Earlier this week, Steve Neal, hard-hitting political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and a world-renowned political historian, committed suicide in the garage of his suburban Chicago home. Neal joined the Sun-Times in 1987, a crazy year in Chicago politics. Legendary mayor Harold Washington dropped dead in his office, touching off a firestorm of protest and machinations to appoint a successor, eventually leading to the reign of Richard M. Daley. I was just becoming politically aware at this time, and everything Steve Neal wrote was gospel to me.
The loss of Steve Neal is the loss of a giant.
Steve Neal’s recent columns in the Sun-Times
Books:
McNary of Oregon: A Political Biography
Dark Horse: A Biography of Wendell Willkie
Rolling on the River: The Best of Steve Neal
Harry and Ike: The Partnership that Remade the Postwar World
Eleanor and Harry: The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman
The Eisenhowers: Reluctant Dynasty
Soon to be published:
Happy Days are Here Again/The 1932 Democratic Convention, the Emergence of FDR — and How America Was Changed Forever
Great Steve Neal leads (from Neil Steinberg’s appreciation)
Nobody died at Watergate.
Operation Safe Road is the worst scandal in Illinois history because there are human casualties. At least 20 people have been injured, and nine were killed in traffic accidents involving truck drivers who obtained their licenses through bribes at George H. Ryan’s office when he was Illinois secretary of state. There is blood on the highways because of governmental corruption. (April 5, 2002)
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Is this a presidency or a National Lampoon movie?
William Jefferson Clinton, who will be 52 next month, is the world’s oldest teenager. When confronted with allegations about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky that threatened his presidency last winter, he gave evasive answers and plotted damage control with a sitcom producer.
In the short run, the strategy worked. By stalling the independent counsel and asserting that he wanted to get on with the business of the country, Clinton improved his ratings in the polls.
But at what cost? (July 31, 1998)
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They still haven’t been seen together.
So the mystery continues.
Is Mayor Daley really Forrest Gump?
The publication of a new book makes the question even more perplexing. At a bookstore near City Hall, a clerk pulled me aside and showed me a fresh stack of Gumpisms: The Wit and Wisdom of Forrest Gump. There are so many similarities between Gumpism and Daleyism that it’s almost eerie. Daley is as Daley does.
“Curiosity killed a cat” is Daley’s response when he doesn’t want to know about something. A similar quote is in Gump’s book. Are they splitting the royalties? (Aug. 5, 1994)
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He cared.
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, who died early Thursday, leaves a legacy of compassion.
In his 30 years as a bishop, he became one of the more influential religious leaders of his time. But he is deeply mourned because he was a good and decent man. Bernardin gave all of us hope. (Nov. 15, 1996)