before negotiating a state budget that’s likely to require a tax increase. Nor will he help solve the mayor’s immediate problem — the looming shutdown of the Chicago Public Schools for lack of funds to complete the school year.
“We’ll work together cooperatively if the city is helping us reform the state,” Rauner said on his return from a family holiday excursion to Morocco. “If the city is opposing reform for the state, which so far they are, or staying silent and letting the speaker (Michael Madigan) block reform, no, I’m sorry.”
I’m guessing Emanuel was taken aback by this public rebuke, and for two reasons. First because the two men had been friends, their families even vacationing together in the Rockies at one of Rauner’s getaways. And second because Emanuel, to my jaundiced eyes, had been trying to position himself as a reasonable broker between the warring sides.
Though a lifelong Democratic operative and officeholder, Emanuel runs comfortably with people in the hedge fund and private equity industry. Some of them even cut him in on some sweet re-fi deals between his government gigs at the White House and Congress. He knows what businesspeople think of labor unions and progressive taxation.
So it must have stung when Rauner summarily gave him the back of his hand. At least I hope it did, because I also gather that Mayor Emanuel is the kind of guy you don’t want to tick off.
Until now, Emanuel has been protective of his moneyed friends. Whenever the press or someone from the left brings up the idea of a financial transaction tax, a city income tax or even a progressive state income tax more in line with the federal brackets, the mayor demurs or changes the subject.
Perhaps that will change. After all, the mayor has home field advantage in this phase of the game. This is politics. And when a guy who you thought was your friend, a guy who you thought would help you out of a jam, turns out to be neither, well, it’s time to start counting votes, taking names, calling in chits.
The mayor is pretty good at that. Just ask former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich or former mayoral candidates Gery Chico and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
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Three hundred years ago there was a brilliant but low-born French poet and playwright whose talents earned him the patronage and companionship of nobility. Until, that is, he offended the Chevalier de Rohan, who proceeded to have the young writer horsewhipped.
Rahm Emanuel may be no Voltaire, and Chicago no pre-Revolution Paris, but now that the Chevalier de Winnetka has reminded the mayor who he is, this contest may be headed to a whole new level.
John McCarron teaches, consults and writes on urban affairs.
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