In Illinois, an honest politician is as rare as a ski slope. But I have come across a most unlikely one, none other than Cook County Board President Todd Stroger.
Well, at least he is honest sometimes. Ok, hardly ever, but this story is about one of his ski slope moments.
There was an article, actually it was even smaller than a blurb, in the Chicago Tribune the other day which described a "Great moment of candor", according to the unnamed author. The piece was a report on comments Stroger made during a radio interview on WGN-AM 720 last Wednesday morning concerning rising taxes on cigarettes.
Host John Williams asked: "Isn’t it unfair to keep targeting smokers with tax increases"?
Stroger: "That is the American way". "And the way that it’s generally done is, you find some group that’s small enough where they can’t beat you up, and you tax them and you tell everybody else, ‘See? We didn’t tax you.’"
The answer doesn’t say much for his political acumen but it says volumes about his (probably unintended) candor. This isn’t actually a revelation to anyone hearing that comment, but it should be trumpeted anyway because the concept needs a fresh start in these times of "hopeful change".
There are so many concepts here to expand on and directions this story could go that it’s making my head spin with all the delicious possibilities. Perhaps I will expand on them in a future essay, but for now I am just like a first time Hi Def TV buyer, I just want one right now, I’ll worry about the number of screen pixels after I get it home.
You can read the blurb here.
