Sentencing for ex-Ald. Edward Burke offers referendum on Chicago’s old-school corruption

After a lifetime of backroom wheeling and dealing, former Chicago Ald. Edward Burke faces the most consequential negotiation of his life on Monday — and in the most public of places.

In a federal courtroom on the 25th floor of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, Burke, the longtime Democratic machine stalwart who dominated the City Council for most of his 54 years as an alderman, will be sentenced in a corruption case that rocked city politics and tanked Burke’s extraordinary career as a lawyer and elected official.