Today’s Tribune endorsement editorial, entitled “How to liberate Cook County,” started out predictably enough.

Years of hard work by anti-machine reformers have led to this moment: the chance for a new president of the 17-member Cook County Board–plus a majority of at least nine steady votes for slashing bloat and improving services.

Tony Peraica should be that new County Board president. And if voters make good choices in board races, his reform agenda will prevail. […]

The County Board to be elected Nov. 7 is likely to include at least eight reformers. Swinging a ninth vote away from the machine politicians who have owned Cook County would make a decisive difference. With that reform agenda driving these choices, here are the Tribune’s endorsements for contested County Board races

The Tribune, which recently discovered that clout played a major role in the 2003 aldermanic election, details a litany of nasty politics by those bad ol’ county board members and even refuses to endorse either candidate in some races.

And then we come to this paragraph:

11th District (South and Southwest Sides, southwest suburbs): This page has argued that incumbent Democrat John Daley has the knowledge and political skills to help engineer a radical overhaul and downsizing of county government. Daley’s familiarity with county finances brings with it a responsibility to be a dynamic force for reform. He is endorsed over Republican political consultant Carl Segvich.

What do you think? Did the Tribsters completely wimp out or do you think they actually believe that John Daley - the brother of the mayor - is a potential anti-machine reformer?

*** UPDATE *** Speaking of goofy newspaper editorials, remember the Northwest Herald’s strange endorsement of Pat Quinn because the paper mistakenly believed the LG was elected separately and Quinn could work with either a Repub or a Dem governor? Well, it wasn’t just the NW Herald. Other papers in the chain also ran the editorial before somebody figured out the oopsie and pulled it offline.

I try not to nitpick because everybody makes mistakes. Stuff happens. But these are endorsements, so the bar is set much higher. Endorsements are supposedly thoroughly debated and carefully considered within the institution before publication. These are not stories written under impossible deadlines or unimportant blurbs that nobody cares about.

Anyway, I was browsing through the NW Herald’s other endorsements today when I noticed this line in the paper’s glowing support for Dan Rutherford:

Rutherford served 20 years in the House

Um… actually, Rutherford served just ten years in the House.

The NW Herald’s endorsement editorial which claimed Topinka has no property tax relief plan also caught my eye. You may not like Topinka’s property tax relief plan, you might think it doesn’t go far enough, you may not think it’ll work as promised, you may even despise her proposed funding source, but she does, in fact, have one.

*** UPDATE 2 *** [Sigh.] I hate to keep at this, but I don’t think the SoS office has 37,000 employees, as claimed in the NW Herald’s Rutherford endorsement. Not even close.

The real headcount is about 3,800.