August 25, 2004

BY MICHAEL SNEED SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Sneed has exclusively learned plans are afoot for a major celebration next year of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley's legacy.

The plan will center around a day of remembrance: the 50th anniversary of Daley's first acceptance speech on April 20, 1955, shortly after he won his first term in office.

That's when he stated: "It has been my philosophy all my life that good government is good politics."

And so it was for the man who would be known as the "Boss" of the biggest and most successful political machine in the country.

"I'm not the last of the old bosses. I'm the first of the new leaders," stated Daley, who died in the midst of his sixth term on Dec. 20, 1976.

So what's on tap? A party at Millennium Park? Hoopla, hijinks and a general good time for all?

"It's still in the beginning stages," said a Daley source. "For one thing a symposium on Mayor Daley's urban vision will be part of it."

U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) will probably show up due to his family's close ties to the Daley clan. Daley's "skillful" handling of the election gave this country its first Roman Catholic president, John F. Kennedy.

But the colorful characters who were part of Daley's legacy are gone: his beloved wife, the former Eleanor "Sis" Guilfoyle, his law partner, William Lynch; Adlai Stevenson; Martin H. Kennelly; John C. Marcin; Ald. Tom Keane; Matt Danaher; Jacob Arvey and Sidney Deutsch.

The man who once worked the stockyards, went to law school at night and forged a brilliant political career was also tweaked for his tendency toward malapropisms.

Remember this line: "Gentlemen, get this once and for all: The policeman isn't there to 'create' disorder; the policeman is there to 'preserve' disorder."

The mayor from Bridgeport who could get things done was blamed by a federal commission investigating the riots and demonstrations during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago for inciting the police to commit violence.

It's what makes the history of Chicago so fascinating. Can't wait for the celebration.

Bring it on!

GOP goop . . .

It's got New Yorkers howling!

*To wit: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is expecting 200,000 protesters to hit the Republican National Convention at the end of the month, is so worried his city may turn into Chicago's 1968 riot nightmare he plans to make nice-nice to the demonstrators.

*How? His administration is planning to pass out buttons to "peaceful political activists" to get discounts at places like Applebee's, the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Sex! There ya go.

Travel 'em . . .

Sneed hears Mayor Daley, wife Maggie and an entourage are planning to go to China and Japan on a sister city tour in October.

Pssst!

It's war! Watch for the Sierra Club and the Environmental Law and Policy Center to try, at a public hearing at the Pollution Control Board in Springfield today, to stop the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency from "polluting the land and water in Will and Kane County."

*Translation: The environmentalists are fighting a proposal by the IEPA that would remove radioactive carcinogens from our water and then dump it into our rivers, lakes and streams. Gimme a break.

I spy . . .

Rocker Rod Stewart was spotted at brunch Sunday at the Signature Room restaurant atop the John Hancock center going through the buffet line with all the regular folks. . .. Spotted dining at Millennium Park's the Park Grill, Mayor Daley, wife, Maggie and Maeve Kiley, daughter of Daley's former chief of staff, Roger Kiley, Jr. Singer Jimmy "Margaritaville" Buffett was seen at Gibsons.

Sneedlings . . .

Congrats to Judy and Albert Antoniazzi on their 30th wedding anniversary. . . . Today's birthdays: Elvis Costello, 50; Tim Burton, 46; Sean Connery, 74; Gene Simmons, 55; Monty Hall, 83; Billy Ray Cyrus, 43; Blair Underwood, 40; Regis Philbin, 73; Bill Figel, 50; Anne Archer, 57, Jimmy Rittenberg, 61, and Rich Harris, ageless.