BLAGOJEVICH!--Why it Sounds Like Puking in Your Hat
Blagojevich in an uncharacteristic moment of self-reflection.
To no one’s surprise Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich returned to work this morning after being sprung on signature bond from his arrest yesterday on a dazzling array of corruption charges. After all, about the only leverage he has left is his job and the threat that he will fill the Senate seat in a way that does the maximum political damage to his legions of enemies.
Politicians are scrambling to find ways to strip that authority from him before he pulls the pin on the grenade. Lt. Governor Pat Quinn-AKA Governor-in-waiting-started the ball rolling at a press conference yesterday in which he called for Blagojevich to temporarily step aside due to being “impeded from fulfilling the duties of his office.” He broached this option on his assumption that the Governor would never voluntarily resign. Pressed repeatedly by reporters, he amended his recommendation to include “or resign,” which ended up as the sound bite on the evening news. He also suggested that if the governor did not remove himself in some way, the legislature should act immediately to strip him of his power to appoint a Senator.
Quinn, by the way, is a notorious goo-goo-that’s the derisive term for “good government” in Illinois politics-so far removed from the Governor’s taint that he reportedly hasn’t even spoken to him since the summer of 2007. Quinn’s only real faults are a tendency to pomposity and self-congratulation at his own virtues. He stands out as a rumpled but shining contrast to the incumbent. He declared himself ready to assume office if need be.
Senator Dick Durbin, himself recently burned by nearly unanimous public revulsion at his recommendation that former Governor George Ryan have his sentnce communted, was quick to call on the General Assembly to act quickly to set a special election to replace Barack Obama. He noted that anyone appointed under the current circumstances would enter the Senate “under a cloud.”
The governor’s arch foe House Speaker Michael Madigan and erstwhile ally outgoing Senate Majority Leader Emil Jones both said that they were ready to call the legislature back into session as early as Monday to act. Madigan is likely to initiate impeachment proceedings, but that could take weeks to play out. McHenry County’s own Representative Jack Franks, the governor’s harshest critic, was all over the airways saying he would initiate impeachment proceedings himself. He is one of the few Democrats whose stature and political future could be boosted by this scandal.
Jones, at first thought to be a possible suspect as Senate Candidate 5 in the charges against the Governor, is not one of those who will be so lucky. His long cozy relationship with Blagojevich will permanently tarnish his image and his chances of a cushy path way to an honored retirement via a place-holding Senate appointment have vanished.
But rising political star Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. is more damaged. He was identified in press reports this morning as Senate Candidate 5. Jackson, of course, denies making or receiving any corrupt bargains. He reportedly volunteered to meet with investigators. But he did have an embarrassing lengthy personal interview with the Governor just the day before the shit hit the fan. Ooops!
The verdict is out on possible damage to the President Elect himself. On one hand U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald himself pointed out in his press conference, there is no indication that Obama knew anything about the scheme. Some Chicago media sources are reporting that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s designated Chief of Staff may have been the person to alert the U.S. Attorney’s office after receiving feelers from the Governor’s office. Blagojevich’s own foul-mouthed contempt of the Obama for not offering anything in exchange for the seat is also exculpatory. The New York Times has even attributed Blagojevich’s downfall to Obama’s intersession earlier this year to break a legislative log-jam blocking the campaign-finance reform law that set the Governor up on his feeding frenzy. And Obama has joined the chorus of voices calling for the Governor’s resignation and a special election to fill his seat.
On the other hand, salivating wing-nuts are falling all over themselves trying to chain Obama to the anvil of Illinois political corruption. Just being from the state and being a practicing politician are enough to taint any one in a lot of people’s eyes. They have long tried to tarnish him with his relationship to Blagojevich bag-man Tony Rezko. Now, inevitably, the names of some of his acquaintances, political allies, and friends are bound to pop up, however tangentially, in the on-going investigation. Republican pundits and talking head wind-bags will be waiting with their hammers to play whack-a-mole at the first sight of a whisker. It will get ugly. It may take some of romance from the mainstream media’s honeymoon with the new administration as they absorb the new Obama-as-tainted-Illinois-Pol meme.
Rod Blagojevich raided the hen house one time to many. The splatter of feathers, blood, feces and egg yolk will take a long time to clean up.
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No one who has stood downwind of the reeking cesspool that is Blagojevich was surprised to learn that he was arrested yesterday. Most observers have been expecting it for months as Ftizgerald closed relentlessly in on multiple corruption charges stemming from the investigation of wheeler-dealer Rezko and other slime balls.
What was jaw dropping to even the most jaded Illinois political observer was the news that the charges filed in the criminal complaint were the results of new bugs and wire taps installed in the governor’s home, office, and campaign office within the last six weeks! That’s after Rezko’s conviction and the widely held belief that Tony and others were singing like canaries about Public official “A”, Blagojevich’s alias in numerous court filings.
Most politicians under the circumstances-hell most career criminals-would lay low under the assumption that everything they would do would come to the immediate attention of the authorities. Not Rod. Faced with a January 1 effective date for new state legislation limiting the ability of state contractors to make campaign contributions, Blagojevich, evidently launched into and accelerated campaign of corruption.
Fitzgerald was so appalled, that he abandoned his signature strategy of allowing high profile targets to twist publicly in the wind for extended periods while he builds water-tight cases against them as underlings and associates fall one by one. Instead, he felt compelled to swoop down on the Governor and his top aid John Harris and interrupt an on-going “crime spree” before significant damage was done.
The most spectacular charge was that the Governor was conducting a virtual auction of Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat. In a November 10 conversation with and aids he called Obama a “motherfucker” (we will use the unexpurgated language here) for trying to get a favored candidate appointed “for nothing.” Instead, Blagojevich entered into negotiations with purported representatives of “Senate candidate 5” for the appointment in exchange for raising “$500 grand” or maybe as much as $1 million in campaign contributions. But he wanted to see some of that money “now.”
The governor and his aids also discussed an elaborate “three way” scheme in which he would take a job as titular head of the Change to Win labor federation led by the SEIU for at least $250 thousand dollars a year in exchange for the unions’ financial and political support of Obama-which he already enjoyed. The Governor, in turn, would deign to appoint an Obama favorite to the open seat.
The Governor also reportedly floated suggestions that he might trade a cabinet appointment or an ambassadorship for in exchange for the senate appointment. .
Blagojevich and his aids also evidently discussed other possible deals for high paying jobs and corporate board assignments for both himself and his wife. But he also held out the possibility that if all else failed he could use the job to “parachute out of here” and avoid possible impeachment by appointing himself to the seat.
The sale of the Senate seat, however, was apparently only one money-making scheme the Governor was advancing. He ordered “Fundraiser A”, identified as the head of Friends of Blagojevich, to shake down potential donors for big bucks before the new Illinois law limiting contributions from state contractors took hold.
Among the plots discussed were:
- An attempt to withdraw an $8 million dollar payment to Children’s Memorial Hospital when an expected hefty contribution from the hospital’s board chair did not materialize.
- A shakedown of gambling interests in exchange for signing a bill mandating casinos set aside money for the hard pressed horse racing industry.
- Using an announced program to complete the “open road” Tollway project to shake down road construction interests.
- Assorted offers of political appointments and favors in exchange for cash or cushy jobs for his wife.
And when it came to extortion, the Governor allegedly also exercised a taste for vengeance. In an expletive-rich discussion participated in by his wife Patti, Blagojevich directed Harris to threaten the Tribune Company with placing road blocks to the sale of Wriggly Field unless the company fired members of the Editorial Board who had been critical of the governor. Despite the expressed concern of Fitzgerald, the Trib did not move to fire any of its staffers, even under the cover of wide-spread layoffs at the company.
It was not the only way that the Tribune Company, which filed for bankruptcy a day earlier, became enmeshed in the case. The Chicago Tribune was pursuing its own investigation of the Governor and uncovered information that a key aid and supporter was cooperating with the Feds and may have been wearing a wire. The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office begged the paper to withhold the story, fearing that its release would make it impossible to plant the bugs and listening devises in Blagojevich’s home and office. The paper did hold off until the devises were in place and had been gathering damning information for weeks.