Everybody Else Already Knew He Was Lying...

In the Wednesday Chicago Sun-Times, you'll enjoy a Lynn Sweet and Fran Spielman article (filed, interestingly enough, from D.C., not Chicago) titled, "Daley's Meigs alibi crumbles."

Big time, it "crumbles." As we pointed out a week ago Monday, the TSA told us, "That decision did not originate with the Department of Homeland Security, or with the TSA." The Sun-Times story says that Secretary Tom Ridge was "'disappointed' to see Meigs closed." Ridge also said he knew the decison to close Meigs predated September 11, 2001. "At least that's what was communicated to me," he said.

Terrorist? Schmerrorist. I want another park!

The Sun-Times points out the brazen nature of Chicago's ruler: "On Tuesday, the mayor changed his tune. Daley dropped all pretenses about fears of a private plane flying into a Chicago skyscraper and acknowledged his real motive was to create more open space as envisioned by planner Daniel Burnham and others some 100 years ago. [The Sun-Times doesn't mention the consideration Burnham may have given aviation, a hundred years ago... --ed.] 'That's what makes Chicago unique from the rest of the world: that we have protected this wonderful lakefront. That's the greatest asset we have here,' Daley said.

Nobody is safe from rapacious appetite:

Daley continued in the Sun-Times piece, "'From the Calumet River on the south to the Evanston border on the north, 'we want to eventually fill in all the way ... for parks and open space,' the mayor said." ...And he'll do anything, including sneak around at night, break contracts and his word, steal public assets, break laws, or endanger aviators, to do it.

The Trib Wakes Up

In a story also filed in Washington, Chicago Tribune reporter Frank James, aided by Chicago staffer John McCormick, noted, "Ridge `disappointed' at Daley's closing of Meigs Field."

"The World's Greatest Newspaper" said, "In a meeting with reporters, Ridge refused to be drawn into the issue of whether the closing constituted a security issue for the city, but he pointedly added that he always enjoyed flying into the airport... As [Pennsylvania] governor I occasionally used it. It's a beautiful short runway along the lake," he explained, to anyone reading the Tribune, who might not know.

Always a politician first, Ridge told reports who asked if Chicagoans were 'safer' because of the destruction of the airport, he said, "From the mayor's point of view, they are."

Ridge, whose TSA's heavy-handed command of airspace, aircraft regulations, and 'security' issues has been as subtle as a bunch of drunken jocks in a sorority house, wimped out, and said, "You can't tell mayors what to do." ...but the Tribune article noted, "The sense that Ridge didn't share Daley's stated concerns about Meigs was reinforced when the secretary indicated he wasn't afraid to ask mayors to close certain facilities or locations when he thought it imperative."

Even so, the sneaky bum running Chicago didn't want to hear from anyone prior to his letting loose with the bulldozers in the middle of the night. As the Trib said, "Asked if the mayor told him beforehand that the city was going to close the airport, Ridge said: 'No.'"

FMI: www.tsa.gov