CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Carol Marin :: An early = Christmas gift from Stroger

Gerald=20 Nichols has lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. = He's=20 still making $114,000 thanks to us, the ever-generous=20 taxpayers of Cook County. Nichols draws his salary = from the=20 highway department even though everybody knows his = personal=20 rest stop is located inside Cook County Board = President John=20 Stroger's office. That's where Nichols doled out jobs = to the=20 politically worthy if not the professionally = qualified. The=20 FBI is investigating his role in county hiring. = Interim Board=20 President Bobbie Steele admitted in September she = didn't have=20 a clue what Nichols really did. But she suspended him = --=20 with pay.=20

Last week, in a television interview, Todd Stroger, = his=20 father's anointed and recently elected successor, was = asked=20 when he would make good on his reluctant promise to = finally=20 fire Nichols.=20

"In due time," replied the new president.=20

What did that mean? I asked him that question last = Monday=20 on WTTW's ''Chicago Tonight.'' "After Christmas," he = said,=20 smiling.=20

Sun-Times reporter Steve Patterson followed up the = next day=20 when Stroger dropped in to observe Tuesday's meeting = of the=20 county board. Why, asked Patterson, was he waiting to = dump=20 Nichols until ''after Christmas''?=20

Stroger's amazing reply: ''Who lets anybody go = before=20 Christmas?''=20

Well, Mr. President-elect, maybe somebody who = promised to=20 care more about taxpayers than about their 8th Ward = political=20 pals. Maybe somebody who swore to be his own man and = do things=20 differently than his dad. Maybe somebody who is = determined to=20 erase any doubt about finally, finally setting a new = direction=20 for a bloated, near-bankrupt county government that = has a=20 budget the size of Montana's.=20

Besides, you know what's after Christmas? New = Year's Eve.=20 Now that's a miserable time to get the ax. It would = wreck the=20 effects of the champagne.=20

And then there's Valentine's Day. Who, with any = love in his=20 heart, lets somebody go before Valentine's Day?=20

And you can't do it before St. Patrick's Day. It's = a=20 political holy day of obligation honoring our enduring = patronage traditions. Who with any payroller-pride = would fire=20 a guy before the green beer and corned beef?=20

And Easter being a time of rebirth and renewal, = it's an=20 awful time to get a pink slip, especially when county = hiring=20 depends upon rebirth and renewal even when they = pretend=20 there's a job freeze in place.=20

Before you know it, it will be Christmas again.=20

Sorich = sentencing

Robert=20 Sorich's Thanksgiving will not be festive. He and = three=20 co-defendants will be sentenced in federal court on = Monday.=20

Sorich, Mayor Daley's former patronage chief, is = going to=20 prison for a long time. A longer time, in all = likelihood, than=20 Donald Tomczak, one of the most egregious bullies and = bribe=20 takers in the whole, sordid Hired Truck scandal at = City Hall.=20

How is that possible?=20

Because Tomczak flipped and became a government = witness and=20 Sorich and three co-defendants did not.=20

Sorich and the others were guilty of rigging the = hiring and=20 promotion of city workers whose political connections = trumped=20 their qualifications. Sorich and company hired an army = of=20 Daley loyalists to guarantee power stayed in its = proper place.=20

For that, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is = asking that=20 Sorich spend 57 to 71 months behind bars. Tomczak, who = grabbed=20 at least $400,000 in cash along the way, got only 47 = months.=20

It's not that I excuse Sorich or believe he's = innocent.=20

I don't, and he's not.=20

But at his trial, the government offered a parade = of=20 witnesses who got a huge pass for their own actions or = failures to act. Mary Jo Falcon, an attorney and = personnel=20 director in the Sewer Department, for 11 years handled = "blessed lists" of patronage hires but was given = immunity from=20 prosecution. Mara Georges, the head of the city's Law=20 Department who apparently kept her eyes clamped shut = and ears=20 closed, was an even more disturbing government witness = for=20 being allowed to get away with an unacceptable = "ostrich=20 defense."=20

Sorich's crime does not fit the time.=20

Legislative = largess

Oh, great.=20 Illinois senators can even find passages in the Bible = to=20 justify their post-election pay hike of 9.3 percent = but are=20 this close to refusing to help 300,000 mostly = senior=20 citizens on fixed incomes get a tiny bit of = relief from=20 skyrocketing rents in the state's manufactured home = parks.=20

I promised to keep you posted on this bill. The = governor,=20 Rod the Populist, who has gotten sizable contributions = from=20 the big-business owners of these manufactured home=20 communities, vetoed the bill. The House last week = mustered the=20 votes to override him.=20

But the Senate is still in doubt, the same Senate = that just=20 made sure their own pay raise went through.=20

How odd that opponents of the manufactured housing = bill cry=20 "rent control" -- even though it isn't -- but don't = yell "wage=20 control" when it comes to hiking the salaries for the = governor=20 and Legislature? Just call it extra gravy on = their=20 turkeys.=20

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