NBC5 has a new site centering on politics - specifically nine local politicians - that has potential. The Ward Room blog features commentary by Edward McClelland and cartoons by Pulitzer-Prize winner Jack Higgins.
The site promises to cover these characters (or caricatures?) for a fun perspective on the most greasy of mechanisms, Chicago politics:
At its oily, pistoning machine core, Chicago's levers are pulled by political personalities -- hardscrabble aldermen grasping for favors and influence; crisp-collared, would-be senators criss-crossing the state and the airwaves; an accidental statesman cavorting around Springfield; and, hunkered in his windowless Woodshed on five, a grim-lipped authoritarian making it all run as smoothly as possible.
Those lucky nine? The esteemed apprentice, Rod Blagojevich; hizzoner Mayor Richard M. Daley; Senate candidate and GOP whipping boy Alexi Giannoulias and his Republican foe U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk; Seventh Ward Alderman Sandi Jackson; attorney general and apparently fiveheaded Lisa Madigan; 22nd Ward Alderman Ricardo Munoz; County Board president candidate Toni Preckwinkle, and Gov. Pat Quinn.
The cartoons have a Seussian feel to them (bonus points if you know Dr. Seuss' real name without looking it up on Google).
Have a look at Blago, complete with rat tail:
Then there's Preckwinkle, the Democratic nominee for County Board president. She looks more like World War II anti-Japanese propaganda than anything, but the cartoon appears to be playing up the nerdy, wonkish image that she's created.
With races for local and national offices already heating up and Blagojevich's trial this summer, McClelland should be a busy guy.
