Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Wednesday, Dec 3, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 4:23 pm - What a stupid thing to do…

Just days after shuttering several state parks and historic sites and asking for understanding from Illinoisans amid bleak economic times, Gov. Rod Blagojevich took his taxpayer-provided aircraft to Philadelphia to tell fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama how bad things are in the state they both live in.

Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero defended the trip and use of the state plane, noting that if the governor hadn’t gone, he’d surely have faced media criticism for his absence.

“This was a historic meeting that was attended by virtually every governor in the United States and our being there could help brings billions of dollars to Illinois,” Guerrero said Wednesday in an e-mail responding to Daily Herald questions. […]

“And, had we not gone out, I am sure you would question us on why we failed to go out and meet with the other governors and the President-elect,” Guerrero added. […]

“And lastly, it’s naive to think that we can just call a meeting with Obama because he ‘lives just a few miles away.’ The President-elect has made it very clear that no state - not even his home state - would get any special treatment or favors. The economic situation facing Illinois is real and we need help. The governor will take that message to the President-elect any way he can,” Guerrero said.

Blagojevich can’t call a local meeting with Obama because Obama wouldn’t attend. Barack ain’t no fool.

* It’s amazing to me that Blagojevich apparently didn’t learn from what happened to the Big 3 auto CEOs when they flew their corporate planes to DC to beg for money. Is he just completely daft?

“Hi, I am in desperate need of a federal bailout, which is why I spent thousands and thousands of taxpayer dollars to fly myself and my staff to this meeting.”

Ever heard of commercial flights, guv?

How do I know the governor took his staff to Philly? This is from the Philadelphia Daily News’ version of Sneed…

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich dined Monday with staff at Ralph’s (760 S. 9th). The table ordered veal and chicken parmigiania and fettucine Alfredo.

I sure hope we didn’t pay for that. [UPDATE: The governor’s office assures me that the state did not pay for the meal.]

* 4:33 pm - Attorney General Madigan today when asked about Sen. Durbin’s request that George Ryan’s sentence be commuted to time served…

“I respect the work that Dick Durbin has done for the people of the State of Illinois, but I think he is wrong to seek a commutation of Former Gov. Ryan’s sentence.

“As a prosecutor, we see the impact that crimes have on the victims. In this case, the 6 Willis children and the almost 13 million people of the State were harmed by what George Ryan did.

“His case was prosecuted and he was sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison, he should serve his time. Every person who is sent to prison suffers as do their families. This is a consequence of committing a crime.”

38 Comments

This clemency circus won’t end soon

Wednesday, Dec 3, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Fitz is staying out of the fray…

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald won’t say publicly what he thinks about some politicians’ calls to free George Ryan from prison. Fitzgerald’s office prosecuted the corruption case against the former Illinois governor.

FITZGERALD: The way the system is set up, if the White House or the Justice Department asks a U.S. Attorney’s office for their opinion, we’ll give them our candid opinion privately, but we’re not going to opine publicly.

It’s not too difficult to imagine what that “candid opinion” would be.

* But Mark Kirk jumps right in…

Rejecting an idea endorsed by two top Democrats, Republican North Shore Rep. Mark Kirk sent a letter to the White House [yesterday] asking President George Bush not to commute the federal corruption sentence of former Republican Gov. George Ryan.

* As does Kirk’s fellow GOP congresscritter Tim Johnson…

“I am 100 percent and strongly opposed to any pardon for George Ryan,” added Johnson.

Um, Tim, he’s not asking for a pardon.

* Other politicos are tip-toeing away from the issue…

An aide to retiring U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood of Peoria suggested LaHood probably would not return phone calls because the Ryan-Durbin dust-up isn’t a subject he wants to talk about.

Rock Island Democrat Phil Hare also didn’t want to get pulled into the matter.

“Congressman Hare believes that it is President Bush’s decision whether or not to commute Governor Ryan’s sentence and has no further comment,” spokesman Tim Schlittner noted in an e-mail message.

But you gotta figure that this issue will give Republicans an easy way to distance themselves from past GOP corruption. So, we can probably expect more statements of outrage.

* Here’s an interesting tidbit that I missed the other day, probably because it was buried at the very end of an article…

Durbin said he would not ask Obama to commute Ryan’s sentence if Bush doesn’t.

So, he won’t put his own guy on the hot seat?

* The Daily Herald quotes some folks who think the whole idea is a long shot at best…

Bush is an ardent death penalty supporter, having presided over more than 130 executions during his tenure as Texas governor.

It’s among the myriad reasons observers and experts doubt the effort to free Ryan will be successful, pointing to Bush’s general reluctance so far to use his clemency powers and a lack of political angles that would seem to make Ryan fit as an exception.

“I think it’s a long shot for a couple reasons,” said Dan Kobil, a law professor at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, who studies executive clemency. “One, he hasn’t served that much of his sentence.

“He doesn’t have the personal or the political connection with Bush that Scooter Libby had.” […]

“I don’t think Bush is going to do it because I simply don’t think he’ll want to do it. What’s in it for him?” said [Paul Green], director of Roosevelt University’s School of Policy Studies. “If there’s no political motive, it’s tough to figure out what Bush would do. There’s no, in my thinking, logic to any of this.”

* And Phil Kadner is on a roll…

Federal sentences are truer, but even when the evidence is overwhelming, as in the case of former Gov. George Ryan, judges are reluctant to hit elected officials with a maximum sentence. That’s why Ryan got a 6 1 / 2 - year term instead of the 10 years sought by federal prosecutors.

In the eyes of judges and lawmakers, corrupt government officials aren’t as bad as street criminals who rape, beat and murder people.

I contend their crimes are far worse. The damage they inflict on society is more widespread and longer lasting than any harm done by a violent criminal.

Indeed, if all the victims at a public corruption trial were allowed to testify at sentencing the line would stretch from Springfield to Chicago.

* Speaking of presidential mercy…

A West Side alderman is urging President Bush to pardon Larry Bloom, the City Council’s self-proclaimed “Mr. Clean” who got down in the mud with an undercover FBI mole.

Bloom, a former 5th Ward alderman, pleaded guilty in 1998 to a single felony tax charge stemming from the Operation Silver Shovel corruption probe. He served six months at the federal prison camp in Oxford, Wis., before being released on Nov. 1, 1999.

Now Ald. Ed Smith (28th) is urging President Bush to “expunge” Bloom’s conviction with a pardon.

“He committed a crime. He paid his dues. He got brought down. But he has the ability and the heart to be very productive and really help people. Why not let him do that?” Smith said.

* Related…

* For Sen. Durbin, triumph and tragedy - A senator at the top of his career. A father at the depths of his grief. A man at a crossroads.

* Should Ryan serve less time than Scott Fawell?

* Republican congressmen oppose Ryan release

* Colleague Wants Pardon For Former Ald. Bloom

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Mixed signals galore in Obama replacement decision

Wednesday, Dec 3, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Here’s a great example of how screwed up the replacement process is for President-Elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Late last month, Congresscritter Luis Gutierrez said he was out of the running because he only wanted the slot for two years…

Gutierrez met with Gov. Blagojevich and told the governor he would like to be a “caretaker” senator for the next two years working to get comprehensive immigration reform passed in the Senate instead of fund-raising to get re-elected to the Senate in 2010, Gutierrez said.

But Blagojevich said he was looking for someone who wanted the post long-term, Gutierrez said. “It’s basically over — unless he calls me back,” Gutierrez said.

* Lynn Sweet talked to His Eminence by phone yesterday and Gov. Blagojevich said Gutierrez was mistaken…

“Not a deal-breaker,” the governor said. While Blagojevich has a strong preference to pick someone who will try to keep the seat, he said if he found “the right person,” it “wouldn’t necessarily preclude him or her from being the choice.”

Maybe he was just telling Gutierrez that Luis wasn’t “the right person,” or maybe the governor changed his mind, or maybe Gutierrez misunderstood, or maybe we can’t believe anything. I lean towards the latter.

* Sen. Dick Durbin disclosed recently that when he finally spoke with Blagojevich, the governor mentioned about 20 possible appointees. That’s a long list, and anybody could be on it, which is one reason why I cracked that joke to Laura Washington at Thom Serafin’s party last week…

The joker is wild. The joker, aka Gov. Blagojevich, is at the center of the state’s hottest political adventure. Last week, amid the chattering din at political operative Thom Serafin’s holiday soiree, I put the question of the season to Rich Miller: “Who will Blagojevich anoint as Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate replacement?”

“Who knows?” replied the Springfield wise man who runs the Capitol Fax news service. “Maybe you.”

Gasp. Seriously, Rich.

“Who knows? Who knows? Who knows?”

So I ran down just a few choice names out of the many in the hopper: Davis, Schakowsky, Gutierrez, Madigan, Duckworth, Chico, Jackson, Giannoulias, Jones, Raoul, Peters, Collins, Seals, Pritzker . . .

Who knows, who knows, who knows?

Miller, who has expertly skewered Blago’s missteps for years, knows that this joker is wild, unpredictable and having a ball. Illinois may be in an economic meltdown, and the feds may be hovering, but the governor is enjoying the speculation spotlight. He’s taking calls and dangling names. In one brief chat with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the gov tossed around 20 possibilities.

Who knows?

* What I also tried to explain to Washington was that the governor has not acted rationally for a very long while. To those, including myself, who have said in the past that the governor would make a choice which is in his best interest, I now say: How can a six-year governor with a 13 percent job approval rating truly understand what’s in his best political interest?

* Back to Lynn Sweet’s column…

In a phone interview, I asked Blagojevich if he considered the vacancy an African-American seat. “I think it is a factor of a great deal of weight in my mind but it is not the only factor or the only consideration, and somebody could be the next Barack Obama who happens not to be the African American, and that person would be hard not to make a U.S. senator.”

There is no “next Barack Obama” in Illinois. He’s one of a kind.