A Daley for a White House job? Critics lash out at 'Chicago Machine'

Source: Christian Science Monitor

The Machine is an actual reference to the Cook County Democratic Organization, which has exerted powerful influence over the running of Chicago since the 1930s. Although it was established two decades before he was mayor, the Cook County organization became successfully entrenched by the Daleys’ father, former Mayor Richard J. Daley, who built an army of 35,000 patronage workers led by ward committeemen and precinct captains who would be tapped to work each campaign season to ensure victory for party loyalists.

The “Chicago Machine” not only became synonymous with the organization, but it also described a political mindset to win at all cost. Aggressive war chests and manpower became the Machine’s twin engines, fueled by a system promising power to ingrained incumbents and permanent exile to party dissenters.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0105/A-Daley-for-a-White-House-job-Critics-lash-out-at-Chicago-Machine.

It splintered with the rise of Harold Washington and has never been the same since. Bill Daley is qualifed in many ways to serve on the federal level.

I'm so tired of the right wing claptrap about some crooked Chicago machine when the city has had very clean elections for a long time. In truth the unions would love a Chicago machine type of government...that's who got the biggest grease during the Daley Sr. years.