Isaac "Ike" Carothers runs the West Side. The powerful alderman of the far West Side 29th Ward, Carothers holds the respect of his fellow aldermen. So when he stood up at a City Council meeting last month to decry the kidnapping of aldermen, people listened and the CPD acting as security in the Council chambers moved to restrain the increasingly agitated community groups that had infiltrated the spectators' area.

The men and women who serve in Chicago's City Council -- or, most of them -- are not patsies. They are, in the words of leading ACORN activist Toni Foulkes, "the baddest politicians on the planet," and they take pride in the fact that they are the inheritors of a legacy of brawling, no-holds-barred, take it when you can, feudal politics of power.

The business of city-wide legislation is the provenance of a few key old-timers and roustabouts, trouble-making firebrands -- a hassle for your average alderman. The real job of Chicago's aldermen is to rule his fiefdom efficiently and subtly -- but not without blunt force. Votes of conscience with real social implications don't sit well with your run-of-the-mill aldermen. They're busy making sure garbage is picked up, trees are planted, and residents are quieted. Who needs the headache?

So when the votes to bring Wal*Mart to town came up, it was contentious and the aldermen were scared. They weren't sure which vote was the politically safe vote -- so they looked to their political sponsors for instructions on how to vote, especially since Mayor Daley hadn't picked up the phone and issued a clear directive.

"This is outrageous!" Ike Carothers shouted, "We got community organizations kidnapping aldermens, dragging them out of the chambers!"

It had been chaotic: a charismatic young pastor and community activist from a prominent community organization had hustled 15th Ward Alderman and stand-up guy Theodore "Ted" Thomas out of the chambers and worked him over right there on Clark Street for over two hours, making sure he was going to cast two "No" votes, one for each Wal*Mart. For hours they stood toe to toe out there on Clark Street, the young pastor reminding Ald. Thomas of everything they'd done to get him elected, of all the facts and figures the alderman had heard at a town hall meeting at Saint Sabina's the month before. When alderman Thomas' cellphone rang, as his fellow aldermen who had lined up behind West Side alderman and Wal*Mart proponent Emma Mitts tried to contact him, the young pastor ran interference.

"Let me see your phone, alderman," he said, and when he did, the young pastor turned it off and put it in his pocket.

Thomas, a man in his sixties coming off of a heart attack and a stroke, slumped against the wall. He liked Emma Mitts. He didn't want to upset her, he said, and she had always helped him out.

"Forget that," the young pastor said, "this is too important."

Inside, recently tamed reformer alderman Joe Moore was on his feet, railing against Wal*Mart. Stridently pro-labor alderman Thomas Allen was hooting in agreement.

Deputy Mayor and 25th Ward alderman Daniel Solis fidgeted. He hadn't gotten a directive from his political sponsor -- none other than one Richard M. Daley -- and he wasn't sure how to vote. Ald. Mitts, who would be hosting one of the Wal*Marts in her Ward, had lobbied him hard to at least vote for her store.

By this point, Mitts was frantic looking for Ald. Thomas, whom she hoped she had charmed into a Yea vote. It did seem that in fact he had been hijacked, and Ike Carothers, who gave the West Side Wal*Mart his blessing, thereby clearing the way for the other West Side aldermen to vote his way, was steaming mad. Who were these radicals?

Finally, when Ald. Thomas was exhausted after hours of lobbying, he was released and returned to the chambers. Carothers then decried the "kidnapping" of aldermen, and Mayor Daley instructed the CPD to quell the riotous crowd. A group of pro-Wal*Mart West Side pastors tried to drown out the loud chants of "Living Wage Yes! Wal*Mart No!" from the community organizations and community labor activists by interjecting a second "Yes!"

The mood among the rest of the aldermen was clear: Fear. How to maintain their progressive, pro-community images while not appearing anti-business? Besides, it was the fledgling entrepreneurs who filled the coffers of each of the city's ruling 49 Regular Democratic Organizations (one ward is represented by a Republican). They also faced another dilemma: the way they held power was by being the final word, the embodiment of authority, in their wards. If they stuck their nose in the business -- literally -- of other aldermen today, who says it wouldn't happen to them tomorrow?

Somewhere, Chicago Federation of Labor chairman Dennis Gannon was fuming, and rightfully so. He couldn't believe the betrayal. The CFL had worked so hard to keep the Wal*Marts out of Chicago. It represented a threat organized labor hadn't seen since a cold January day in 1981 when Ronald Reagan placed his hand on a Bible in Washington, D.C. and swore to uphold the Constitution. But these aldermen, almost all of whom had received tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of volunteer man-hours over the course of their careers, were more concerned with the "keep your nose out of my business" ethos of City Council tradition than the very real debt they owed organized labor. Perhaps it was on that day that he planned the fiery speech he would give later that month at an AFL-CIO conference at the Hilton Hotel, where he denounced the entire City Council as traitors and suggested it was time to find alternatives.

Finally, the aldermen were called on to vote. Emma Mitts, thanks in large part to the aggressive blessing of Ike Carothers, saw her Wal*Mart eek through by a slim margin. Ald. Manuel "Manny" Flores, a young pup with a progressive record who has struggled to maintain his pro-growth yet anti-hyperdevelopment campaign platform, voted with Ms. Mitts and big Ike. Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, the supposed independent reformer from the Hyde Park-centered 4th Ward, abstained from the vote. Ted Thomas, as usual, was as good as his word. He cast a Nay vote. Powerful Zoning Committee chair and Committeeman of one of the most powerful Ward Organizations in the city William J.P. Banks also voted Nay.

But there was still the South Side Wal*Mart, which freshman Alderman Howard Brookins, Jr., had tried to sneak through in a package zoning ordinance months ago, to vote on.

Brookins has no Ike Carothers on his side, and many aldermen felt he hadn't shown the proper deference in lobbying for their votes; so many aldermen felt the safest bet was to vote Nay; this way they could meet labor and big business halfway; give the West Side their Wal*Mart, but object to the South Side location in the name of community preservation.

This cheap trick was not so simple for Ald. Solis, who without Daley's backing was still rudderless. The solution, of course, was to get out of town. Literally. Solis was excused from the vote because he claimed he had to leave immediately before the second vote to catch a flight.

With several abstentions and spiteful or contradictory Nay votes, the South Side Wal*Mart failed, and the community groups roared with delight as Brookins collapsed in his seat, covering his smooth, young face with his hands. He learned a valuable lesson about how a bill becomes a law in Chicago.

They're not judged by the content of their character, but by the name of their sponsor.