Saturday, December 26, 2009

Terry O'Brien for County Board President - He Can Tell You What the Hell the Job Is About!


Toni Preckwinkle has a pass from the Chicago Editorial Boards and the humorless and, in my opinion, not really all that bright 4th Ward Alderman (Nobel novelist Saul Bellow was racist* because the NYT said so and Toni falls down open manholes -c.1998)wants to be CCBP. Progressives have welded their beings to Toni, as they always do once the central thought machine determines who is really whom. Old Harold Washington thought that Toni Preckwinkle was 'not all that' and backed Judge Tim Evans. Toni got the backing of national joke Carol Moseley Braun( Dorothy Brown on Steroids) and managed to squeak into the Alderman's chair in 1991.

Terry O'Brien worked at the Sanitary District, as did his father. He worked to become President of one of the largest fresh water management districts on earth - the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago. Terry O'Brien is a manager.

Cook County is mismanaged. Really, really, really mismanaged. Terry O'Brien is the last guy that Mayor Daley wants as President of the Cook County Board.

Toni Preckwinkle would be Todd Stroger without the laughs.

Terry O'Brien understands the job. Here is a Q & A from Cliff Carlson's great Irish American News ( click my post title):



Q. What is the Cook County Board
responsible for?

A. About a third is health care, a
third is safety which includes prisons
and courts, and another third is the
infrastructure system. Increase in
electronic monitoring, home confinement
and work release programs
would decrease incarceration of nonviolent
criminals, cutting the costs of
housing offenders.


* In October 2007 Preckwinkle opposed naming a landmark in the 4th ward for 1976 Nobel literature laureate Saul Bellow, reportedly on the grounds that Bellow had made remarks that Preckwinkle considered racist.[32][33] She also opposed the renaming of a stretch of street near the original Playboy Club "Hugh Hefner Way",

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

you sound like a corrupt irishman to back Obrien, Madigan, Daley or Quinn
All have scandals and corruption..just becaue they are Irish, doesnt mean they are qualified.

Phil Krone said...

I do not believe I've ever met Pat Hickey but I'd like to. I think I agree with Pat somewhere between 40% and 60% of the time, a percentage he might wish to dispute, but I won't give him that satisfaction(I think he'd like me to disagree with him about 90% of the time).

I did not know that Toni Preckwinkle opposed an honor for Saul Bellow. If so she's wrong, though the specific honor might not be the most appropriate one. She's an openminded person and I'm sure open to reconsideration.

I supported Tim Evans every time he ran for Alderman, and it took until 2007 for Toni and I to find common ground and I believe she should be elected President of the County Board though I can make a case for all of the candidates seeking the office including the unelectable incumbent Todd Stroger and the Republican Roger Keats.

I have a special friendship with Dorothy Brown and think a great deal of Terry O'Brien, but on balance, I think Toni Preckwinkle is the best person for the job, nothing against Pat Hickey.

I am partial to Saul Bellow because he was a personal friend, indeed dated my mother in high school (then Tuley, now Clemente).

Fortunately his relationship with my mother wasn't so serious that it prevented me from being born.

One of the things I like most about Pat Hickey is that even when he is at his most vituperous he's not mean or hateful.

January is going to be a heck of a month politically in Chicago. While most people (me included) are concerned about paying their heating bills and real estate taxes there will be a a lot of interest in the elections for Senator, Governor and County Board President. So much so that I've decided not to go to Miami until after the election.

pathickey said...

Thanks, Phil!

Now, That -boys and girls - is a Liberal Democrat! Proud to meet 'em, buy 'em a beer the size of a City Hall Promise and take what they have to say most seriously.

A Progressive?

It is to laugh.