James Warren on the Old Chicago versus the New Chicago.

The disjunction between the city’s national image and reality was underscored by homages to Mr. Rostenkowski, the longtime Congressional titan who died last week at age 82. He was recalled as a tough, master dealmaker without a college education who brought home the pork and used his link to the city’s Democratic machine to create an imposing don’t-mess-with-me aura.

It played to an overriding caricature of Chicago: bad winters, Al Capone, slimy politics, the lovable loser Cubs. It can be found in the lame narrative advanced by critics of Mr. Obama and his top aides, which portrays them as products of a nefarious, indigenous "Chicago way" of politics in which backstabbing is a fine art.

Lost in the Rostenkowski coverage was this: He came from a very different Chicago than that of Mr. Obama, whose Harvard pedigree, sophistication, itinerant past and cerebral cool are far more in sync with the reality of this new, little-understood city.

...

Coincidentally, much of the transformation of the city followed Mr. Rostenkowski’s departure from public office after a 1994 criminal indictment and an election defeat. Under his patron’s son, Mayor Richard M. Daley, the city began replacing a dying industrial economy with one built on information. Its exchanges now trade in foreign currencies, insurance risks and other complex uncertainties, not just soybeans, wheat and corn. Not even most Chicagoans understand the vivid symbolism of how the Sears Tower is now the Willis Tower, while the Standard Oil Building, the city’s fourth tallest, is Aon Center. Aon and Willis are the world’s largest and third-largest reinsurers.

THERE remains too much grinding poverty, too much violence and too many pols like Rod R. Blagojevich, the impeached former governor of Illinois. Still, the state has less public corruption than Florida, at least according to the Justice Department. And Saskia Sassen of Columbia University, an expert in the rise of so-called global cities, ranks Chicago as the fifth most important one economically, after New York, London, Tokyo and Singapore.

As someone who has lived here since the late 1970s, I find it pretty easy to see the change. All you have to do is walk through Millennium Park, a 24.5-acre downtown space mixing sculpture, architecture (Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry) and a video-adorned fountain. It’s by far the most democratic space in what remains the most segregated Northern city.

The print edition ends here. Online it continues:

Or take in the remade lakefront, the Lazarus-like downtown (with more high-rises built since 1998 than exist in total in Detroit, St. Louis or Milwaukee), the revival of community through a vast expansion of public libraries. There’s also, of course, the elevation to the White House of a Chicagoan and some shrewd and sophisticated former Richard M. Daley associates, notably David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, senior advisers, and Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff.

For sure, one cannot separate Mr. Rostenkowski from his Capitol Hill legacy. "There won’t be one like him again. He was a master of a system that’s been blown apart," said Jim McDermott, an 11-term Democratic representative from Seattle and a Chicago native who served with Mr. Rostenkowski on Ways and Means.

Mr. McDermott joked about some loud sweaters -- "they’re not chichi San Francisco colors" -- he retains as mementos from the weekend retreats Mr. Rostenkowski held for the entire Ways and Means Committee, Democrats and Republicans, whom he sought to fashion into a self-perceived elite. They listened to academics and other experts, talked shop and did heavy socializing. Broaching such a gathering these days is a nonstarter.

The concept of working together is by and large gone, Mr. McDermott argued, first blaming Republicans under Newt Gingrich for their mid-1990s-inspired partisanship, then conceding that Democrats "acted just like the Republicans" when they took over.

But there’s another Rostenkowski legacy, perhaps now echoed by Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Rostenkowski acolyte who stepped down as Ways and Means chairman to fight accusations of ethical violations. Too much power infused both men with a sense of entitlement. Each looked like a deer in the headlights when charges of misdeeds were leveled.

Change can be swift, even if not fully appreciated. It happens with individual politicians, and great cities, too.

Sam Stein reports Giannoulias vows to create Senate Progressive Caucus if elected.

What's curious about Giannoulias' move leftward is the timing. He's already cleared the hurdle of the primary campaign. And while Illinois is a decidedly liberal state, there doesn't appear to be any demands on him to cater to this crowd. If anything, Kirk's evolution from Republican moderate to reliable conservative (his waffling and ultimate opposition to a state aid bill being the most recent example) has provided Giannoulias an opening to vie for independent votes.

The calculus, in the end, might be that the Democratic base needs motivation. Among party activists and voters there has been intense frustration over the ability of Senate Republicans to obstruct legislative progress and the capacity of a handful of conservative Democrats to enable them. Giannoulias is exaggerating the power that the Progressive Caucus has over House politics (the caucus, while large in numbers, has lost several high-profile battles with Blue Dogs this year). But his pledge to organize Senate progressives will resonate with those who believe that the procedural processes are inherently weighted toward political moderation. 

Kirk changes course, votes against $26 billion jobs bill
 
Day before, GOP senate candidate said he was 'inclined' to vote for it.

Mark Kirk, Republican candidate for the open Illinois Senate seat - keeps making stuff up. First it was his military record, then his teaching experience, now the Chicago Tribune reports there are conflicting details about one of the "most important events" in his life. The story  - about how he survived a near-drowning in Lake Michigan 34 years ago when he was 16 - is one he has told repeatedly on the campaign trail. He says the event inspired him to choose a life in public service. From the Tribune article:

Asked about the distance from shore and how far he swam, Kirk said he could not be sure because he had lost his eyeglasses in the water.

Asked how he knows the exact water temperature and body temperature, Kirk said he could not remember where he got the numbers. His campaign later provided a statement from his mother saying she remembered his body temperature was in the 80s when she saw him under a warming blanket at the hospital.

But medical experts said it was extremely unlikely Kirk's body temperature dropped to 82 in the half-hour plus he was in the water, even if it was 42 degrees as Kirk has said. As the body cools below the normal 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, shivering sets in and hypothermia begins at a much earlier stage -- 95 degrees, experts say.

Had Kirk's temperature reached 82 degrees, he likely would have been unable to swim and would have lost consciousness, three experts told the Tribune.

"It seems unlikely he could exert himself," said Dr. David Beiser, a University of Chicago doctor who specializes in emergency medicine. "That temperature is the temperature at which you have a high likelihood of your heart stopping."

Dr. Alan Steinman, former director of health and safety for the U.S. Coast Guard and an expert in sea survival, said, "Swimming a mile in 42-degree water is not realistic."

"Not only would he likely lose consciousness from severe hypothermia before he reached a mile distance, but it's probable he would have been unable to use his arms and legs effectively to swim for an hour in 42-degree water," Steinman said. "Whether his core temperature cooled to 82 degrees is still questionable, and if he were that severely hypothermic -- and likely unconscious -- it is unlikely the hospital would have treated and released him."

The press should fact check every single thing he says or has said.

Pace Yglesias, I predict at this early date that Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias will win the Illinois Senate race. I witnessed him first hand at a town hall tonight and he was very good. Very good.* Yes he is being outspent** by large margins and the Democratic base is somewhat demoralized, and yet I got that feeling.

Furthermore, people in the know are aware that Matthew Yglesias's predictions are always wrong. His commenters regularly request that he publicly predict the opposite of the desired outcome.

Also, I predicted after an early playoff win that the Blackawks would go all the way, after decades of falling short. I have the exact same feeling about Giannnoulias. Go to that Etrade/betting website (what's it called???) and make large wagers. That's what I'm going to do.

And as Giannoulias said at the town hall tonight, the race may just decide the fate of America.*** Seriously!

----------------------
*And this is coming form a political junkie/nerd. He was good on the filibuster, energy policy, immigration, government transparency, etc., etc. except for Israel. But who can blame him on that?
** Giannoulias has refused contributions from federal political action committees or lobbyists. So it's not a surprise he's behind in raising money, although the polls say the race is even. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, however, is doing a better job raising money than its rival.
*** Conservatives will get a huge morale boost from taking Obama's old Senate seat, plus with Republicans filibustering every chance they get, every Senate seat counts.

Obama to attend Giannoulias fundraiser in Chicago August 5th.

In a new attack ad, Illinois GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk smears Giannoulias with a British Petroleum link. 2009 Pultizer Prize winner PolitiFact.com says it's "barely true." I believe it's more of an unfair smear. It's no surprise that Giannoulias's advisors have corporate connections. But Giannoulias refuses contributions from corporate PACs and federal lobbyists. Does Kirk? No, he depends on them. According to PolitiFact:

The aide in question here is Endy Zemenides, a Chicago attorney who is an unpaid senior advisor to the Giannoulias campaign.

Online records of lobbyists filed with the City of Chicago Board of Ethics show Zemenides and his then-law firm Acosta, Kruse, Raines and Zemenides (and later Acosta, Kruse and Zemenides) registered as lobbyists for BP Bovis Global Alliance from 2003 to 2007.

Giannoulias spokesman Matt McGrath called the ad's claim "a real misrepresentation and distortion of facts." Zemenides was a real estate attorney for BP Bovis Global Alliance, a partnership between BP and Bovis to develop the retail, gas station side of the business, McGrath said. Zemenides helped the company on landscaping and zoning issues as the company converted a number of Amoco stations to BPs in the Chicago area. Zemenides was never a lobbyist for BP, McGrath said. It's simply the policy of the City of Chicago that real estate attorneys handling zoning cases register as lobbyists.

"This is not exactly the guys drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico," McGrath said. "This group is not involved in refining or oil exploration. This is strictly to do with retail enterprises. It's guilt by association. He worked for a subsidiary involved in retail gas stations."

Regarding the BP oil spill, I believe it's more the result of Republicans' pro-corporation, anti-regulation, anti-environment policies of the past few decades than anything else. In the Senate, Kirk will simply support the Republicans' strategy of obstructionism and constant use of the filibuster.

Is Mark Kirk Blowing the Illinois Senate Race? by Eric Kleefeld

With the situation getting worse, Kirk found himself this week in a situation that no politician wants to be seen in -- apparently avoiding reporters, after he quickly left an appearance in Chicago by going out of the back door of the hotel, with reporters chasing after him.

As the NBC station in Chicago reported: "A pack of about 20 reporters at the event, expecting Kirk to stay for questions (as his opponent, Alexi Giannoulias did), ran after him through the crowded lunch tables, shouting his name. Kirk ran through the kitchen and into the back loading area, where he jumped into an SUV which was idling with its engine on. Despite the calls of reporters, the SUV then sped away."

VP Joe Biden in Chicago fundraising for Giannoulias.

Mark Kirk fails to tell the whole truth again.

Representative Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, a Republican candidate for the United States Senate, has often reminisced about his time as a teacher. 

On the floor of the House, in campaign commercials and during interviews, Mr. Kirk has invoked his experience in the classroom. At a speech this spring to the Illinois Education Association, Mr. Kirk declared, "as a former nursery school and middle school teacher, I know some of what it takes to bring order to class."

A review of public comments that Mr. Kirk has made over the last decade shows that while he may refer to himself as a former teacher, he does not talk about the brevity of his experience: a year in London at a private school and part-time in a nursery school as part of a work-study program while he was a student at Cornell University.

Mark Kirk, the Republican candidate for the open Illinois Senate seat, did not tell the truth about his military record. James Warren discusses this and other fibbings by candidates.