The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that Chicago has repealed the two-year-old foie gras ban that made the city an "international laughingstock" according to it's king...um, that is, mayor.

What may be more embarrassing for Chicagoans than the ban itself, however, might be how the democratic process is - or isn't - applied in Richard M. Daley's kingdom.

According to the Sun-Times report, a repeal ordinance quietly introduced last year and referred to the friendly Rules Committee — bypassing a Health Committee that had approved the foie gras ban — was moved to the Council floor without a hearing, something that is seldom, if ever done.

When Ald. Joe Moore (49th) objected and tried to exercise his right to postpone the vote, Daley ruled him out of order.  When Moore tried to debate the merits, Daley ruled that the measure was not debatable. He ordered the clerk to call the roll and to continue, even as Moore shouted for the right to be heard.

By a vote of 37-6, the foie gras ban was repealed, thanks to a legislative end-run that set a new standard for violating protocol and rolling over the opposition.

"If it can happen to me, tomorrow it could happen to you," Moore warned his colleagues.

"Thank you, Ald. Joe ‘Foie Gras’ Moore," Daley said.

After the show of force, Moore denounced the mayor as a dictator and Wednesday’s meeting as a new low.

With the abundance of banned actions and items in Chicago, we only wonder how King Richard II will respond to the US Supreme Court decision in DC v. Heller, which may affect Chicago's handgun ban, should it oppose his point of view.

Has anyone mentioned to Daley that Shakespeare's King Richard II was among the writer's infamous tragedies?