The news that William Daley, 62, the youngest of the seven children of longtime Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, is being considered for a top post in the Obama administration — possibly chief of staff — will cause many people to recall the immortal words of his father in commenting on the role of Chicago’s finest in busting heads at the 1968 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago: “The policeman isn’t there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”

Democratic party hacks describe William Daley, currently a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive, as a Washington veteran who is “highly respected in the business community.” That is nonsense. He’s an old-fashioned influence peddler. He wouldn’t know what a balance sheet was if he stepped on one.

It is not hard to guess what his role will be within the Obama administration. It will be to preserve that rampant disorder that has resulted from Obama’s economic and social policies. In addition, he will no doubt try to get a least a few rent-seeking corporatists to buy into the false idea that Obamanomics represents anything else than a frontal assault on our free-enterprise system.