Not sure if this means anything yet
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The grand jury is starting to leak like a sieve.
After the state took aggressive — and some say unnecessary — steps to shut down a Joliet landfill, a hefty campaign contributor to Gov. Blagojevich looked into buying the business.
The revelation comes as a grand jury investigates whether politics influenced the closing.
Indiana waste hauler Anthony Portone, who either personally or through his companies has given $93,500 to Blagojevich, acknowledged meeting Landfill Reclamation Services owner Frank Schmidt in late spring or early summer last year.
Portone said his interest in Schmidt’s landfill “was from a business perspective, not a political perspective” and denied ever talking to anyone in the Blagojevich administration about it. He said he knew of the landfill’s problems through an engineering firm both men employed, as well as the news media, which had been focusing on Schmidt’s landfill because of its ties to a feud between Blagojevich and his father-in-law, Chicago Ald. Richard Mell (33rd).
But Schmidt, a distant relative of Mell’s, recalls that Portone “name-dropped the governor” during their encounter at Commander Restaurant in Munster, Ind., and remembers Portone telling him he “was going to talk to the governor” about the landfill. “You don’t think Anthony Portone is coming to meet with me without talking to his clout first?” Schmidt said.
Blagojevich was “absolutely not” aware of a meeting between Portone and Schmidt, nor has the governor ever had a formal meeting with Portone, said Abby Ottenhoff, a Blagojevich spokeswoman.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 5:55 am:
Rich, I think the Sun-Times managed to mislead even you this time. The second sentence reads “The revelation comes as a grand jury investigates whether politics influenced the closing.”(emphasis added).
No where in this piece do the reporters (who generally do a good job) indicate the information actually came from the grand jury investigation. In fact, all of the accusations appear to be coming from interviews of Frank Schmidt. Schmidt, from everything I read, doesn’t deny he had illegal materials in his landfill and his landfill was not in compliance, his only complaint is that the state shutdown of his dump was politically motivated.
I think we need some clarification from the Sun-Times as to whether any of this info actually came from the Grand Jury.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 7:16 am:
Answer : “absolutely notâ€
Question: Is B credible?
Question: Is Ottenhoff at all interested in
telling the truth?
Question: Would Ottenhoff possibly know if B
had contact with that scumsucker?
Question” Would thinking people believe anything
that comes from this cohort?
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 7:32 am:
Anonymous: Thanks for the thought-provoking analysis. Why not just chant “Liar-liar, pants on fire” next time?
Listen, the fact that Schmidt would say something like “You don’t think Anthony Portone is coming to meet with me without talking to his clout first?†tells you what a total insider he is. He admits to running a landfill that wasn’t up to code. He admits to being a convicted drug felon. He admits to having an axe to grind with the Governor. Just how close together do the dots need to be before you can connect them?
You may not trust the Governor, and for good reason, but that’s no reason to take Schmidt’s word for what happened. It’s obvious to me that Schmidt is circling the drain and wants to take a few people with him, but even the Governor’s harshest critics have to atleast confess that Schmidt doesn’t make a very credible witness.
- the Patriot - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 7:55 am:
The problem for the guv, is that as more and more people circle the drain, they can save themselves by pointing to the guv. From the article, it looks like they have a hard time connecting the gov directy. The problem is when you lay out 100’s of thes transactions over 4 or 5 years, all that lead to money going into his campaing, it is just too coincidental.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 8:24 am:
Maybe you folks would be more inclined to believe Schmidt if you were to learn that Wyma was somehow involved with Portone. Or maybe you already drank the kool-aid.
- DOWNSTATE - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 9:04 am:
One more investigation on this Gov. so whats new on the corner of Crook and Corrupt streets.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 9:57 am:
I hate being cynical, because nothing comes from it. But this governor blows.
I am so embarrassed not only by his behavior, but from the fact that he was supposed to REFORM the state! How many times do we have to have his failures rubbed into our faces?
I am also so sick of reading excuses being posted by fellow bloggers. Its not a game. What we are witnessing is another Ryan-style train wreck as governor. For some freaking reason, some people would rather see Blagojevich re-elected, than convicted.
No matter how much Blagojevich spends on silly ads insulting his opponent, voters will simply continue rolling their eyes and wait to vote his creep out of office in November.
Topinka will have to show up at rallies with butchered skunks in her car trunk to start looking worst that Blagojevich.
- Bubs - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 10:14 am:
I think it is time for Blago to switch from Elvis to Johnny Cash.
I’m goin’ down, down, down
In a blazing ring of fire . . .
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 12:11 pm:
Rich-
You absolutely have to post this picture:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=4158871
- Chief Illiniwek - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 12:22 pm:
Well, I guess Rod won’t go back to C-U for awhile. That picture is going around State Gov’t today at warp speed. If the College Repubs were real entrepreneurs, they would blow off finals and head over here with as many of those shirts as they could get printed and set up a few stands around town. You know, like when the Illini got in the Final Four last year. Illini Pundit and other blogs over there have more on what happened over there yesterday, fwiw.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 06 @ 1:44 pm:
Blago is in trouble on this and got caught in a lie, maybe a crime albeit a small one