stole?

it's election day...and on most election days my very favorite political story, even if it is probably apocryphal, pops into my head...

it concerns michael "hinky dink" kenna...who was at one time on the chicago city council but who preferred to be the brains of the organization behind "bathouse john" coughlin and stay out of sight in the first ward...

where he was proprietor of "the workingman's exchange" a saloon/flop house that filled with transient and indigent of the ward around election time...after one typical first ward election, replete with the customary ballot box stuffing, dead people voting, and outright bribery the story goes that the dink was being interviewed by a journalist who pointed out that many thought the lopsided victory by "the bath" was fraudulent...the result of a "stolen election"...kenna is said to have forcefully replied,"stole? i paid fifty cents cash for every one of those votes"...it was a more honest time in american politics...now they deny they lie and cheat whenever possible...there was more of an ethic in kenna and his peers...they called it honest graft...now it's "dark money"...vote early and often...