"Change We Need" is the prevailing political attitude in Chicago's black community, and it has nothing to do with Barack Obama's 2008 campaign slogan or his re-election campaign.

Getting rid of the "Tiresome Threesome" of black city congressmen -- the ailing Bobby Rush (D-1), who was first elected in 1992, the scandal-challenged Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-2), who was first elected in 1995, and the indolent and increasingly irrelevant Danny Davis (D-7), who was first elected in 1996 -- has become a priority among black politicians.

A congressional seat is a prized plum, nestled at the apex of the "Pyramid of Power" which typifies Chicago and Cook County politics. It is deemed a steppingstone to the mayoralty. Harold Washington, who was elected to Congress in 1980, used the post to elevate his name recognition and solidify his black base, and get elected mayor in 1983. Rush and Davis have run for mayor. Jackson was primed to run for mayor in 2007 against Rich Daley, but he folded; by 2011, when Daley retired, Jackson was ensnared in the Rod Blagojevich morass, the subject of an ethics investigation, an admitted adulterer, and totally without credibility and viability.

One should not speak ill of the dead or pronounce the dead as ill, but it's evident that Jackson's career is on life support, just waiting for someone (meaning Jackson) or something (meaning the FBI or the House Ethics Committee) to flick the switch. Once perceived as the "Great Black Hope," he's now derided as the "Great Black Dope."

Jackson will never be mayor or U.S. senator. The only unresolved question is how long can he last as the 2nd District's absentee congressman? He will be re-elected on Nov. 6, but unless he resigns some time during his 2013-14 term, he surely will be defeated in the 2014 primary.

One can surely empathize with Jackson's plight. He has acknowledged that he suffers from bipolar disorder, which is characterized by daily, sometimes hourly, mood swings between elation and depression. After the heady years of being perceived as a mayor in waiting or better, Jackson is now beset and besieged. The media regularly lampoon, lambaste and lacerate him. The FBI reportedly is investigating possible irregularities in campaign spending. The House Ethics Committee is investigating whether he used his federal staff to intercede in the alleged Blagojevich "Senate seat sale." If so, he could be censured, sanctioned or expelled.

If Jackson resigns, the probing and anxiety ends.

However, sympathy is easily dwarfed by political ambition, and a gaggle of 2nd District politicians, including former U.S. representative Debbie Halvorson, who is white and who lost the 2012 Democratic primary to Jackson by 56,130-22,678, are eagerly eying the seat. Black voters provide almost 70 percent of the primary vote, but a contest with multiple black candidates against Halvorson could result in her victory.

Now, in political circles, like the protocol at a fast-food restaurant, there's a rising crescendo that it's time for the "Threesome" to step aside and let the next generation of black mayoral wannabes move into those congressional seats and begin positioning themselves to run for mayor when Rahm Emanuel moves on to another office.

According to insiders, here's the line of succession:

In Davis's West Side 7th District, the possible successors are Alderman Walter Burnett (27th), a protege of Secretary of State Jesse White, Alderman Deborah Graham (29th), a former state representative, state Senator Kimberly Lightford (D-4) of Maywood and state Representative LaShawn Ford (D-8) of Chicago. Another possibility is state Senator Kwame Raoul (D-13) of Hyde Park, who took Obama's seat in 2005. The 2011 remap added a sliver of the 5th Ward, where Raoul lives, to the 7th District.

Should Davis, age 71, who earlier this year lost a race against Graham for 29th Ward Democratic committeeman, run again in 2014, he will have competition from one or more of the aforesaid. The congressman's days are numbered.

In Rush's Near South Side 1st District, which takes in all or part of 16 Chicago wards plus a large swath of suburban and rural territory (166 precincts) stretching west of Interstate 57 to Tinley Park and into Will County to Mokena, Frankfort, New Lenox and Manhattan, the black population is 55 percent.

Rush, age 65, has been battling cancer since 2008, and he underwent major surgery and five months of treatment. He looks wan and frail, but he is still combative. He got headlines when he donned a hoodie on the House floor to condemn alleged racial profiling in the wake of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

The congressman's stature in the district borders on the iconic. He won the March primary with 83.6 percent of the vote against five challengers. He will not lose a Democratic primary -- ever. He thumped Obama in the 2000 1st District primary by 59,599-29,649, getting 61 percent of the vote. When Rush retires, which likely will be in 2014, Raoul is the designated successor, and he will boast Obama's endorsement, even though he lives in the 7th District. Under the federal Constitution, one need only live in the state to represent any congressional district. Another possibility is Alderman Bob Fioretti (2nd), who is white. Fioretti's ward was cannibalized by the City Council's 2012 remap, and he will be out of a job in 2015.

In Jackson's south Lakefront and suburban/rural district, which stretches from Pershing Road in Burnham Park, which is 3800 south, east of the Dan Ryan Expressway, to the southern Kankakee border, a distance of 66 miles, the likely succession is clear: It will be Alderman Will Burns (4th), a protege of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, not Alderman Sandi Jackson (7th), the congressman's wife. Another possibility is Alderman Anthony Beale (9th).

The district has 194 precincts in six wards in Chicago, 263 precincts in the south Cook County suburbs, including predominantly black Bloom, Bremen, Calumet, Rich and Thornton townships, 27 precincts in Will County and 85 precincts in Kankakee County.

"There's no way Sandi can win that seat," said a South Side black Democrat. "If Junior resigns, it will be in disgrace. He has been neglecting his district. His baggage is too heavy for her to win (the seat)"

However, according to one South Side insider, if a special election is called in 2013, the interim successor will be Bob Shaw, a shopworn 34th Ward politician who would be the placeholder until 2014. "In a low-turnout primary, Halvorson could win," he said. "With only Shaw running, she loses."

The so-called "Pyramid of Power" is like a ladder. The lowest rung is that of state legislator. At present, there are eight black state senators and 16 black state representatives whose districts lie within the three congressional districts. The next recorder of deeds, Karen Yarbrough of Maywood, was a state representative, as were her black predecessors, Gene Moore, Jesse White and Carol Moseley Braun.

The next rung is Cook County commissioner, of which there are four, elected in districts: Earlean Collins (D-1), Deborah Sims (D-5), Jerry "Iceman" Butler (D-3) and Robert Steele (D-2). None except West Sider Steele is deemed congressional material, and Collins and Butler likely will retire in 2014. The next rung is countywide office, of which African Americans hold five posts: board president, clerk of court, recorder and two Metropolitan Sanitary District commissionerships

The next rung is Chicago alderman, of which there are 19, which will decrease to 18 in 2015. Both Rush and Davis were aldermen, as were Preckwinkle and her predecessor, Todd Stroger.

The top rung is U.S. representative, which guarantees visibility, a lifetime tenure and a shot at mayor.

A bit of history is in order. Prior to the Great Depression, Chicago's blacks were solidly Republican. They provided South Side votes for Mayor William Hale Thompson and other Republican bosses. Chicago's first black congressman, in the Near South Side 1st District, was Republican Oscar DePriest, who was elected in 1932. The huge 1930s influx of Southern African Americans, coupled with Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal," created a Democratic base, and DePriest lost in 1934. Bill Dawson, the Republican 2nd Ward alderman from 1933 to 1939, switched parties, became a Democratic ward committeeman, and beat DePriest's successor for Congress in 1942. Born in 1886 in Georgia, Dawson rose to become chairman of the Government Operations Committee; as the South Side "boss," he delivered black votes for the "Kelly Machine" and critical votes for Richard J. Daley in 1955.

Dawson died in 1969, and Daley picked 60-year-old 3rd Ward Alderman Ralph Metcalfe, a 15-year Daley loyalist, for the seat. After being harassed by a white cop, Metcalfe morphed into a Daley critic and pondered a 1975 run for mayor. Metcalfe died in 1978, and he was replaced by Bennett Stewart, whom Washington beat in 1980. Washington was succeeded by Charlie Hayes, an obscure union official, whom Rush unseated in 1992.

Explosive West Side population growth made 24th Ward Alderman George Collins the congressman in 1970. He died in a 1973 plane crash, and his widow, Cardiss Collins, held the seat until 1996, when she retired and Davis was elected.

Equally explosive Far South Side population growth enabled the controversial, publicly anti-Semitic Gus Savage to win the seat in 1980. He kept his job until 1992, when attorney and talk show host Mel Reynolds beat him with 63 percent of the vote. Reynolds resigned in 1995 after being charged with having sexual relations with a teenager. Jackson won the November 1995 primary, getting 46 percent of the vote in a turnout of 62,228 and beating state Senators Emil Jones and Alice Palmer, whose seat was won by Obama in 1996.

With Emanuel moving on at some point, those three black congressional seats are a coveted prize.