his city, his state, and the nation.” Translation: if he is crooked,rnso what? He brings home the pork, so vote for him anyway.rnThe Tribune’s cheerleading was not restricted to the editorialrnpage, either. When Bill Clinton came to Chicago to helprnpull Rostenkowski out of the quicksand, reporters Hanke Gratteaurnand Mitchell Locin tagged along to get their hands on thernrope, too. Dutifully reporting Clinton’s ruse that his appearancernwith Rostenkowski at a Chicago community college wasrn”not political,” nor even a formal endorsement of Rosty over hisrnfour Democratic challengers, Gratteau and Locin neverthelessrnwasted no time in getting Clinton’s “non-endorsement” messagernto the Tribunes readers. “Banging on the lectern, Clintonrndeclared that without the House Ways and Means Committeernchairman, ‘We would not have done the things that were donernwhich have got this economy . . . moving into the future. Andrnwe will not be able to do the things we have to do to meet ourrnobligations to the future in this coming year, in health care, welfarernreform and many other areas,’ the president added as severalrnhundred students and faculty cheered.” Gratteau andrnLocin made no mention at all of the two-year-long federal investigationrnof Rostenkowski until halfway through their story,rnon the following page, and then did away with it in two shortrnparagraphs.rnAmid all of the Rostenkowski boosterism, however, at leastrnone Tribune man remained aggressively unimpressed—MikernRoyko. Chicago’s premier columnist for the past 30 years,rnRoyko is one of the last true greats of the last generation ofrnTHE MARTIN LUTHKR KING, JR.,rnPLAGIARISM STORYrnEdited by Theodore PappasrnA publication ofThe Rockford Institute. 107 pagesrn(paper). Only $10 (shipping and handling chargesrnincluded).rnTO ORDER BY CREDIT CARD, CALL:rn1-800-383-0680rnOR SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER (MADErnI’.AYABLE TO THE ROCKFORD INSTITUTE) TO:rni’^iiig Book, 934 North Main Street, Rockford, IL 61103rn(Discounts available for bulk orders.)rnnewspaper writers whose education consisted primarily ofrnstreet-smarts, as opposed to ivory-tower agitprop. He has alwaysrnbeen, in the Chicago context, a “reform” Democratrn(though never a true left-wing ideologue) who made his careerrnby lampooning the excesses of the first Mayor Daley and numerousrnother old-line “Machine” creatures—including Rostenkowskirn—while at the same time berating Colonel Mc-rnCormick’s old paper and most Republicans and conservativesrnwith equal vigor. After three decades at three different newspapers,rnRoyko has endured long enough to witness both thernsteep decline of the “Machine” and the death of the Mc-rnCormick-style Tribune. But now, after spending the last decadernat Tribune Tower himself, Royko has begun to seem as strangelyrnout of place under the current Tribune editors as he wouldrnhave been under the Colonel and his immediate successors.rnThe Rostenkowski story was a perfect illustration—Roykorndeftly puncturing his bosses’ balloon of hot air with nothingrnmore than simple common sense and blunt honesty. How didrnRosty feel about Bill Clinton coming to his rescue? “I didn’t askrnhim, so I don’t know,” Royko wrote. “But I’ll tell you how hernshould feel. He should be embarrassed, humiliated, and feelrnlike a damn fool. Rostenkowski is one of the most powerfulrnmen in the Congress… all things considered, the president ofrnthe United States should not be needed to come in here andrnact as a precinct captain to get Danny reelected to hisrnumpteenth term. The president of the United States—even arnquestionable character from Arkansas—shouldn’t have to comernhere to plead for Rostenkowski votes.” A questionable characterrnfrom Arkansasl That’s the kind of delicious heresy that almostrnnobody else at the Tribune would be allowed to get awayrnwith today.rnBut it’s not the first time. Royko has also steadfastly refusedrnto hop onto his employer’s militant gay-rights bandwagon. Hernscoffed, for example, at the Gay Rights March on Washingtonrnand also came out against Clinton’s proposed lifting of the banrnon open homosexuals in the military. “There’s nothing wrongrnwith change if it has a positive purpose,” Royko wrote at therntime. “This doesn’t. Gay obsessives have an agenda: total socialrnacceptance. And they are using the military ban as a bluernchip in their poker game.” For comments like this, Royko hasrncaught some heat from many of Chicago’s own gay obsessives,rnwho apparently view it as something akin to treason forrnsuch opinions to appear in what they have come to regardrnmore and more as “their” newspaper.rnAre there no dissenters besides Royko to this headlong drivernof the Tribune toward Village Voice-style left/liberal orthodoxy?rnWell, maybe a few—very few. Columnists Joan Beck andrnStephen Chapman often provide the editorial page with arnlonely island of reason in a sea of psychobabble. Some of thernbusiness writers still appear to prefer the free market to economicrnstatism. And if you want to include the sports pages,rnoutdoors writer and columnist John Husar sometimes attractsrnbrickbats from environmentalist extremists and “animal rights”rnadvocates for his staunch defense of hunters.rnBut that’s about it. At the Chicago Tribune—renowned inrnall the journalism history books for its kamikaze conservativernRepublicanism—Mike Royko, God love him, is winding up hisrnillustrious career as one of the closest things there is anymorernto a conservative, whether he likes it or not. As for almost allrnthe rest of his colleagues, they bear a much greater resemblancernto one of the newest nationally syndicated columnists to bernadded to the Tribune editorial page—^Anna Quindlen. -^c-^rn26/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn