Aldermen in rebellion: Rahm loses ethics vote big time

Rahm Emanuel suffered a stinging City Council defeat today. This is a fight that Rahm--and the people of Chicago--should have won. Since 1972, 29 aldermen have been convicted of crimes. That's about one every 15 months.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday lost his first City Council vote—even after watering down his latest round of ethics reforms and dropping plans to empower the City Council’s inspector general to investigate anonymous complaints against aldermen and their employees.

The Rules Committee tabled Emanuel’s revised ordinance by an overwhelming vote of 25-to-3.

Rules Committee meetings normally attract only a handful of aldermen.

As the Sun-Times explained, Rahm's proposed reforms were essentially toothless ones. But that wasn't good enough for the legislative cabal nationally known for producing convicts.

As with the Illinois General Assembly, the Chicago City Council needs to be replaced with people randomly selected from the telephone book.

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