The Denver Post reports:
"If you do things the right way, pay your dues, you get to be Dan Rostenkowski — you don't get to be president," said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "Chicago politics is not geared to producing presidents — it produces aldermen and mayors."
Chicago politics also has famously greased its gears with corruption. (Rostenkowski stands as one example: the son of a former Democratic ward boss who spent 36 years in Congress before a mail-fraud conviction laid him low.)
But,then there's
Alderman Roti. Dan Rostenkowski honored Alderman Roti by showing up to his funeral.Who could forget this quote at Roti's funeral, by Roti's close friend,
Alderman Stone?:
"Our skyline should say 'Roti' on it,'' Stone said at the funeral. "If not for Fred Roti, half the buildings in the Loop would never have been built."
How ironic,the Obama campaign has campaign headquarters in Alderman Roti's old ward.That's the Chicago Way.
