Stroger's "Scorched Earth" Departure

During the two decades I taught high school history and government, one of the hardest lessons was any examination of human beings at their very worst. Young people are just learning how the world works. It was heartbreaking for me to try to explain to young, optimistic, and open minds why people will sometimes just be destructive for the sake of being destructive.

They would sometimes ask why people are like this. I could only invite them to see it clearly for what it was and commit, as the philosopher Satayana urged us, to learn the lessons of history so we are not doomed to repeat them.

History is filled with people behaving badly. One example is an infamous wartime practice called "Scorched Earth" -- all too well known in modern times.

"Scorched Earth" means that the losers in a conflict will destroy as much as possible of what was being fought over so that the victors gain as little as possible in their victory. Losers in conflicts will try to grab as much as possible for themselves as they flee.

A recent example of such human destructiveness in the wake of a defeat was during the Gulf War in Kuwait against Saddam Hussein's forces. The USA quickly defeated Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, but as the Iraqi troops pulled out of oil-rich Kuwait, they set fire to the many oil fields. It took years to put these fires out. The environmental cost was catastrophic.

While on a smaller scale, I believe we are seeing something similar in Cook County right now: Todd Stroger lost his bid to be re-elected as Cook County Board President. He now seems to be hell-bent on a scorched earth policy of his own, making the worst of it for all the rest of us.

He has taken revenge on employees of the county who didn't deliver for him, as he thought they should, to help him get elected. He is back to hiring friends for new jobs, some at very high salaries, with apparently no regard for budgetary concerns. The county is supposed to be on a hiring freeze.

Even though the next County Board President, very likely Toni Preckwinkle, will bring in her own team and these folks will be laid off, at least now Todd Stroger has arranged it so they can collect unemployment and other benefits such as retirement and pensions. And there was a lot of attention to the fancy new office furniture he ordered.

It has gotten so bad in recent weeks that the Cook County Board literally had to take matters into their own hands to try to do something -- anything -- to limit his destructiveness in these final months of his now lame-duck administration. They voted to curtail President Stroger's powers on spending, hiring, etc. Stroger has threatened a veto, but there should be enough votes to override it.

The Daily Herald newspaper has recently called on President Stroger to resign immediately, which would allow respected reformer Toni Preckwinkle to be appointed to the job right away instead of waiting until December 2010. They were right to do so. The CHICAGOist blog says that Todd Stroger has entered the "'Screw It' Zone figuring he might as well soak the County while he's got some days left in his tenure."

I had called on Stroger to drop out of the primary race for re-election very early. (See early blog postings). I could not rationally make sense of what he must be thinking, trying to get re-elected. He could read polls, couldn't he? His approval rating was below Blagojevich's. Surely he could not be so deluded as to think that he was going to win re-election?

Now his motivations are clear. Smash and grab and run. He raised $600,000 for the primary campaign. He only spent $100,000 of that in the primary. Where is the rest of it?

Half a million dollars in donor funds were put into bank CDs that are now collecting interest. And it remains Todd Stroger's to use for years to come, within limited perameters.

Looking back on Stroger's incompetence over the last three and a half years, I find it sad but not surprising that so many people have had to work so hard to try to ameliorate the damage. The Illinois General Assembly this year had to change the veto override percentage to address the sales tax disaster. A majority on the County Board has now had to take away some of the President's hiring and spending powers.

Its been like watching parents who clean up the mess behind a misbehaving and destructive child. But this "child" happens to run one of the largest governments in the nation, and the destruction in this scorched earth is financially too real for residents of Cook County.

How long will it take us to clean up the mess left behind from the Stroger administration? How many valuable functions of Cook County government will be unaffordable for us because we are all having to take time and pay to clean up his mess?

I had an interesting chat recently with one of the current Cook County Board Commissioners who has consistently supported President Todd Stroger. This Commissioner told me that my incumbent opponent was the most supportive of them in the Stroger team among all of the Republican Commissioners. I think it was meant as a compliment.

I would not see it as one.

UPDATE: May 21, 2010 Congressman Mike Quigley, a former Cook County Commissioner, called in a federal investigation into allegations of wrong-doing in these final months of the Stroger Administration. They will be looking into some no-bid and allegedly illegal contracts that Todd Stroger seems to be doling out to friends. More disaster for the Cook County taxpayer to clean up the Stroger team's mess.

UPDATE: June 5, 2010 Stroger's One Regret: Not Attacking The Press MoreAsked by local radio hosts this morning to name one thing he would have liked to have done differently as Cook County board president, Todd Stroger once again suggested that his failings are only a matter of public perception. "I would more vigorously stand up and call the press liars," he answered. Clueless, apparently.