Division Street

An embarrassed City Hall has put the kibosh on James Duff ever doing business with the city again.

“That mistake left a gaping opportunity for career critics of this administration, as well as people with legitimate concerns, to criticize the mayor and question his judgment,” mayoral spokeswoman Jackie Heard told the Tribune.

Oh, the audacity.

“White Duff family members fraudulently obtained $100 million in janitorial contracts earmarked for minorities and women,” the Sun-Times reminds us this morning.

“Until the scandal broke, [Mayor] Daley had accepted campaign contributions and political foot soldiers provided by the Duff family and attended their Christmas parties.”

Unbelievably, the new procurement officer who made the blunder told the S-T that he never read the case file and that “I didn’t know the Duffs from the Diffs.”

Curiously, after the scandal broke, the mayor said the same thing.

Mayor Richard M. Daley’s occasional commitments to cracking down on corruption in his administration always ring hollow to anyone paying close attention, but the brazenness with which his administration behaves continues to amaze.

Today’s outrage comes courtesy of a Tribune exclusive that James Duff and his Windy City Maintenance, key players at the center of one of Daley’s signature scandals, will be allowed to conduct business with the city again in just three years. The city’s inspector general, whom Daley has undermined at every step, sought a lifetime ban.

“When someone is convicted of a massive racketeering, fraud and money laundering scheme involving city contracts, in which the city taxpayers are the victim,” Hoffman said, “the city should say to that person, ‘You have forfeited your opportunity to compete for city contracts.’ Period.”

Not in Daley’s Chicago, David, where “inspector general” means you are merely generally inspecting. Feel like you’re being played for a chump yet?