The story I did a few days ago about the Gangland Bus cruising around with goggle-eyed tourists hearing crime and corruption stories this town savors—and advertises—almost came true yesterday in every respect when a jury of Blago’s peers found him guilty of only one of the 24 criminal corruption charges he faced.
The reason the former governor didn’t get convicted on all 24 was not due to ineptitude of the prosecution—or the ineffable brilliance of the defense (although I will grant the defense better understood Chicagoans) —but because of three things.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
FIRST, , Chicagoans are inured to the belief that the way Blago worked the phones is what politicians do all the time…and the jury believed that the crimes he was charged with were akin to criminalizing political wheeling and dealing as they know it—and what they have respected grudgingly for years. It is not incidental that we buried Dan Rostenkowski in the same week and the papers were filled with how he maneuvered to help Chicago…paying for his dexterity with some minor offenses including non-payment of postage stamps.
Pat Fitzgerald’s initial statement that Blago’s crimes would make Lincoln turn over in his grave was evidence of a super-heated overstatement in the minds of many locals. Come again: Lincoln would turn over in his grave?
Anyone who has deeply studied Lincoln, a political and literary genius, knows that he was a successful railroad lawyer while he was a state legislator…knows that he unfurled a map of Illinois on his desk in the House and bargained the routes of railroad lines across the state, making deals on what towns the trains would stop at…which he used to run for the U. S. Senate where he got more votes than Stephen A. Douglas (not that it did him any good as the legislatures in those days named U. S. senators and they picked Douglas). Remember there were no serious conflict of interest laws then binding state lawmakers.
This is the same Abe Lincoln who when he was a presidential candidate hopped on a train solo to Council Bluffs, Iowa and bought up a scad of real estate there. Later as president when he got legislation through setting up cross-country railroads, the property ownership became valuable as Council Bluffs was a key centerpiece for the switching that sent trains throughout the country. Again, no conflict of interest laws hindered him…and to-boot Lincoln’s trip to Council Bluffs was paid by the railroads as he was a key attorney for many of them.
So was Lincoln turning over in his grave when Blago was dickering to fill a Senate seat? Not hardly. Not hardly.
Illinoisans don’t know much about Lincoln other than he was a great president but intuitively people in this state have always understood this is how things get done…and they grudgingly admire those who can do it…from Old Man Daley to his kid, to Eddie Burke, to Mike Madigan.
The only ones they can’t forgive are those pols who don’t do it very well…ala Jane Byrne (too inept) to Peter Fitzgerald (too damn honest…refusing to vote for goodies for Illinois out of pristine contentions…, who was allowed to retire when Ms. Barr Topinka deferring to Denny Hastert knifed him without much protest) to a number of Republicans whom they sneer at even acknowledging they were good for the city. I’m thinking of one of the finest urban experts practically and intellectually in the nation., Dr. Donald Haider, who ran as a Republican against Harold Washington (Dem) and Ed Vrdolyak (Solidarity party), getting 4.3% of the vote.
No he wasn’t an overeducated academic with his head in the clouds. Haider had been the city’s budget director, assistant deputy secretary of the treasury when New York city was bailed out, a consultant to key public officials—all on top of a Stanford BA, a Columbia Masters and Ph.D. He would have been our greatest mayor but Big Business was in bed with the Dems and preferred to see those get elected who work the old ways.
That’s the first reason Blago got off from 23 counts. Jurors didn’t see any exchange of money. Nobody was killed or “disappeared.”
The second?
SECOND is a relatively late development: dislike of the federal government which is percolating like a kettle ready to blow its top. Pat Fitzgerald and his team represent the federal government—a government of which the average guy is very suspicious.
THIRD, the jurors heard much about Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, Valerie Jarrett, Rahm Emanuel but heard none of them testify. They didn’t understand that in federal prosecution parlance conspiracy is a crime. They asked “where is the smoking gun?” not recognizing that the smoking gun was apparent in the phone discussions.
Make no mistake: I think Blago should have been hit with the full book. I’m just trying to explain why he wasn’t. The bill of indictment wasn’t too complicated. Jurors regularly deliberate on intricate financial matters. I’m sure they asked themselves: Wait a minute? If this guy is so bad, did he get a payoff. No? Well what’s the shouting about then? I think they would have been happy to convict young Jesse because that had all the earmarks of a proffer with a promise of dough to come. I must say I think Fitz is no angel. I think what he did to Scooter Libby was far too slick—knowing all the time who leaked the Valerie Plame story and pretending he didn’t. So in summary, I was for Blago getting the book thrown at him—but Patrick is sometimes too pristine for his own good—as he was with Scooter.
The Political Consequences.
Immediately after the jury’s decision and the judge’s statement that there would be a re-trial of the 23 points, the aura descended on the populace that this is somehow unfair. Something like double jeopardy—which it isn’t. It immediately crafts a feeling of sympathy for Blago—the non-legal public sentiment being that the jury considered all the evidence fair and square and let him walk on 23 points…now the big bad Feds are going to go after him again…and again…and again…and again—until they send him to jail. Something strikes people as unfair.
It also strikes people as the height of federal prosecutorial excess. The refrain was started by the Adamses: The Blago trial cost $30 million and he got convicted on one count. We’re going to spend maybe another $30 million of federal money to do it again? Plus Illinois taxpayers’ money to defend Blago since his private political money has run out?
A retrial will be exceedingly dangerous for all Democratic candidates and the Obama administration because it will likely showcase Emanuel and Jarrett as well as Tony Rezko.
Schakowsky the Saint?
I’m told by a wise reader that I was far too generous to Mme. Schakowsky in my critique yesterday of Melissa Bean…as when I said that Schakowsky didn’t have thugs at her Town Halls. He told me she most assuredly did. Okay, I apologize for being overly generous to Schakowsky. It’ll never happen again.
**
Tom Roeser is the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Chicago Daily Observer
image Bust of Antisthenes, Greek Cynic