His Side of the River: Quigley Out!

Chicago Sun Times columnist Mark Brown, whose heart and gift with pen, forced me into a recognition of Mike Quigley's torment. With biblical allusions drawn from a conversation Quigley had with a Chicago alderman who warned him that a 'prophet does not always get to cross the river, ' Mark Brown unveiled the torment of a candidate in crisis: the prohet who realizes that only his message must carry on and that he must slide into the back seat.

As a voter with a history of slight regard for Commissioner Quigley the public man, Brown's report was balm in Gilead. I have been eyeless in Gaza, to this Samson's agonistes. However, though rather feckless in Beverly, I was touched by the struggle in the man to give up the flag that he planted on the beachhead - that is Claypool's more martial metaphor.

Having gone from Lenin to aparatchik over this past weekend must have been some stuggle. The revolution in reform is in Forrest Claypool's horny hands. The Betsy Ross of the red flag of reform is on the opposite bank and he will semiphor stategy and tactics across the unquite waters.

Read Mark Brown's article it is quite good and touching. I say that without my usual obvious irony where Commissioner Quigley is concerned.