As we watch Obama govern, we don’t need to look far to find where he learned Chicago-style politics. One of his professors was Alderman Edward M. Burke, boss of the Chicago City Council.

After Alderman Fred Roti was convicted on 2 RICO, 5 bribery and 4 extortion charges, the Outfit lost much of its leverage over city business. Over time, Burke stepped into the void and centralized legislative power in his own office.

As chair of the Finance Committee, Burke gained control over the purse strings, and the City of Chicago carries a big purse. The Chicago Sun-Times reported:

When city workers get hurt on the job, they usually turn to a handful of lawyers tied to City Hall. And the city often fights back by hiring lawyers with ties to Ald. Edward M. Burke, chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, which has sole authority to settle workers compensation claims against the city. Injured city workers most often turn to Frederic Krol Sr., who went to prison for five months in the 1960s for bribing a federal prosecutor and temporarily surrendered his law license. The city has paid more than $65 million to settle 3,750 workers comp cases Krol has filed since 1980, records show.

Burke had familial influence over the restructuring of Chicago’s judicial system in the wake of Operation Gambat. Here’s how.

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The public relations campaign to expand the presence of the nation’s largest discount department store into two of Chicago’s most depressed neighborhoods took a decidedly nasty turn Saturday, when a prominent Democratic operative compared employment at Wal-Mart to slavery in 18th-century America.

With a coalition of local labor unions promising to withdraw support for any alderman who votes for the measure, Chicago’s City Council has for months been locked in a statement on the issue of the company’s expansion.

But Alderman Anthony Beale, who lobbied his colleagues on Wal-Mart’s proposal, claims he now has the votes to approve the new development, a measure which he argues will inject new money and jobs into struggling black communities on Chicago’s depressed South Side. The Council is slated to vote for the expansion this week.

Though the areas in which Beale has proposed Wal-Mart expand have high and sustained unemployment, union organizers say the retail giant’s wages are inadequate.

“The notion that black people should be happy to get any job, I think, is an insult to the black community,” said Delmarie Cobb, a veteran political activist and spokeswoman for Good Jobs Chicago. “As I said to Anthony Beale, slavery was a job.”

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As we watch Obama practice Chicago-style politics, it’s time to answer the question the old media ignores. Who were the key people in the Chicago Machine who helped advance Obama to power? We’ll start at the top.

In Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley gets the spotlight while Alderman Edward Burke runs the show. Burke is Chicago’s longest serving Alderman, first elected in 1969.  He chairs the City’s Finance Committee.  He also chairs the Judicial Slating Committee for the Cook County Democrat Party. Since there are no Republican judges at the circuit level, Burke is de facto head of the Judicial Branch of Chicago’s government. Burke was an early Obama supporter.

Burke’s campaign chest is impressive. In 2008, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Burke “has more money in his four campaign funds than the combined total of all 49 other Chicago aldermen, more even than Mayor Daley’s $2.9 million.”

The City of Chicago website acknowledges Burke’s power:

As Chairman of the City Council’s powerful Committee on Finance, Alderman Burke holds the city’s purse strings and is responsible for all legislative matters pertaining to the city’s finances, including municipal bonds, taxes and revenue matters. Alderman Burke became Chairman for the second time in 1989. He previously served from 1983 to 1987.

Anyone aspiring to a position of power in the Cook County Democrat Party must have Burke’s approval.  He’s the Machine’s gatekeeper.

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The always impressive John Kass in today’s Chicago Tribune:

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.

“The Congress? They’re acting like aldermen. Like fall guys. And we know all about fall guys in the city of Chicago,” said Jim Laski, a former Chicago alderman and former federal inmate who is now a WGN radio talk show host.

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I first met up with Tom Tresser when I went to my first Olympics townhall event in the summer. Tresser lead the citizen activist group, No Games Chicago. They opposed the bid, as most have probably figured out. Tresser represented No Games, and their position, in the forum. Here’s how I described Tresser’s best argument that night:

Tresser, on at least five occasions, referred to Daley by the moniker corrupt. No one supporting the bid ever challenged this characterization. Instead, their defense was that the bid was a private non profit effort that is separate from the mayor’s office

The corruption in Chicago’s City Hall was the number one reason to oppose the Olympics coming to this city. While the Olympics aren’t going to be here, the corruption is a major reason, the corruption hasn’t gone away with it. In fact, it’s a part of daily political life in the city of Chicago, the County of Cook, and the state of Illinois in its entirety. (more…)