Blago

[Timber Loftis]

With our former governor's fate now being considered by a jury, I thought I'd pin up this article with some insight into our politics.

chicagotribune.com
Blago a lone hyena, not a political lion

John Kass

July 29, 2010

"If things go south, what size suit do you wear?" asked Rod Blagojevich of his nephew in federal court in Chicago.

The exchange was overheard by blogger Susan Berger covering Blagojevich's corruption trial, and I've been thinking about that line for some time now.

You don't measure a man by his sleeve length or coat size. And you don't measure a state by all the elected officials who leverage our right to their honest service against their lust for power and treasure.

But I've been calling him Gov. Dead Meat since the day he was arrested, and with his jury now considering his fate, it's time to step back to consider him in context.

If Dead Meat is eventually hauled off to the federal cooler, will things get better in thoroughly corrupt Illinois?

No.

You'd need an enormous cooler to chill all the political predators in this state.

And in the political predator department, Blagojevich is no lion. We've got a few of those. They have entire prides protecting them.

Blagojevich was more like some lone hyena, chattering, nervously unsure with the lions out there. Even though he was governor, he was smart enough to understand he didn't have real power.

House Speaker Michael Madigan has real power. He runs the legislature, and the Illinois Democrats. He dictates tax policy. He has a law practice that helps reduce taxes for the big-money real estate interests in Chicago who lean Republican, and he's said to be a wealthy man.

At the same time, he is a key political ally of the hacks at the county board of tax appeals. The Tribune editorial board calls this conflict "grotesque."

But most of us just call it Illinois.

Mayor Richard Daley is another pride lion. Think of the guys around him who've gorged on city-related deals in the multi-multi-millions of dollars, like Bridgeport trucking bosses Fred Bruno Barbara and Mike Tadin. And what of his political brains, Tim Degnan and Jeremiah Joyce, who've made fortunes in development, construction supplies, consulting?

It's obscene. And don't forget the Daley brothers. Johnny Daley runs the County Board while the ridiculous Todd Stroger gets beaten like the redheaded stepchild. Johnny has made a good living selling insurance to city contractors who sought his brother's love. And don't forget the Daley nephew who was given $70 million in city pension money to invest, even though the mayor said he didn't know about it.

Governors are fall guys. But until Madigan and Daley go away, there can't be any real change in the politics of Illinois. It'll still be tribal, run by warlords.

Yet we poke sticks through the cage at Dead Meat, and revel in his fall. I figure that much of this media antipathy is a function of how close Blagojevich was to President Barack Obama's real estate fairy, the convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko.

Obama is the media's saint. Any one or thing that threatens his halo is suspect. And so, Blagojevich had to become our crazed Rumpelstiltskin.

Though we tease and ridicule Blagojevich — and I've done more than my share — I find it odd, even grotesque, that Daley and Madigan are spoken of in hushed, almost respectful tones. They can bite. And Blago never had the teeth for it.

Meanwhile, the state that is run by Madigan is billions of dollars in debt. The city run by Daley is broke. Compared to these two, Blagojevich is a pimple.

But his own mouth is on all those federal wiretaps, and the theme of his own narrative is that he was desperate to use his office to haul in all that "(bleeping) golden" treasure.

And after watching him for years, and hearing the secret recordings and other evidence, it's difficult to imagine how he wouldn't be guilty as charged. He is a lawyer, a former prosecutor, a governor, a master communicator.

He knew what he was doing. And he promised that he'd change "business as usual" after the corruption of the George Ryan years.

The difference between Blagojevich and the puppetmasters is that he tried to do things alone, without buffers, relying instead on strangers, amateurs, hustlers.

Early in Blagojevich's term, he instigated a messy, public feud with the man who made him, his father-in-law, Dick Mell.

Mell is a throwback, a North Side Democratic ward boss. He's crafty and plays old school patronage politics, but he's also a great fisherman. And he's not some lace curtain phony.

So when Blagojevich reached out to his buddy Christopher Kelly to help run his politics and dumped his father-in-law, the other Democrats couldn't trust Blagojevich. He became Dead Meat right then and there.

Mell described himself as some dutiful wife who'd been dumped for some hot young babe. He told this to the Sun-Times:

"Now he's at the top, and he says, 'What a great man I am,' and she says, 'Wait a second, I remember when you were crying that we needed more money, or you were crying because you thought you'd fail one of the tests.' He with his gigantic ego cannot stand that anymore. So he jettisons that wife. And he gets a new trophy wife. I am the old wife. The new wife is Chris Kelly."

Kelly, charged with corruption, committed suicide last summer.

The mayor and Madigan still run things.

And Dead Meat is alone, perhaps picking out a few nice suits to leave behind to his nephew.

jskass@tribune.com

Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune

[Chewbacca]

Man what the world would be like if Politician was a job you were chose for rather than one you chose to go for...