Edward M. Burke turns 80 in a week. In an alternate universe, his half-century-plus on the Chicago City Council would be celebrated in the days leading up to Dec. 29. Instead, he could be going to prison.
Before Burke was an alderman of the 14th Ward, he was a policeman, as was his father, Joe, before him — well, a Cook County sheriff’s policeman (and an alderman). Close enough. And though Burke was on the council for 54 years, the longest anyone has served on that body and a safe bet to be the longest anyone will ever serve, the swagger of an untouchable Chicago cop always clung to Burke. It was baked into his skin, his soul.
Only he was touchable, as Thursday afternoon’s verdict showed. Heck, not merely touched, but beat down. Thirteen of 14 counts — bribery, extortion, racketeering.
On one hand, the verdict was no surprise — based on the evidence presented in court, collected in recorded conversations with former Ald. Danny Solis, once of the 25th Ward, Burke sounded guilty, like a man who wanted to make sure that a Burger King franchisee used his law firm for its tax work in return for Burke’s not blocking the permit for a new driveway.
On the other, it was pitiful. Not just to see the lion of the council humiliated — there was some satisfying payback in that, at least to anyone who ever encountered the Burke arrogance firsthand, so tangible it was almost a physical Chicago landmark, like the Bean. But the triviality of it, the pettiness, the way the Field Museum, having refused some kind of intern post to Burke’s goddaughter, scrambled to appease him somehow.
In a nation where the inflamed ego of longtime politicians is driving us into the ditch on all fronts, it’s revolting to see it on a local level, a Chicago institution groveling before a man who feels his slightest requests should be acted upon, even without ever having to be made.
Burke is a reminder of the unspokenness of all this, the omerta. Ed Burke or an aide never phoned the Field Museum and said, “You better hire my goddaughter or there’s going to be trouble.” They felt they didn’t have to. The Field Museum — or Burger King, or anybody interacting with Burke — ought to just know. It should be automatic. And in most cases, it is.
No one should imagine this is going to change. This is not a wake-up call, or anything other than a freak occurrence, after an alderman, Solis, heading for a fall on his own tawdry scandal — Viagra, massage parlor sex and campaign contributions — agreed to wear a wire to try to lessen the portion of his own just deserts he’ll be served.
You could tell by all the alderpersons who recoiled, not at Burke’s self-dealing, but at Solis’ betrayal.
“He let down his community,” said Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), in 2019, that community being of course his fellow alderpersons, and not actual residents of his ward, who deserve to have legislative decisions made based not on which pockets are being lined, but what is best for the city.
“What is best for the city.” Sorry, I’m showing my age, and naivete. Is that not an antique notion at this point? The financial interests of campaign contributors, the whims of the powerful, the horse-traded favors grudgingly given in order to extract quid pro quo support. That’s the Chicago way. Ed Burke receiving rough justice late in his career will not, alas, change that.
