Editorial: Council of perk-deprived babies whines and whines

Follow @csteditorialsPity the poor aldermen. How dare we fail to appreciate their exalted status.

No sooner did City Hall’s Board of Ethics rule this week that it would be wrong for most aldermen to accept World Series tickets at face value from the Cubs than the whining began.

The board’s ruling is “insulting, humiliating and embarrassing,” Ald. Milly Santiago whined at a City Council hearing.

Follow @csteditorialsNo, it’s not, alderman. It’s an excellent ruling. What’s insulting, humiliating and embarrassing is that so many shameless aldermen were so eager to grab an indefensible perk.

But wait, it gets worse:

“Those tickets were not front-row tickets,” Santiago whined. “They were all the way in the upper deck. If I went to this, I would almost be touching the ceiling. That’s how bad those tickets were.”

Got that? Not only is Santiago indignant about not getting the perk, but the perk wasn’t good enough.

And the stupidity continues elsewhere:

“We don’t live in a Third World country where we’re not allowed to go to a sporting event because we’re on the City Council,” Ald. Mike Zalewski (23rd) whined.

No, alderman, you live in a First World country where you are allowed to go to any sporting event you like. Just so long as you buy your tickets at the going price like the rest of us do.

Or are you too special?

And then there is Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), who whimpered when he learned that the Board of Ethics’ ruling probably also applies to accepting face-value tickets to any other sporting event or concert where tickets prices are high on the secondary market.

“It’s a tremendous burden,” Hopkins whined, “to try and figure out at any given moment what the price of the game might be on the secondary market.”

Stop hoovering up freebies, alderman, and you will be burdened no longer.

But fat chance of that.

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