Cool on Stroger

Very good analysis, cool and collected, of the WILD, WILD John Stroger business by Laura Washington in Sun-Times.

The Conventional Wisdom of the Chattering Classes (CWCC) says that an African American will emerge as the Democratic nominee for the November faceoff with Republican Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica.

 

To my mind, here is an opportunity for the county's black leadership to demonstrate political maturity and cohesion. So far, it's shaping up to look like a food fight.

 

Publicly, they are saying one thing. Privately, it's something else. Granted, it's tough to campaign for a job by walking over someone's hospital bed. Talk to Forrest Claypool about it.

The conventional-wisdom part is nicely stated.  And she's cool enough to add a white guy at the end:

The joker in the deck is Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan. There a tiny problem there. He happens to be white. He also happens to be very qualified. Houlihan is a policy wonk who actually has a plan to turn the county around.

Almost at the end.  She saves her last name, of eight, for the end:

 My mystery candidate is one who could handle those sharks with aplomb -- CHA Board Chairwoman Sharon Gist Gilliam.

Sharks indeed, among them son Todd Stroger, the alderman, "a nice young man [who[ has never run anything" and Rep. Danny K. Davis, "aka The Voice of God, [who] proclaims he is getting a raft of spontaneous 'calls' for him to run."