Millennium Park, Chicago’s new downtown monstrosity — dubbed by Millennium Park by some wags because its $270 million cost to taxpayers is 80 percent more than originally estimated and is three years late — may wind up making a lasting positive mark.

This Trib story highlights folks’ effusive reactions to “Cloud Gate,” a giant shiny metallic structure most have taken to calling the bean for its resemblance to the magical fruit. I hope to take a trip down to the Loop soon and really take a look around at the new digs. But I think the quotes that end Jon Yates’ story very well illustrate the mixed reaction:

Not everybody is a fan, though. Juan Figueroa, 48, sees “Cloud Gate” every day as a security guard for a building across the street on South Michigan Avenue. He said he tries to avoid looking at the structure — and Millennium Park as a whole — because he thinks the cost was too high. …

“I’m totally negative,” he said. “I think they spent way too much money on it, money that could be spent on the homeless and to help people find jobs. … I don’t even look over there. I’m disgusted with all the money they spent on it.”

Others, however, could hardly take their eyes off it Wednesday.

As she ate her lunch under a tree near the sculpture, Kathy Monahan of Oak Park seemed transfixed by it.

“I’ve been trying to think of how to describe it,” Monahan, 57, said as she watched from behind the fence. “It’s better than a mirror because it’s convex. It shows Chicago. It shows the world what the city is.”

This was supposed to be Da Mare’s lasting legacy. In some ways it is. It illustrates the city’s high ambitions and, how corruption and simple incompetence often get in the way. A perfect mirror, indeed.

Much of the libertarian support for John Kerry (whatever little of it there is) is premised on the “block the box” theory that divided government is less harmful overall to liberty. While much that Kery proposes is just warmed-over awfulness, the Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman points out the presumptive Democratic nominee’s support for an initiative that might help reduce porkbarrel spending.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has come up with a way to stop the mutual back-scratching and promote the greater good. He wants to create an independent commission that would examine all the corporate handouts in the federal budget and make a list of those that should be scrapped. But instead of letting Congress and the president pick and choose from the list, they would have to accept or reject them all.

Members would still have to sacrifice items prized by a few constituents, but they’d be able to achieve big budgetary savings in exchange. Although it’s easy to vote to preserve a single item for the folks back home, voting to keep a long list of expensive business goodies is harder. The commission approach was first used for the painful obligation of closing unneeded military bases, and it was a huge success.

Unfortunately, few members of McCain’s party are on board. Steve Moore, who heads the anti-tax Club for Growth, which provides support for conservative Republican candidates, faults congressional Republicans for their selective frugality. “It makes them look like complete hypocrites,” he complains. “They want to get single mothers off welfare but not Archer Daniels Midland,” referring to the politically connected agribusiness giant.

This year, however, at least one prominent Democratic senator is taking a different approach–a guy named John Kerry. As part of his plan to reduce the deficit, he has said, he would “implement the McCain-Kerry Commission on corporate welfare to cut special tax loopholes and pork barrel spending projects.”

This stands in stark contrast to a president who has not vetoed a single spending bill. Not one.