Soldier for Stroger: the candidate of change helped keep Chicago politics dirty.(Todd Stroger)

WHAT is it like to work for the government of Cook County, Ill.? Simple. If you have the right political connections, you get the job. You get the raise. You get the promotion. You don't need to be qualified. You might not even need an interview. The job might not even be advertised to the public.

If you don't have the political connections, you might get a job, but you don't get the raise. You get no promotions, but you do get plenty of extra work that falls outside your job description. At some point, you're probably assigned to train an unqualified political stooge, sent from "downtown" to take that supervisory job for which you applied and for which you were ...