Rahm: 'You're gonna respect me! You're gonna respect me!' -- For what?

Kinder/Gentler Rahm is supposed to be on a "listening tour". But he ain't listening. He went completely off the rails and screamed  "You're gonna respect me! You're gonna respect me!" at mental health clinic activists. Respect him for what? Shutting down half of the city's clinics? A life-or-death issue for many like Debbie Delgado who lost a son to gun violence.

Today Rahm Emanuel launches a listening tour. Nearly 4 years into his mayoralty.
— Laura Washington (@MediaDervish) February 28, 2015

The pressure's really getting to the Little Emperor who's not used to being challenged directly everywhere he goes. Lots of his former friends are bailing on him and neutrals are beginning to see the writing on the wall and hearing strains of Florence Reese's old labor tune, "Which side are you on?".

Hartman

From Chicago Mag interview with N'DIGO publisher and former Rahm supporter, Hermene Hartman:

Have you been in touch with Rahm lately?

Not since 2010 when we met at my office. I asked him, “What are you going to do for African American business?” He sat across from me and said, “I’m going to write something down and promise you that I will engage on that issue; that African Americans will participate in city contracts.” And he signed his name to the promise. It didn’t happen. African Americans get a miniscule percent of the contracts.

 Rahm is always talking about his work on the CTA Red Line. Those are short term jobs. Those aren’t long-term career-opportunity jobs. They don’t put 10,000 on the rolls. You need steady employment jobs, not just quick jobs.

Which side are you on?...Grez Hinz at Crain's reports that Illinois SEIU leader Tom Balanoff and Toni Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County Board, may be finally ready to endorse Chuy. They met yesterday, "to talk about public policy and politics".

Preckwinkle as recently as early this week said she had decided to stay out of the contest. But Garcia serves as her County Board floor leader, she and Emanuel have at best a tepid relationship and a source close to her tells me she may change her mind if she is convinced Garcia has a real chance to win.

"Hey hey. Ho ho. Rahm Emanuel has got to go!

Thousands of CTU members march up Michigan Avenue to CPS Headquarters after a rally at the Auditorium Theatre. | Scott Stewart~Chicago Sun-Times.

That was the thunderous sound of 5,000 red-clad Chicago union teachers marching past CPS headquarters at Adams & Clark. Just when Rahm thought is was safe to come out of his office after last weekend's NATO Summit fiasco, he once again became the target of working class venom. Speaker after speaker denounced Rahm's ongoing war on teachers. His contract offer was denounced as an "insult."  On every issue, they offered counters to his "reform" agenda of privatization, charter schools, longer school day,and test-based teacher evaluation.

CTU Pres. Karen Lewis, AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten, &  Rev. Jesse Jackson  march along Michigan Avenue to CPS Headquarters. | Scott Stewart~Chicago Sun-Times.

According to Sun-Times reporters:

Inside the Auditorium Theater

The teachers had rocked the city’s Auditorium Theater with chants, cheers and jeers during a Wednesday afternoon rally to rev up the troops against a contract proposal union leaders derided as an “insult.” Dressed in red CTU t-shirts, teachers and other school workers turned the theater and three of its balconies into a sea of hopping, clapping red. "Definitely teachers are mad enough to strike,” said Prosser High School teacher Jennifer Koszyk. “I’m mad for my children. I want to make sure they get the same education as other children get in Illinois.”

 Outside, at the support rally UIC Prof David Stovall mocked Emanuel, asking the crowd, "any paid protesters out there? The response was a loud and joyful, "hell, no!"

Chicago's finest sporting CTU buttons

M. Klonsky pics

After more than 4,000 CTU members poured out of the Congress Theater, they were joined by rallying supporters across the street in Grant Park, with the groups merging into a sea of red-shirted marchers. As they proceeded up Michigan Ave. and then west on Adams, they were greeted with signs of support from onlookers -- a group of custodians, some medical techs, hard-hatted construction workers and retail clerks. Even the mayor's bike cops, many of whom had been used against the anti-NATO demonstrators on Saturday, now were wearing CTU buttons and posing for pictures hugging union marchers.

As the current negotiations move into high gear, Rahm would do well not to underestimate the level of solidarity and commitment on the part of the teachers. I didn't find any who wanted a strike. But neither did I find any who weren't ready to walk if pushed to the wall.