Last week at Cook County...

There were a couple of good columns from Mary Mitchell and Mark Brown on what's going on at the county in the past week. I wanted to opine on Mary Mitchell's column from Thursday with regards to the unfairness of a deal overlooking Commissioner Bobbie Steele in consideration for the county board presidency. I'd honestly would rather she either be the interim president or even the nominee than Ald. Todd Stroger who I really think would prove very weak even with his family name.

Then another variable has been thrown around, sexism. I've been hearing about this since there has been discussion about actually replacing the ill John Stroger sexism has come up. I don't recalling seeing this in any major media outlets but Mary Mitchell discusses this in her column this morning.

I've concluded (and I say this by not exactly knowing how other races and ethnicities respond to each other) that there isn't a group of people who are as critical of themselves as blacks. Some of this is even over some surface stuff that really doesn't matter. I won't get into what that means here, but what I will state that apparently gender can be one issue that may prove to be something of a problem for us. Especially given the fact that black male politicians are proving themselves as sexist against a black female politician while (as Mitchell states) that the largest voting block in the black community are black women. All the same I don't know as much about Bobbie Steele as I do about Commissioner Peraica.

Now I just would like to ask about how sick is John Stroger. Is he actually capable of writing a letter? I'm sure someone out there is questioning whether Ald. Beavers and other spokesman who claim to have seen or been in touch with John Stroger are really telling the truth about Stroger's condition. Is John Stroger even capable of designating his son as his successor at this moment?

I got one more for you. I would question that the Ald. Todd Stroger my have a sense of entitlement since we hear reports that he's garnering support to moving up to the county (whether for county board president or to his dad's commissioner's seat). He has been touting himself as his father's successor in the press. I wonder how he's run the 8th ward as an alderman. I've heard some negative things about him with regards to that.

Either way I think Mark Brown had it right in his earlier column last week...

The Democratic political powers-that-be in Cook County have outfoxed us again. You say you don't like the deal that Ald. William Beavers says has been struck to install Ald. Todd Stroger as the party's candidate for County Board president in place of his father, John H. Stroger. Neither do I.

But what are you willing to do about it?

Would you vote for a conservative Republican instead -- handing him the reins of power for four years -- just to teach them a lesson?

They're gambling that you won't -- or at least not enough of you to make a difference in a county that has long voted Democratic but turned extremely so in recent elections. These are your only choices. As we used to say as kids, like it or lump it. Thus, the odds-on favorite to run the $3 billion county government is a genial fellow whose political career can only be described as lackluster and whose only claim to fame is a powerful father. The scenario is beyond familiar.

If you read this morning's column you will see that he seems to talk up Peraica as a better alternative. Not sure if Brown will vote for him though...

In the most recent version of the replacement deal, County Board Finance Chairman John Daley is supposed to finish out Stroger's term as the interim president, putting him on a collision course with Steele, who also wants it.

Daley could probably get the job if he forced the matter to a vote, but that could be tricky, especially if Republican commissioners provided the votes to put him over the top.

The other commissioners say they will push Daley and Steele to work it out among themselves so that it doesn't come to a contested vote.

The more aggressively John Daley pursues the position, the more you start to wonder whether his brother, Mayor Daley, is planning to run for re-election.

Everybody involved in this deal runs the risk of getting muddied up.

All I can say for an absolute certainty, though, is that this situation has been nothing but good for the Republican nominee, Commissioner Tony Peraica, who is looking more and more like a contender.