No "Right" to Mayoral Detail

The judge played it exactly as it had to be:

• A federal judge found no politics at play Wednesday in the selection of Rahm Emanuel’s security detail after he became mayor in 2011.
  
  U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber’s ruling ended a bench trial that lasted a little more than a week. He found that a group of former bodyguards to ex-Mayor Richard M. Daley “failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence” that they were removed from the mayoral detail because they sat on the bench during the 2011 campaign.
  
  The judge also found that then-interim Police Supt. Terry Hillard and Cmdr. Brian Thompson were not motivated by politics when they detailed and appointed officers who volunteered on Emanuel’s campaign to plum security specialist jobs protecting the new mayor.

::cough cough bullshit cough cough::

Everything is politics where the mayoral detail is concerned. Everything. And everyone knows it.

But the judge can't say that - that might be improper. But the fact is, a cop isn't entitled to that spot any more than we're entitled to be Superintendent. We'd be way better (and way cheaper) than the current tool in charge, but we aren't connected. And if your guy decides it's time to go, you better get your favors before he's gone.

So the judge said what he had to say to make it pretty, but did what had to be done to reinforce the lesson that Clout Rules the Roost.