and I never lived there but this is from the Chicago newspapers...

"Not even three or four pipes full of Hopium could have convinced me that the Congress of the United States would ever start looking like the Chicago City Council.

But now, with the Chicago Way White House twisting arms for its federal health care legislation, Democrats in Congress and Chicago aldermen are beginning to share a remarkable resemblance.

They're starting to look like fall guys"

""These congressmen are starting to understand what it's like in Chicago, with the Chicago guys running the White House. They (the Democrats) have to know they're the fall guys," Laski said. "Otherwise, why would they so desperate to keep their fingerprints off the health care thing?"

Things are looking more Chicago in Washington all the time.

In Chicago, the mayor gets what he wants, and the mayor's friends get what they want. And the aldermen? They get the ridicule and the blame.

If the president gets what he desires — a health care victory — then Congress will pay for it in the midterm elections in November, and they know it.

The proof is in that latest congressional trick announced on Tuesday, a ploy so weaselly that it could have been hatched by Chicago politicians.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland is now talking about allowing his members to pass the president's health care package — whatever's in it exactly, no one really knows — without a direct up-or-down vote on the current bill.

"It's consistent with the rules," Hoyer was quoted as saying on Tuesday. "It's consistent with former practice."

Consistent with the rules? Perhaps, but it sure isn't what President Barack Obama promised when he was talking like a reformer.


Never lived in Chicago thus cannot comment on the accuracy, but this is from a Chicago person....I can tell you that the description of WASHDC is accurate !

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...39,full.column

Unfortunately, you are right, Bucco. My husband still talks about a City Council meeting that was being televised. A councilman said something the Mayor diodn't like and he was removed immediately. That being said, I still love Chicago more than any place in the world.