Terrible Twins

Nightmare for a rookie mayor -- Schoemehl and Biondi on the prowl with a Big Idea

"If Vince wanted to run again, he could be elected mayor tomorrow," says one aldermanic ally.

The more sober-minded among these know it's unlikely to happen, particularly given Slay's ongoing popularity despite the absence of weighty accomplishment.

Still, the loyalists don't completely shut this door, largely because of the failures of Schoemehl's immediate successors and Slay's rank tanglefoot act.

"Vince gets frustrated with the people who have followed him," said one former Schoemehl staffer. "It's not because he's necessarily dying to get back into Room 200, but if he felt like the city was going down and there's no leadership, that's different."

Says another former city official: "It's like Michael Jordan in retirement, looking around and saying 'Damn, I know I got better game than these chumps.'"

Jordan serves as a sobering example of comebacks gone bad.

But the player's itch is a powerful thing. Consider all of those late-night card games Schoemehl had with his aldermanic cronies. Every time it was his turn to deal, he'd grip the cards and call the only form of poker he likes to play -- straight draw with a high betting limit.

Nothing wild, nothing fancy. Just ready, fire, aim.

That's why they call him Vinny One-Game.

Deal him in.

Or get your wheels busted by Father Capone.

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