Word: daley
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...only really atypical aspect of Daley's youth was the size of his family: he was a greatly cherished only child. In a milieu where family solidarity was a virtue (and a power source) prized even above gang loyalty, Daley thus suffered a certain limitation-until he married into the numerous clan of Eleanor Guilfoyle. As an officeholder, he consolidated his family position by exploiting the rich grab bag of political patronage on behalf of the Guilfoyles. As Royko observes, "Eleanor's parents might well have said that they did not lose a daughter, they gained an employment...
...along, Royko insists, Daley never abandoned the original set of convictions he grew up with, though as his power increased, it became prudent to appear at least polite to other values. It did not astonish Royko when the mayor stayed inside his modest Bridgeport bungalow-he still lives there in his eminence-and not even the curtains twitched during the few nights in 1964 it took his neighbors to give the heave-ho to two Negro students who moved in a block and a half down the street...
Consequently, Royko confesses puzzlement that Daley's most consistently loyal constituency is in the black ghetto wards. Their loyalty, though, may be due to the diligence of Democratic precinct workers, who remind the voters that the continued receipt of welfare checks is somehow inextricable from the franchise. Then, being thorough in their work, says Royko, they accompany the voter into the polling booth to make sure he does not forget...
Royko's account leads inevitably to the 1968 national Democratic Convention, when the delegates were welcomed by signs proclaiming YOU HAVE ARRIVED IN DALEY COUNTRY! Daley was misguided, Royko says, to order his cops to shag Abbie Hoffman's Yippies out of the south end of Lincoln Park. The city, he contends, could not have chosen a better place to quarantine the protesters than the one they chose themselves. Instead, the police stormed in and all the world's TV audience gaped at the resulting riots. The author, indeed, may be guilty of some small taint...
...such book, of course, could be published without noting one of Daley's most famous political pronouncements. It came in 1968, after he had ridden a helicopter over the smoking West Side ruins in the wake of black riots touched off by the assassination of Martin Luther King. "I said to him [the police superintendent] very emphatically and very definitely that an order be issued by him immediately and under his signature to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand, because they're potential murderers, and to issue a police order...