What is Shortshanks Up To?

This guy has never done anything unless there's something in it for him. What's the angle here?

• Mayor Richard Daley today proposed expanding the powers of the city's inspector general to include investigating aldermen -- an idea long opposed by City Council -- as well as taking away the hiring oversight duties currently held by the mayor's compliance office.

  The proposed ordinance, which Daley will introduce at Wednesday's council meeting, would be a dramatic shift in the power struggle between City Hall watchdogs.

  The move was endorsed by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, who while appointed by the mayor is considered more independent than the Daley administration's Office of Compliance.

We can't see the City Council going along with this quietly. Already there are noises being made about "influence" and other nonsense:

• Ald. Bernard Stone, 50th, said he opposes Daley's plan to give the inspector general the ability to investigate council. [...]

  “If (Daley) wants to have (the inspector general) oversee hiring, that’s the executive branch and that’s OK with me,” Stone added. “The executive branch should not be able to oversee the legislative branch, because the executive branch can use it to blackmail the legislative branch. That’s the same thing J. Edgar Hoover did to Congress.”

Stone is scared the mayor might use the Inspector General's office to press aldercreatures to vote a certain way. Stone, who's voting record is approximately 99.99999999999% in line with what Daley wants anyway, doesn't seem to realize Shortshanks always gets his way by controlling the money, i.e. TIFs, crooked contracts, shady land deals, etc. It's called "the Chicago Way" and Stone has been benefiting from it for decades now.