Big Jim roundup
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* After the US Supreme Court turned down former Gov. George Ryan’s final appeal yesterday, former Gov. Jim Thompson held a press conference to announce that he would ask for a presidential commutation…
“The man has gone from being the governor of the state of Illinois to being a prisoner in the federal penitentiary,” Thompson said at a news conference at the Winston & Strawn offices this afternoon.
Even with time off for good behavior, the 74-year-old Ryan wouldn’t get out of his Terre Haute, Ind., prison until he’s nearly 80, Thompson said.
“I think it would be appropriate for the president of the United States to commute to time served.”
* John Ruberry saw this as yet another unwanted and unneeded PR disaster for the Republican Party….
Yeah, he is Ryan’s lawyer, but doesn’t Thompson care about the state? Or the party? Folks watching the television news tonight, or reading tomorrow morning’s papers, will have this image to digest. A former Republican governor asking the president to commute the prison sentence of another former Republican governor. […]
If the Illinois Republican Party is going to, as I’ve phrased it in the past, “take back the state,” we have to completely wash our hands of the mess of the George Ryan legacy. Thompson is not helping things.
* But, things tend to even out. Thompson also represents Gov. Blagojevich. At yesterday’s press conference the Sun-Times’ Natasha Korecki was a show-stopper. Literally…
I asked former Gov. James Thompson if another governor were indicted in Illinois whether Winston & Strawn will again provide free defense services.
Thompson dodged.
“OoooK, I think we’ve gone beyond the reach of this press conference,” Thompson replied.
Heh.
* I’m assuming that Thompson won’t have to buy a ticket to this event…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is sending out invitations for a big fundraising shindig on June 26 in Chicago, where he’s happy to call folks a “co-chair” of the event for a mere $20,000 contribution.
* Meanwhile, Big Jim has come up with yet another proposal for a state buyout of Wrigley Field…
Although the state will step up with a revised proposal to buy Wrigley Field from Tribune Co., the chances of such a deal succeeding appear to be waning, according to sources close to the negotiations.
“We are going to ask Tribune to resume negotiations this week,” said former Gov. James Thompson, who is chairman of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the city-state agency aiming to buy the historic ballpark. “We’ll introduce new elements.”
Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney said, “We haven’t shut the door on anything. We are working to do the best we can for Tribune’s employee shareholders, the team, and [Thompson] represents the public. […]
“Wrigley Field is the third-biggest tourist attraction in the whole state of Illinois,” Gov. Rod Blagojevich said during a press conference Tuesday. “I am determined to do everything that I can to make sure that the Cubs stay at Wrigley Field, no matter who the new owner might be. And if ISFA is not the way to go, there are other ways, and we’re working on some of those other ways.”
Personally, I really like Jim Thompson. I also greatly respect what he did for this state during his 14 years in office. I didn’t even mind it much when he represented Ryan. George was Big Jim’s lt. governor, after all, and they were close friends. When he signed on as a transition co-chair for Blagojevich, I thought it was a good idea. Bipartisanship, experienced leader helping the inexperienced goof, etc.
But, representing yet another governor in a federal criminal investigation and doing that governor’s bidding on this Wrigley deal just doesn’t sit well with me. There’s no need for this. I don’t think representing George Ryan is enough to destroy Thompson’s legacy, but this Blagojevich stuff might.
Thoughts?
* Related…
* Ex-Governor, Now in Prison, Sees Case End
* Supreme Court refuses to hear Ryan conviction appeal
* Court slams door on Ryan appeal
* Editorial: What the wise ones knew
* Ryan’s final appeal: White House
* Would Bush really grant Ryan a pardon?
* Rezko jury takes another half day off from deliberations
- Excessively rabid - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 8:00 am:
I thought Thompson overstayed his welcome as governor. The more weight he put on, the worse he did. If there’s a con-con, I hope govs will be limited to two terms.
- Ghost - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 8:23 am:
Ryan’s corruption was more old school, less heavy handed then Blagos (alleged) activities. You did not see the big mass firings of family of politicians who did not support him etc. Also Ryan may have been corrupt, but you could trust his word on deals and he hired people who knew what they were doing. No used car salesmen or cafeteria workers being placed as wardens and so forth.
Thompson continued work with Blago, including the parsing of the wrigley deal which benefits no one but a sports nut and a meg wealthy owner, just smacks of grinding out cash and power for his law firm. His has lost the venerable tag he once held and now Thompson appears more as the robber barrons assitant.
- the Patriot - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 9:03 am:
Ryan was a better Governor then Blago, but people died because of what he did. If he only serves 6 years it is not enough.
$20k a pop, looks like he is warming the engines for another run at the Governor. The Madigans may still have to answer for their blatent incompetence for refusing to indict or impeach him if he re-runs. oops!
Blago-Crazy like a fox!
- Former Repub - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 9:11 am:
To “Big Jim” all and those like him, may I say in the vernacular of those in the rustic realm…
“SSSUUUUUUEEEEEEEEYYYYY” (hint: hog farmers will get it)
- wordslinger - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 9:21 am:
I liked Big Jim as governor, too. He rode the tiger. He had a hell of a balancing act. He was a Rockefeller Republican in the Reagan era; a GOP governor who looked out for the suburbs and downstate but clearly loved and valued Chicago. He ran a pretty tight ship and surrounded himself with some wickedly smart people.
All in all, a good job. He has an ego as big as outdoors, but so what? He was a politician, but he was also a GOVERNOR. He managed the government pretty well. He was smart, could read, think and compromise. Miss him now, don’t we?
I disagree that’s he’s destroying his legacy. He’s an attorney. You take their dime, you fight like hell for them. That’s the system. Any good, big time attorney you could name has had skunks for clients. Sure, Ryan got convicted. But if you were ever in trouble in this state, you’d want Big Jim on your side.
- Sweet Polly Purebred - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 9:22 am:
Thompson’s pro bono defense of Ryan is understandable and palatable to most Illinois citizens, but his unbridled lust for power that has led him to be not only an advisor to this arrogant little NAPOLEON we call governor, but also his paid legal representative will be Thompson’s kiss of death. You would think that after observing what has happened to other GOP’ers that crossed the aisle to kiss the little dicator’s ring(Cellini, Kjellander, Levine, etc) Thompson would have the good sense to run screaming back to the GOP SIDE. As to the gov’s fund raiser, he’s not raising money to run again, he is raising money to pay Thompson’s bill - it wouldn’t look so good if Thompson defended this dem gov pro bono, he might get a bad reputation!
- Plutocrat03 - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 9:35 am:
Big Jim is walking down the same path that Jimmy Carter is.
His current activities related to advocating for the preferential treatment of a former Governor and collecting hundreds of thousands in fees representing the current Governor are soiling his reputation. (don;t forget that Cellini et. al were active during his term as Governor as well)
Further, his activities in expanding the Sports Facilities Board to encompass Wrigley Field may foist a fraud onto the general public. Whenever a politician says, relay, it won’t cost anything, the proper reaction should be to grab your wallet and run for the hills .
Looks like another case of overreaching hubris
- chiatty - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 10:00 am:
The Conrad Black case (among other things) took care of Big Jim’s legacy. If he were worried about his legacy, he wouldn’t have been talking about a commutation for poor Georgie Boy, who has served only months for decades of unrepentant corruption.
- Belle - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 10:23 am:
Should he take on Blago’s defense nobody will ever remember anything else about Big Jim Thompson. He will be the ‘former governor, and defense attorney for the notorious governor Blago….’ How truly sad.
- David - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 10:32 am:
===Personally, I really like Jim Thompson. I also greatly respect what he did for this state during his 14 years in office.===
Rich, Can you name some of the great things he did for the state? Like the hotel deals, maybe?
- Team Sleep - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 10:36 am:
Big Jim was a great governor, and he was followed by another great governor. While I disagree with the role Big Jim is currently undertaking, and while I wish Little Jim (Edgar) would be more assertive/agressive within the party and the state, future governors should strive to emulate these two political giants. They kept the state under control, and things ran smoothly during their 22 years of gubernatorial service.
I find it interesting to see what and who former rabid federal prosecutors who have risen to power now protect and hold dear. Big Jim and Rudy G. have both hitched their wagons to questionable characters and causes. Are they attempting to merely act as those they went after when they were in their old posts?
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 11:26 am:
–“The man has gone from being the governor of the state of Illinois to being a prisoner in the federal penitentiary”–
Oh C’Mon!
What is he, jealous?
This isn’t as big an accomplishment as he suggests. Kerner, Walker, Ryan…they can all make that claim. And they are just Illinois governors!
Perhaps we should just set up a “Governor’s Suite” cell at a federal penitentiary and be done with it!
Like I’m going to cry over Ryan’s plight, but not over Walker’s or Kerner’s or a future governor.
- gray wolf - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 12:29 pm:
Thompson now supports two governors, one in a cell and hopefully a future cellmate-his infamy is assured,regardless of supposed success in office by his defending these people for pay-makes you wonder if he’d be free if a competent US attorney was arond in his day
- wordslinger - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 12:31 pm:
Gray Wolf, in Big Jim’s day, most of the U.S. attorney’s in the Northern District were his boys: Fahner, Skinner, Webb, Valukas.
- Anonymous45 - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 3:37 pm:
Is anyone else nauseated at the never ending display of forgiveness and nicey making by Thompson for a convicted corrupt Ex Gov? Give it up pal, will ya? Presidential pardon? Stop the chest beating already…
- Vote Quimby! - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 3:56 pm:
Ruberry forgot it is an ex-GOP governor asking an ex-GOP governor to pardon an ex-GOP governor.
I doubt if things were much cleaner under Thompson–one of the few times the town I grew up in was mentioned in the Chicago Tribune was when we were awarded a state prison….just after a $10,000 donation from the Crawford County GOP was made up the ladder. Cheez…now it’s $25K just for an administrative job!
- Abe Frohman - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 9:59 pm:
Thompson rode thru the tail end of the wide-open patronage years and into the beginning of the Rutan era. Thompson never pretended there wasn’t patronage, he celebrated it; his standard line was that patronage was a final decision maker after first getting qualified candidates, that among people otherwise equal, patronage was applied at the end of the process. Which is different and opposite from how Rod does it.
Thompson had an incredibly powerful and agile mind: I think he very well could have been great V.P. material in his day, had not other factors conspired to hold him back. It was great to see him working on the 911 commission.
I recall he also was a huge and sincere patron of the Arts and a real supporter of tourism as well as museums. The guy had vision in projects like buying the Dana-Thomas house and the DuQuoin fairgrounds and turning them into important state assets. Compare to Rod: aggressively intellectually INcurious, slashes the arts and tourism, tries to sell off state assets for chump change, like a meth addict looking for change under the couch for his next score. Thompson was on Blago’s transition team: this is like having professor Feynman coach you for your Physics exam. Blago apparently decided to completely ignore all the free inside advice from Big Jim’s “governor school”.
Not saying Thompson was or is an angel. Don’t approve at all of his Wrigley deals, for example. There was definitely some monkeyshines going on among people under him. But in Chicago, people forgive your petty larceny as long as the important things are handled right. Under Thompson, things ran pretty well.
Under Blago, they run into the wall like Dale Senior.
- Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, May 28, 08 @ 10:20 pm:
AA is and always will be a Big Jim fan. He knew how to campaign, how to govern and to keep the two reasonably well-separated.
Quimby, if you think $10k bought that prison in Robinson, you are an absolute idiot. Old timers in the ‘Patch will recall that prisons were highly sought after in the early to mid-80s in Illinois, particularly Southern Illinois as industrial/mining unemployment rose sharply.
Communities entered what were called prison “sweepstakes” and made a variety of presentations to Corrections and other State officials. AA was pretty close to that process in a prior life; although politics enters into the location of any public facility or building, in this situation the decisions were driven by local economies, availability of suitable (and free) land, access to highways, and to respond to legislative concerns. The old memory isn’t what it was, but I recall there was a major employer in that area that had cut back or changed owners, causing a lot of concern for the
economy.
Another thing I admired about Thompson was that he would be able to remember all that kind of crap, years after the fact, unlike AA.
- Anon - Thursday, May 29, 08 @ 1:06 am:
Thompson lost all credibility after the Hollinger mess. If he knew what Black and Radler were doing, he turned a blind eye to crime. If, as he testified, he didn’t really pay attention and just skimmed the relevant documents, then he didn’t deserve his hefty stipend and breached his fiduciary duty to the shareholders. Neither one is a pretty option. It’s like Reagan and Iran-Contra. What would be worse — knowing or not knowing when you should knowing?
- Mad Max - Thursday, May 29, 08 @ 7:23 am:
I used to look up to and admire Big Jim when I was a younger man and he was a crusading states-attorney. Over the years, Big Jim’s net worth went up and my (and others) respect for him went down. Wordslinger presented some pretty good points on Big Jim, though.
I think that what happened to Big Jim one day was that he finally decided that “respect” doesn’t necessarily put food on the table nor does it make you a wealthy man when you retire. Big Jim fell off of the pedestal that I had placed him on and broke into a thousand little pieces. I doubt that he cares what any of us think of him today.
- Build Jim - Thursday, May 29, 08 @ 1:36 pm:
The State pension problem can be put right on Big Jim who did not pay the state’s share anytime during his 14 years reign. Guess he needed that money to “Build Illinois” to honor his legacy.