Check out how this Blagojevich vs. Mell story escalated.

The AP and the Tribune ran mostly pro-Blago stories Friday about how the governor’s office had shut down a landfill owned by his cousin. But the Sun-Times reached Alderman Mell in Flordia and got the other side:

The rift between Gov. Blagojevich and his father-in-law, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd), grew wider Thursday with the closure of a Joliet landfill operated by another relative of the governor’s wife. […]

“I think it’s an abuse of power,” Mell said. “If Frank has been running around telling people he’s related to the governor, let them bring these people forth. If that was the case, I would have nothing to do with him.”

Chicago TV immediately jumped into the fray. From CBS-2:

I think it’s bizarre,� Mell told CBS 2 producer Ed Marshall by phone. �I think it’s a total abuse of power.

ABC-7:

“This governor is trying to put on this mantled cloak of what a great white knight he is when he’s not,” said Alderman Dick Mell, Governor Blagojevich’s father-in-law. […]

“What he is doing borders on being criminal. Using the state’s power to shut down and have a vendetta against me borders on being criminal. What he is doing to the family is beyond approach,” said Gov. (sic) Mell.

The Sun-Times went all out on Saturday, assigning three reporters to the story:

After months of being closeted away, the dirty laundry of Illinois’ first family is now hanging out for the world to see.

Publicly humiliated by Gov. Blagojevich’s administration in a Will County landfill dispute, Ald. Richard Mell came out swinging Friday. He angrily accused his son-in-law, the governor, of ripping apart their family, being so politically manipulative that he would “throw anyone under the bus,” and granting plum appointments in exchange for $50,000 campaign contributions.

By Sunday, the Sun-Times was rehashing much of its previous work, but quoted Mell saying he regretted how the story had gotten so far out of hand.

Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) laments that it has reached this point. He’s numb, he says, now that a family feud has turned into a very public civil war within Illinois’ first family.

The powerful Chicago alderman returned from Florida on Saturday and faced the headlines after saying Gov. Blagojevich, who is married to one of his daughters, was ripping his family apart following a Will County landfill dispute.

“I wish that it would have never gotten to this point,” Mell said.

Then again…

“Should I have not said a word and let him s - - - all over me? Maybe,” Mell said. “But I didn’t start this thing. He smeared me. . . . Did I do the right thing? Time will tell.”

Can their relationship be repaired? Mell’s not sure.

“It would be very difficult,” he said. “I know how he is. He wants to be president. This is his whole plan.”

And then Monday’s Sun-Times had these priceless nuggets:

The Blagojevich and Mell households kept low profiles on Sunday, avoiding the media days after Gov. Blagojevich’s decision to shut down a Joliet landfill operated by a Mell relative infuriated Ald. Richard Mell and sparked him to lash out at his son-in-law.

At Blagojevich’s Ravenswood Manor home, a woman believed to be first lady Patti Blagojevich opened the door. She politely but quickly said, “We have nothing to say, thanks.”

Mell, who lives nine blocks south of his daughter, said he had not heard from the governor or Patti Blagojevich over the weekend. “I have nothing more to say,” the 33rd Ward alderman said through the window of his front door.