Cook county has been corrupt since at least the 1920’s with Boss Thompson (a reform Candidate!) who ran the place like his personal whorehouse for years, including the Capone Era. In my time it was Boss Richard Daley and then more Daleys. Even for people like me who still hold out hope for decent government and statesmen, Illinois politics is a write-off. I could never understand why my sister, a woman who upon examination exhibited strong liberal sentiments, always voted Republican. I do now. It was because she lived in Chicago.
Short of Illinois ceding their local and state administrations over to Wisconsin, I don’t think there is anything anyone, including Emanuel, can do restore confidence in Chicago. He knows he can do whatever the fuck he wants because there is nothing a politician can do in that city that will shock anyone, anymore.