Fed Up Yet?

A whole series of stories that ought to clue everyone in that Illinois politics in general and Chicago politics in particular are broken beyond belief. Two days ago, it was the Hired Truck mogul getting another $39 million in city business:

• Former Hired Truck kingpin Michael Tadin has snared a three-year, $39.4 million contract to operate and maintain one of three waste transfer stations that Mayor Daley once attempted to lease.

Yesterday was a two-fer of political BS. First, an old name resurfaces:

• Former Board of Education President Gery Chico, who spent six years teamed with Paul Vallas turning around the Chicago Public Schools, will return to his educational roots as board chairman, replacing ten-year veteran Jim Tyree, chairman of Sun-Times Media.

• Chico’s appointment continues Daley’s pattern of playing musical chairs with a thin bench of trusted advisers.

  Before Chicago’s first round flame-out in the 2016 Olympic sweepstakes, the job of park board president was pivotal because many of the proposed Olympic venues were on park land.

And a new candidate has big problems:

• Trying to blunt a damaging political issue, Democratic Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias on Wednesday took a media tour to clear the air about his involvement in his family's struggling bank, which he said he expects will fail in the coming months.
  
  But questions remain about the extent of his role in Broadway Bank's biggest controversies — from ill-fated lending decisions that put the bank on the brink of insolvency to loans for a convicted bookmaker.

Gee, a bank making loans to Outfit connected bookies being shut down and bailed out by taxpayers. In any other state in the nation (besides New Jersey and Louisiana), this issue dooms a US Senate campaign. But here? Alexi is as viable a candidate as can be.