We’re stuck for now with Ald. Ed Burke, so we might as well enjoy watching him squirm

Ald. Ed Burke (14th) walks out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Tuesday morning.

Shortly before the appointed hour of 10 a.m., an SUV pulled up Tuesday outside the Dirksen Federal Building, stopping exactly where the news photographers and reporters were waiting.

Out popped defense lawyers Joseph Duffy and Charles Sklarsky, followed by their client, Ald. Edward M. Burke, the once powerful chairman of the City Council Finance Committee and now, not so much.

“Alderman Burke, do you plan to resign?” a reporter shouted as the lawyers led Burke between the gantlet of cameras, then through a revolving door and into the courthouse where the alderman had a date with a federal magistrate.

Burke did not answer the question, which was not surprising because maybe he couldn’t hear given the steam pouring out of his ears at the indignity of the situation.

But it was a proper question to ask, seeing as how Mayor Lori Lightfoot had pressed the point last week following Burke’s indictment.

Burke’s silent response was perfectly appropriate as well, as he is under no obligation to go away just yet, innocent until proven guilty and all that.

Ald. Ed Burke (14th) leaves the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Tuesday morning.

Sad as it is, Burke was just re-elected by the 14^th Ward’s voters to another four-year term on the City Council, and now we’re stuck with him until there’s a conviction on the books.

Arguing otherwise just falls under the category of “save your breath,” not that I begrudge the new mayor her own more high-minded approach.

I still remember when one of Burke’s top minions, City Clerk Walter Kozubowski was indicted AND pleaded guilty to a ghost payrolling scam, yet Kozubowski STILL wasn’t ready to vacate his office, opting to hang on several more months until sentencing when his conviction would become final.

City Clerk Walter Kozubowski, left, and Mayor Richard M. Daley, right, at campaign headquarters on Primary Election Night in 1991.

After an uproar, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley was finally shamed into persuading Kozubowski to resign, leaving the job temporarily to Burke’s brother, Dan, the deputy clerk.

So you can see why I’m thinking Burke is going to cling to power until they pry it from his proven guilty hands, with a handoff to a family member no longer an option.

Nothing really happened with Burke in court Tuesday other than that he pleaded not guilty, as did his two co-defendants, Peter Andrews and Charles Cui.

Ald. Ed Burke’s top political aide, Peter J. Andrews, left, walks with his defense attorney Patrick W. Blegen out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Tuesday morning.

But I wasn’t going to miss out on the fun two weeks in a row, having been down in Springfield for the close of the legislative session when Lightfoot pantsed Burke at last week’s City Council meeting, followed the next day by U.S. Attorney John Lausch stripping Burke naked — laying the alderman’s venality bare for the world to see in a 19-count indictment.

With his attorney Tinos Diamantatos, right, developer Charles Cui walks out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Tuesday morning. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Yet even with the advantage of time, I’m still scratching my head over the question: what was Burke thinking?

I don’t mean about the stuff alleged in the indictment: attempting to extort the developers of the Old Main Post Office, muscling the Field Museum to get an internship for the daughter of former Ald. Terry Gabinski, the previously disclosed Burger King shakedown and the delicious quotes about landing the tuna and waiting for the cash register to ring.

The answer to what he was thinking on those matters is pretty obvious. He was thinking: Where’s mine?

But is there really some alternate universe in which Burke still imagines himself as the hero of the story where that silly confrontation with Lightfoot was going to end anywhere but badly for him?

At a point in his political career where it would definitely make sense to sit down and dummy up for a while, Burke took it upon himself to try to be the one to rattle the new mayor at her first City Council meeting by challenging the new Council rules for not being gender neutral.

It ended with the former federal prosecutor, an experienced trial attorney who demonstrated during the campaign her ability to think on her feet, easily getting the better of the 75-year-old toastmaster.

It’s quite possible Burke could still be a fairly effective member of the City Council, during whatever time he has left, by working his will behind-the-scenes through his relationships with other aldermen — as he always has when it suited his purposes.

Surely, there are a few aldermen left to whom he’s paid a referral fee or extended some never-to-be-mentioned favor who could carry his water.

All he has to do is make sure that alderman isn’t wearing a wire like Danny Solis.