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On Wednesday Daley threw a mayoral-sized temper tantrum, telling reporters that he had to sell Midway because city employees “are clock watchers who don’t think about the customers,” as Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times quoted him. “They’re not customer-related. They’re gonna leave at 5 o’clock. They’re gonna leave at 4:30 or 4. I’m sorry. We’re on a time clock. They walk out. But in the private sector, when you have a customer you’re gonna stay there making sure they’re happy and satisfied…. We can’t compete with the private sector. The private sector has a complete idea of who your customers are. Government doesn’t have customers. They only have citizens.”
I guess someone in City Hall must have worked up the courage to tell Daley he had insulted firefighters, policemen, paramedics, teachers, and all the other hard-working, relatively low-paid public-sector employees who put their lives on the line every day. Because today Daley backed off. No, he didn’t apologize–being emperor means never having to say you’re sorry. Instead, he blamed the press for misinterpreting what he was trying to say.
I assume by taking a shot at Fritchey, Daley’s letting him know what happens to girls and boys in this town who get a little too big for their britches. Alderman Patrick O’Connor, another candidate in the race, is confident Daley will endorse him for being so loyal. Maybe this is Daley’s first step toward that endorsement. Or maybe if he beats everybody else down he won’t need to endorse O’Connor.
