Daley's House of Cards

Typical Daley:

• Mayor Daley's $2.5 billion plan to privatize Midway Airport has run into turbulence -- and it just might be grounded entirely -- because of the nation's credit crunch and Wall Street slide, City Hall sources said Monday.

  An April 6 closing date that would have made Midway the "first privatization of a major American airport" has been cancelled -- and it's likely to be put off for six months to give Midway Investment and Development Company LLC an opportunity to salvage the deal by lining up more equity investors or bank financing.

So that's a $2.5 billion hole that won't be filled, including:

• An estimated $1.15 billion of the proceeds would have been used to pay off Midway Airport debt. The deal also included: $225 million for police and fire protection; $126 million for soundproofing and Midway capital projects already underway and $19 million for transaction fees and legal expenses.

  State law requires 90 percent of the $1 billion profit to be used to bankroll city infrastructure projects and shore up under-funded city employee pension funds.

  That left $100 million to be spent at Daley's discretion. Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe has said the money would be parceled out to balance the next four city budgets.

Shortshanks is scrambling to find money again. Now we're going to have "sponsored" street patching?

• Mayor Daley on Tuesday warmed to the idea of KFC filling Chicago potholes — even if it means KFC logos on city streets — so long as the fried chicken chain serves up enough gravy.

  Last week, Daley’s Lincoln Town Car suffered a flat tire on Pulaski Road after hitting a giant pothole.

  On Tuesday, the mayor upped the ante so many times he sounded like an auctioneer attempting to sell pothole patching to the highest bidder.

  “If they give us $25 million or $30 million, we’d be glad to look at it. . . . I want the money up front. I’ll take $50 million if you give me $50 million,” he said.

Wow. And this guy wins elections.

UPDATE: Here's an interesting tidbit tucked away in the article:

• Asked to assess the chances the blockbuster deal will ever go through, the source said, "I wouldn't put odds on it. No matter what happens, the city gets $126 million. That's more for the city budget than the city gets" if the deal goes through, because of strings attached to the larger pot of money.

Even if it fails, the City gets $126 million? Who's stealing that money?