Mark Brown Trolling for Quigley Mayoral Bid? Mutt and Jeff Ride!

Mark Brown and Mike Quigley! David Axelrod and Mayor Daley?

Mark Brown helped Mike Quigley smear a County Board Candidate back a few years ago and the young woman's Dad, a working man, would still wish to parse a few sentences with Mark Brown. Hey politics ain't bean bag.

Mike Quigley has always used Mark Brown. Politicians with no real body support from regular voters tend to play out their games in the press or on WTTW. Public servants who can count on their neighbors and later their constituents do not need a hack or a celebrated mouthpiece. Mike Quigley needs the press.

This Mutt and Jess Team of Brown and Quigley makes sense - Quigley's name is never used in the same gerund let alone sentence with the noun Mayor, unless it appears in a Mark Brown column. You hear Terry Peterson, Tom Dart, Congressman Jackson and his talented and whip smart wife Sandy Jackson from voters, but never Little Big Man Mike Quigley. He is a "slot open" elected official - a person like Jan Schakowsky or Mike Quigley get 'slot opened' into public office - and usually into a spot where they can do little harm or hindrance to the commonweal.

To day Mark Brown, does the "Hey, Hey, Hey Mike Quigley!!!!! Everybody!" . . .

Every Chicago congressman would like to be mayor in the moments they aren't imagining themselves as senator or president. Heck, nearly half of them already have run for mayor, if you count Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s aborted candidacy of four years ago.

So when Quigley ended up on the phone with me Tuesday on an unrelated matter, I had to put the question to him in light of Emanuel's odd public declaration of interest in succeeding Richard M. Daley: Should we add his name to the long list of aspirants interested in becoming mayor if Daley calls it quits next year?

"This is all b.s. The mayor is running again," Quigley answered adamantly, not using the abbreviation.

Is that on the record?

"That's on the record."

Truth be told, I'm not sure Quigley has any more insight into Daley's plans than anybody else in Chicago politics, perhaps less considering the somewhat strained history of their relationship.

Still, as long as he's willing to attach his name to his words on a day when so many others are speaking from behind an opaque screen, it seems worth reporting.

Quigley said he based his opinion not on inside information so much as his personal dealings with Daley since being elected last year to fill Emanuel's seat in Congress.

. . . in the sad and daffy hope that a couple of dopes might think it is for real.