If Hiring Relatives Is Good Enough For JFK, It's Good Enough For Joe Berrios

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 29, 2012 2:40PM

Those who follow Cook County politics already know County Assessor Joe Berrios is unrepentant when it comes to hiring family for government positions. Berrios has found scores of ways to tell those poking into his business to fuck off over the years.

The latest instance happened Wednesday, when Berrios compared hiring his son and sister to work in the Assessor’s office to President John F. Kennedy appointing his brother Robert as Attorney General. The Sun-Times caught up with Berrios, who was testifying before a state Senate committee. He would have gotten away with not saying anything had he continued to simply shrug his shoulders and walk on, but that isn’t Joe Berrios’ style.

“You’re saying Bobby Kennedy wasn’t fit for the [U.S. attorney general’s] job? He appointed his brother,” Berrios continued, referring to JFK. “And in government, people help many people. This is part of the process.”

While the comparison is apt, it’s only so to a fault. Bobby Kennedy still had to go through Senate confirmation hearings—which he breezed through with a stellar performance—but his relative inexperience was still a sticking point. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in his 1978 biography on RFK, wrote that some politicians had doubts about his experience, which caused John F. Kennedy to quip, "I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law."

But Bobby Kennedy was only one relative. Joe Berrios brought his son and sister over to the Assessor’s office with him from the Cook County Board of Review. One of his daughters and two in-laws were already working there under his predecessor, Jim Houlihan. Another difference between Berrios and Kennedy is John F. Kennedy didn’t appoint his brother Attorney General in defiance of ethics laws by saying they didn’t apply to him.

When the Sun-Times ran a report a couple weeks back looking at the 15 members of Berrios' family who have made civil service a cottage industry, Berrios released a statement that read.

“Family members working in government isn’t new in Chicago or any other large city in the United States. You are picking on the Puerto Rican kid from Cabrini-Green who’s sitting alone at the lunch table while all the Irish kids sit together, laughing and grateful he’s there.”

That Puerto Rican kid from Cabrini Green who sat alone at the lunch table became Cook County’s Puerto Rican Boss Tweed—he's also chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party—laughing not only at all the Irish kids, but all voters.