Animal Farm -- The Bloomberg/Daley Alliance

Moreno: "I just want to be a pig."

One of the reasons I love Chicago politics so much is that our politicians are so out there.  For example, here's my quote of the day. It comes from former Cook County Commissioner Joe Moreno, who is about to be sentenced for taking bribes, but who refuses to roll over on his machine/mob pals.

“I don’t want to be a hog, I just want to be a pig,” Moreno famously said in the course of trying to negotiate a bribe from FBI mole Michael DiFoggio. “Hogs get slaughtered, pigs get fat.”

A real stand-up guy.

Speaking of hogs, most of my political-junkie expert pals write off Billy Daley in the IL gov's race. But I think he can win. Why? Not because his name is Daley, but because it's not Quinn (Eddie Burke) or Madigan (Rahm). Now it even looks like Lisa Madigan may not run even though she has raised more money than Daley. She's also running away from the hated Mike Madigan name.

Secondly, Daley, the man from J.P. Morgan, now has Michael Bloomberg's SuperPac behind him. Bloomberg money was already successful in paying for Robin Kelly's victory in the race for prison-bound Jesse Junior's congressional seat.

As Chicago Mag's Carol Felsenthal put it,

The “race” for Jesse Jackson Jr.’s congressional seat wasn’t a race. Yesterday’s election in the 2nd District of Illinois wasn’t even an election; it was a transaction.

And with Bloomberg jumping in and billionaire Republican Bruce Rauner in the game, that's what this race will be -- a transaction.

There's really not a dime's worth of difference politically between Daley, Quinn, Madigan or Rauner. They all agree on the need to bust unions and whack state retirees with so-called "pension reform." But this election will not likely be about issues. It's a pure power grab with low voter turnout and huge cost-per-vote ratio.

Daley/Bloomberg

One problem for the new Daley/Bloomberg alliance is the N.Y. mayor's continuous spewing of vile racist remarks. Before announcing his support for Daley, MB might have at least let the dust settle on his latest complaint about his city's stop-and-frisk policies. Bloomberg thinks they over-target whites.

In that case, incidentally, I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little.” -- NYT

That topped his earlier comments about poor and immigrant parents.

“Unfortunately there are some parents who just come from — they never had a formal education, and they don’t understand the value of education,” -- NYT City Room

Bloomberg's blatant anti-unionism could also hurt Daley. Remember when Bloomberg compared the teachers union to the NRA?

Bloomberg, -- like Rahm -- is a poster child for doing away with mayoral control of the schools. But his SuperPac could still rule on election day.