* 5:29 pm - Mark Kirk has more problems. He spoke to both the Tribune and Sun-Times editorial boards today and may not have come off too well. The Tribune got its story out first…
In a new disclosure, Kirk acknowledged that his campaign’s promotion of him coming under fire while flying aboard an intelligence reconnaissance plane in Iraq may not be correct because there is no record of whether his aircraft was being fired upon.
Oh, man, that’s not good at all.
More…
Kirk also acknowledged a constituent letter sent out by his North Shore congressional district office last year that described him as a member of Operation Desert Storm, though he did not participate in that effort.
“I am sorry, absolutely,” Kirk said. “You should speak with utter precision. You should stand on the documented military record. In public discourse, for high office, you should make sure that there is a degree of complete rigorous precession.”
More on that one from Daily Kos, which broke the story earlier today. Kirk wrote this in a constituent letter…
As you may know, I am a veteran of the Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom missions.
I’ll post the Sun-Times stuff when it goes online. From the paper’s Twitter page…
So, Mark Kirk happened by. He wouldn’t cop to “embellishment.” He claimed “mistakes” in translating precise military records into civilian.
Rep. Mark Kirk on his misstatement: “I misremembered,” “was distracted by Congressional campaign”
Um, huh?
* While Kirk was meeting with those editorial boards, his campaign appeared to dump a bit of oppo on Alexi Giannoulias…
Giannoulias is currently the state treasurer of Illinois. And, according to his official website, “He founded and chairs the AG Foundation, a not-for-profit charity that donates money to treat child-related illnesses, curb poverty and assist disaster relief organizations.”
The problem is, the charity no longer exists. According to the AG Foundation’s tax return, “The organization was in existence only for the two-year period from 2005 to 2006.”
Giannoulias has since changed his website to “chaired” from “chairs” and “donated” from “donates.”
*** UPDATE - 5:51 pm *** The Tribune story made it sound like it was Kirk’s campaign that made the claim about him coming under fire over Iraq. Turns out, Kirk himself made the claim during a House floor debate. Watch…
The quote…
“The last time I was in Iraq I was in uniform flying at 20,000 feet, and the Iraqi air defense network was shooting at us.”
“I simply misremembered it wrong,” Rep. Mark Kirk told the Sun-Times Thursday.
The North Shore Republican was trying to explain how he could have reported on his resume for a decade that he had been awarded the “Intelligence Officer of the Year” when he actually was describing a group medal awarded to his Naval unit as a whole.
Over and over again, Kirk tried to explain how tumultuous his life was when he got the award — he just won a primary election against 10 opponents and now was facing a tough general election for his first term in Congress.
“I swung by D.C. and picked up this award, but I was no longer focused on the award,” Kirk said.
“I apologize to you and your readers,” Kirk said several times.
…Blago’s playing for up to 415 years in prison and $6 million in fines — the maximum sentence if he’s convicted on each of the 24 counts of fraud, conspiracy, bribery and racketeering of which he’s accused.
415 years. How fitting.
* Watch the strangeoids who show up to cheer the goofball near the end of this video…
* This is trivial, but it’s still an interesting insight into how the media thinks…
With no sign of huge crowds yet, Judge James Zagel has decided to keep the trial in his courtroom on the 25th floor, as opposed to moving it to a larger space. So far, the media, which includes more than 20 television cameras bunched up in the “bullpen” in the lobby, are buzzing about two things while it waits for the trial to start: The ambiguity over Zagel’s permission of smart-phone usage in the courtroom and how unimpressive the crowd is.
Jury selection began in the case of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich today — and not surprisingly, all seven potential jurors questioned so far said they had heard something about the case.
One woman said she watched a reality TV show involving “Mrs. Blagojevich,” referring to Patti Blagojevich’s stint last year on “I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!”
“Something about some bugs or something?” the woman said to U.S. District Judge James Zagel. Rod Blagojevich laughed and turned to look at Patti, who was sitting in the front row.
His brother, Rob, who is also on trial and sitting behind the ex-governor, was not smiling.
Check back later this afternoon for our first post from the BGA.
* The Carpenters Union has filed suit against the new law intended to reform McCormick Place’s operations. Click here to read the suit, which was filed late yesterday. The union wants the law declared unconstitutional for several reasons, including…
In Count III, Plaintiff claims the MPEA Act, as amended, violates the Contracts Clause of the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 because it substantially impairs an existing contract between the Plaintiff and the Defendant MPEA which is known as the Labor Agreement for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority
Indian Prairie school board President Curt Bradshaw appears to be pushing forward with his plan to withhold monthly payroll tax payments to the state department of revenue - even though district officials already have paid their attorneys $1,520 to tell them it’s illegal.
Support from some of his fellow Unit District 204 board members also appears to have fallen by the wayside.
* One of the more interesting stories I’ve seen to date on the Blagojevich trial is from Illinois Statehouse News…
[Robert Hirschhorn, a jury selection specialist] said the defense should be eyeing a very particular type of juror.
“The defense is going to want what I call a ’shades of grey’ juror,” he said. “If you see the world in terms of right and wrong, good and bad, black and white, I think that’s pro-prosecution.”
So what is a “shades of grey” juror?
Hirschhorn said the defense should look for a blue-collar juror, preferably a food server who does not report his or her tips. He believes Blagojevich’s best bet will also be somebody familiar with the world of politics, someone who can empathize with what it takes to accomplish things in Chicago.
“The inference is that he was trying to sell this vacant Senate seat,” he said. “What the defense is going to try to do is say…he was being a politician, not a crook.”
* ‘No easy answers’: Faced with the dire uncertainty of absent or delayed state funding, libraries statewide are preparing for big changes in how they serve the public.
* Reform for state’s legislative scholarship program is out, for now“This particular bill is dead, but the issue isn’t dead,” Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said Wednesday. The issue may re-emerge in separate legislation during the fall veto session, but Cullerton “doesn’t see a need to get rid of the program,” she said.
* Here’s another one: Today’s General Assembly scholarship outrage: Former state Rep. Robert Molaro granted tuition waivers totaling $94,000 to a longtime political pal’s four children, who met the residency requirement only if you squint at their paperwork really, really hard.
An early fixture in the young administration of Gov. Pat Quinn is going back to the private sector.
Bob Reed, 56, of Evanston has been Quinn’s communications director but told me Wednesday he’s moving on.
“I’m leaving state government early this month and, after a short European vacation, returning to my business writing and consulting business, which is ambitiously titled Reed Enterprises,” he said. “This assignment has been a great experience, and as I told you some 18 months ago, I do believe in public service — now more than ever.”
* The Question: Who should be Gov. Pat Quinn’s new state spokesperson? Snark heavily encouraged.
…Adding… An explanation would be nice as well.
…Adding more... I already knew this and deliberately withheld it to make the QOTD more fun, but the Tribune is reporting that Bill Cunningham, who is currently Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s chief of staff, will replace Reed. Ignore the facts! Keep commenting!
* Roll Call’s executive editor Morton Kondracke has written a super-strong defense of Mark Kirk on all points, including a somewhat uncomfortable topic. The Kirk campaign sent it around last night and posted it on their campaign’s website today. Here’s the beginning, but you should really read the whole thing…
I confess upfront that I’m not neutral in this year’s Illinois Senate race. For numerous reasons I’ll stipulate, I’m rooting for GOP Rep. Mark Kirk over Democratic State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.
That said, the flap over Kirk’s misstatements about his military service is reaching ridiculous proportions — exaggerated into a mini-scandal by Democrats and both local and national media.
And now, the left is peddling sleazy allegations that Kirk is gay as payback for his vote — cast for defensible reasons — against repeal of the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
I’ve known Kirk for nearly 10 years, since his first term in Congress, and in 42 years in Washington, I’ve rarely encountered a Member with a greater range of expertise or better judgment.
* The FrumForum, which has been unabashedly pro Kirk, is not pleased with the way the candidate has been handling the military story and offers up some advice…
There is just no way around it: Mark Kirk screwed up. He misstated his military record. He admitted this and apologized for it in a blog post but in that same blog post, Kirk did not come totally clean, and now the story continues to linger in both the blogosphere and mainstream media. Now his military record, which should be a strong point, is turning into a liability. Going into the Blagojevich trial, which should be huge positive for Kirk, the Kirk campaign must come all the way clean and stop the bleeding. This story is distracting and it should not be an issue. While some Republican strategists expressed reservations about Kirk’s staffing, the reality is that Mark Kirk is a professional politician and he should know better. The Kirk campaign needs to come completely clean, all at once, and move on. It is time to stop the bleeding.
* But instead of taking that advice, Kirk is sticking to his story, which isn’t wholly satisfying…
Kirk also released a statement from retired Navy Capt. Clay Fearnow, who said he nominated Kirk for the Rufus Taylor award and thought it was “more specific to Mark and not his team.”
“The reality is, there would have been no team without Mark’s leadership and there certainly would have been no award,” Fearnow wrote. “I can certainly understand why he would have referred to his award over the years as intelligence officer of the year – it’s how I viewed the award.”
Kirk said the award was given in 2000.
“The skipper called me up and said, ‘Hey, get back to Washington, accept this award. It’s a big deal.’” There were “a lot of speeches – ‘Great work, Mark. It was your team,’” Kirk said.
The award clearly states what it is. Kirk is an intelligence officer, for crying out loud. His job is to deal with tiny details. But he got some very big details wrong for about a decade about something that pertained to himself and he ought to just admit it and move the heck along. To be dragging this thing out over semantics rather than putting it to rest and moving on is a little difficult to understand. All he’s doing by keeping this story alive on his downstate fly-around is prompting ledes like this one from WSIL…
“If a man has to lie about his service record, he’s gonna lie to you about everything else,” [said Army veteran Marshall Freeman.]
It would also help if he would’ve made sure that his campaign website was scrubbed of all “Intelligence Officer of the Year” references. It wasn’t as of early this morning.
The Kirk campaign also issued a “fact check” on its website titled “‘Mob Banker’ Who Never Served Attacks Decorated Naval Officer’s Distinguished Service Record.”
In one of his radio interviews in Springfield Wednesday, Kirk referred to people digging to find out bad things from his record as “high-powered opposition-research goons.” To his credit, WMAY-AM host JIM LEACH asked if Kirk’s own oppo-research folks should also be called “goons”?
“I would say that our team, since they don’t come from Chicago, tend to be a little bit more by the Marquis of Queensbury rules,” Kirk said, referring to a traditional code of fair play. […]
Still, Kirk doesn’t help his claim of civility when he says he hasn’t used a certain characterization against Giannoulias, yet the same characterization is employed both on Kirk’s own website and by the party supporting him. The Marquis would not be happy.
* But he’s darned lucky that the media has decided not to count his “I command the War Room” comment as the first instance of Kirk’s exaggerations. Instead, they started with the “Intelligence Officer of the Year” award and moved on to “in” rather than “during”…
Senate candidate Mark Kirk faced new questions Wednesday about inaccurate descriptions of his military service, this time over wrongly saying that the congressman served “in” Operation Iraqi Freedom.
It is the second time in less than a week that Kirk, the Republican nominee for President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat, has had to explain inaccurate descriptions of his record of service in the military.
Usually, three strikes and you’re out, figuratively speaking. The media is only giving him two strikes now. Like I said, he’s darned lucky.
*** UPDATE 1 - 11:34 am *** From Illinois Statehouse News…
Federal Judge James Zagel on Thursday ruled the jury in former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial will remain anonymous, despite a last minute petition by a group of news organizations.
The group attempted to reverse Zagel’s previous decision to seal the jurors’ identities, but the judge said the objection was “untimely” with the trial less than two hours away. […]
During the trial of now imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan the trial interrupted after the Chicago Tribune revealed two members of the case’s jury had criminal records, which they did not disclose during the selection process.
The trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevitch has been pushed back to 11 a.m.
“I feel great,” Blagojevich said before walking over & shaking hands with several supporters. “The truth shall set you free,” he told one well-wisher as he shook the man’s hand. […]
Outside court, one woman carried a placard saying, “Rod’s not cuckoo. Rod’s not guilty.”
“We like him and he’s innocent,” said May Farley, 78, of Elmhurst.
And if you have the stomach for it, click here to see the grotesque clown in action.
* Keep in mind as the Blagojevich trial gears up that the media has focused almost solely on the alleged US Senate seat auction. While this is important, it’s not the be-all, end-all of the federal government’s case. The Sun-Times makes this mistake today in its piece about how to keep score during the trial…
Blagojevich’s strategy will be to explain away his comments as typical political horse-trading. He’ll invite jurors to interpret his remarks as pursuing political IOUs for the best interests of Illinois.
He’ll certainly try to do that on the US Senate seat stuff, but he won’t succeed. The truth is, Blagojevich was trying to cut the best deal for himself, not the state. There’s a big difference there. Logrolling is usually legal, if somewhat distasteful to the public at large. Using your government office to pad your pockets is not legal.
But one of the least reported aspects of this case will probably be the one that shocks the jurors the most and will be the thing that he can’t explain away…
On October 8, Blagojevich told a person described only as “Individual A” that he was willing to make $8 million available for Children’s Memorial Hospital, but “I want to get [Hospital Executive 1] for 50.”
Individual A felt that Blagojevich was talking about a $50,000 campaign contribution from the hospital’s chief executive officer and that the $8 million referred to a recent commitment by Blagojevich to secure state funds via “some type of pediatric care reimbursement.”
“Intercepted phone conversations between Rod Blagojevich and others indicate that Rod Blagojevich is contemplating rescinding his commitment of state funds to benefit Children’s Memorial Hospital because Hospital Executive 1 has not made a recent campaign contribution,” the affidavit says.
In other words, the governor tried to shake down Children’s Memorial Hospital CEO Patrick Magoon for 50 large. And there is ample evidence that Blagojevich tried to put a hold on that hospital money until he got what he wanted. In fact, the state money wasn’t disbursed until the day Blagojevich was removed from office. The man is despicable and deserves whatever he gets. And he’s gonna get it.
* Again, most of what you’ve read in the mainstream media lately is just smoke and mirrors from Team Blagojevich. Rahm Emanuel, we learned this week, has been subpoenaed. Blagojevich will try to get Emanuel to say the then-governor did nothing illegal during the US Senate escapade. It won’t be enough.
Just days before the trial was set to begin the state GOP compiled an assemblage of photographs of current political candidates buddying up to the disgraced former Democratic governor. There’s Quinn, a former running mate, standing with Blagojevich at a political rally, Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, posing with Blagojevich in tuxedos at an event, and other photos with Blagojevich and Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, Michael Madigan.
“The Blagojevich Trial. Starting June 3rd. Check Your Local Listings for Details,” the state GOP noted in an e-mail to supporters that included the photos.
A strategist with one Republican statewide campaign said they expect the trial will provide “opportunities” to tag the current crop of Democratic candidates with problems that go back to the Blagojevich administration, from the state’s mountain of unpaid bills to Blagojevich hires still on the public payroll.
“It may not be a focal point of the trial, but it does shine a spotlight on the problems of the Democratic Party and the excesses of one party rule with Blagojevich at the top of it,” said the GOP strategist, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the campaigns.
Of course, Blagojevich also allegedly did some crooked deals with Republicans, but the GOP won’t be mentioning that. The state party has, however, set up a new website to “help” voters follow the trial. TheBlagoFiles.com also includes a big “Donate” button so readers can give to the state party.
* Speaking of the Illinois GOP, the party sent out an e-mail this morning attempting to make a connection between Blagojevich and Alexi Giannoulias…
On the day Rod Blagojevich goes on trial for pay-to-play corruption, will Alexi Giannoulias cancel his planned Messina fundraiser?
Deputy White House Chief of Staff allegedly offered Andrew Romanoff a job to get out of Colorado Senate race;
Messina due in Chicago for Giannoulias fundraiser on June 19th
Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias recently announced that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina would be coming to Illinois on June 19 to help him raise money for his Senate bid.
Last night, Politico reported that Democratic Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff publicly confirmed long-standing reports (and provided emails as proof) that Messina attempted to dissuade him from challenging incumbent Senator Michael Bennett in the Colorado Democratic Senate Primary by offering him a paid government position.
Small beans in comparison to Blagojevich, who wanted a job for himself and/or his wife, and/or a whole lot of campaign money in exchange for appointing the “right” US Senator.
* As I told subscribersthis morning, we will have Blagojevich trial coverage right here at the blog. From the Better Government Association’s Andy Shaw…
The Better Government Association has a permanent seat in the courtroom for the Blagojevich trial, and one of our investigative contributors, Chicago attorney and former news producer Darrow Abrahams, will be covering the trial for us on a day-to-day basis. He will be providing me with details of the testimony, the legal maneuvering and the courtroom activities of the participants, and I’ll be contributing regular reports and debriefs on at least two Chicago radio stations and, as needed, on local and national radio, television, print and internet outlets.
Darrow will also be recapping the trial highlights on a daily basis for the BGA website www.bettergov.org. And we’re pleased to be linking those recaps to the CAPITOL FAX Blog so your readers can follow the trial through our eyes. They can also link back to our site for additional trial material, and I hope to offer additional trial insights to your readers via written and video blogs.
The BGA is planning to have a high profile during the trial because the details of the case cut to the very core of our mission: How public officials run our government. In fact, state government itself is on trial right alongside the former governor because the federal indictment alleges that he and his cohorts subverted and perverted government, turning Illinois into an ATM for Blagojevich’s campaign fund and the personal enrichment of his friends and family. Blagojevich denies the charges—calling the case a “persecution,” not a prosecution—so the evidence, the testimony and the crosss-examinations will provide the citizens of Illinois with a rare and priceless “teaching moment” during which we can actually see how government was run during the seven Blagojevich years. The former governor is, of course, presumed innocent until a jury says otherwise, and that presumption will underscore everything we say about the trial. But regardless of the verdict, we should learn some valuable lessons along the way about how government should and should not be run. Those lessons will hopefully result in concrete proposals to clean up any mess we find along the way, end any corrupting practices that are proven, and increase the likelihood that future governors will serve out their terms without the bright lights of a federal investigation blinding all of us.
The fabric of democracy has been tattered and torn over decades of abuse and neglect in the Land of Lincoln. It’s the mission of the BGA to join other groups and individuals who are committed to repairing it. The mission also includes a vigorous debate over the issues raised in the trial, in front of as large an audience as possible, so we appreciate the chance to join the vibrant discussion that CAPITOL FAX already stimulates every day.
We’re hoping to get our first installment today, the first day of jury selection. I’m really looking forward to this.
* With the official start of summer upon us, it’s time to recalibrate our campaign handicapping.
* The Question: Predict the outcomes of the races for US Senate and governor and any other statewide races you care to comment on. No need to explain, but it would be nice.
…Adding… Keep in mind, people, that the Green Party is on the ballot for all statewide races. Whitney got 10.4 percent last time around.
Just when Scott Lee Cohen’s push to get on the 2010 gubernatorial ballot seemed that it couldn’t get any weirder, it did.
The latest twist includes a curbside argument over money, an allegation that a woman paid someone to lie to a reporter, and an admission by that woman she gave an inebriated man money for signatures he had collected earlier.
Robert Garrett, 44, of Calumet City told me that not only was he only paid for 17 of the 75 signatures he collected – the rest were deemed illegible or invalid – but that Stephanie had just paid him to lie to me.
“While you were sitting up there talking to that man there, she paid me 20 more dollars,” said Garrett, who appeared to have alcohol on his breath. “Twenty dollars to talk to you to tell you they’re doing good, but they not.”
Yep. They’re close alright. They’ll have that wrapped up any day now. And NBC5’s blogger deserves all the credit for that bit of breaking news.
At a news conference after an appearance at a Chicago elementary school, the governor would not talk specifics about how he will address a state budget approved by lawmakers that left open a $13 billion shortfall.
“We are going to have to make cuts across the board,” Quinn said, before going on to say he hopes to avoid deep cuts to human services, health care, public safety and especially education, which make up the bulk of the state’s budget. […]
When asked where he would cut, Quinn talked about legislative salaries and government travel expenses — reductions that would amount to a tiny fraction of the massive budget gap.
Quinn has often criticized his Republican opponent, Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, for being vague about how he would balance the budget and for suggesting that across-the-board cuts would be necessary.
“There is a lot at stake in this election. The site will be a one-stop shop for voters to find out the truth about Bill Brady,” Quinn spokeswoman Mica Matsoff said in a statement.
But Brady fired back, saying what’s portrayed on the site can be misleading.
For example, the site takes Brady to task for opposing a specific campaign finance reform proposal, one that Quinn eventually himself vetoed.
“You can’t criticize your opponent when you vetoed the bill,” said Brady spokeswoman Patty Schuh.
Oops.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s campaign spokesperson…
I just wanted to be clear on Senator Brady’s comments that there was anything misleading on the site.
The Governor vetoed the campaign finance bill because it didn’t go far enough for ethics reforms (HB 7) - and then Senator Brady voted ‘no” on the updated iteration of the bill that the Governor eventually signed into law (SB 1466). So, that clears up that one, now what about the hundreds of other votes on the site…
I think the people of Illinois would be disturbed to hear Senator Brady call his positions on jobs, economy, public safety, education, women and families and ethics as a “distraction from the real issues.”
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn [yesterday] predicted lawmakers will return to the Capitol by the end of June to vote on borrowing about $4 billion to make next year’s state worker pension payment, the final piece of a patchwork budget aimed at keeping state government operating until after the November election.
The Senate Dems aren’t so sure that Quinn can do it…
Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said [yesterday] that it remains to be seen when the Senate will come back to Springfield.
“We need to see evidence that the governor is effectively making the case for pension borrowing - specific evidence being at least two Senate Republican votes,” Phelon said.
That would mean three recalcitrant Democrats. I think there’s really only two. But we’ll see.
The governor also couldn’t resist jabbing the GA…
“The bottom line is the legislators this year and last year I think disappointed me and I think disappointed the people of Illinois by their reluctance to squarely address the fiscal calamity that we’re in,” Quinn said. “This goes for both parties, both houses. I think they should have done a lot better. But having said that, we have to go forward and carry on for the people of Illinois.”
He could’ve done a lot better, too, but we probably won’t hear an admission of that. It would just be too far out of character.
* Rutherford plans aggressive Chicago area campaign: During a stop Tuesday in Decatur, State Sen. Dan Rutherford said he plans to campaign aggressively in the Chicago area in his bid to be the state’s next treasurer.
A Chicago radio station is pulling the plug on former Gov. Rod Blagojevich - at least for now.
Officials with WLS-AM say they’re putting Blagojevich’s Sunday radio show on hiatus until after the Chicago Democrat’s federal corruption trial. WLS says it’s making the move out of respect for the legal process and it will re-evaluate the show’s status after the trial.
WLS has respect for the legal process? Huh. Could’ve fooled me. They let an obvious criminal take over their airwaves every week and spew his nonsense, then fawned all over him on other programs.
Until they lost their freaking minds over there, I would always gladly agree to appear on that station whenever they asked. I grew up listening to WLS. For a kid living in the country, the station seemed at times like my own personal lifeline to the outside world. I was actually giddy the first time I met Bob Sirott and John “Records” Landecker. I wanted so badly to be in radio back then so I could be like those two guys. Now, I’m embarrassed for them.
Rod Blagojevich thought he was elected by the people. He believed, and still believes, it was an adoring and fawning electorate who put him in office as their beloved king. He tells anyone who will listen that their governor was stolen from his loving people.
He never got it. He was a pawn. A dupe. A front. All dressed up as a populist reformer by the boys. For a student of history, Rod Blagojevich is pretty ignorant. He either chose to ignore, or forgot, the Cook County Democratic Party- the boys who elected him to office- was modeled after the Mob. Anton Cermak modeled his monolithic bloc based on the structure of the Capone syndicate.
One of the patterns the mob was known for was using honest appearing front men to run some of their “legitimate” operations. The front man was supposed to do what he was told and keep his mouth shut. Blagojevich ignored that part of the equation.
It’s true that politics here is based on the Outfit structure. What’s not true is that, after leaving Congress, Rod Blagojevich was ever considered a front man for the bad guys. He was the bad guy. He barely spoke to anyone else in power. He tucked himself into a tight little coccoon of criminal sycophants and hatched his goofy plots. And, believe, me, the man had plenty of goofy plots.
Sources with knowledge of the government’s case say prosecutors think Rezko is too risky to put on the stand. Rezko will only take the stand, they say, if the case takes a turn and prosecutors think his testimony is needed.
The sources say prosecutors fear Rezko brings with him much baggage of his own wrongdoing and that he’ll “go off the reservation,” in testimony. His presence as an Obama fund-raiser — and onetime neighbor — may also create a distraction, they say.
Most notably, however, Rezko has publicly disparaged the prosecution.
In 2008, Rezko wrote his then-trial judge, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve, to tell her he was being pressured to lie about Blagojevich and then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
“They are pressuring me to tell them the ‘wrong’ things that I supposedly know about Gov. Blagojevich and Sen. Obama,” he wrote. “I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the governor or the senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes.”
At the time Rezko wrote the letter, he had never submitted to an interview by the feds nor had he proffered a statement to them. Such a letter can be overcome by the prosecution, but it’s still fodder for the defense and distracts jurors, said defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor Dean Polales.
* The Chicago editorial boards reacted harshly to the latest Mark Kirk controversy. Tribune…
This is not Kirk’s finest moment. It reflects the hubris he shows from time to time. We’d like to hear the congressman acknowledge that the award listed on his bio was inflated, not “misidentified.” We’d like to hear him say he’s sorry. But no.
As someone who was accused of embellishing his credentials as early as 2000, Kirk should know that all such claims can, will and should be checked out. In American politics, military service is like a platinum credit card. […]
Why is it that every time a politician makes an “unintentionally” false claim about his military record he stumbles up — not down — the ladder? Nobody who was a colonel ever says he was a corporal.
In an age of deep distrust of politicians, Kirk’s mistake - appearing to have assumed for himself credit for an award honoring an entire unit he led during the Serbian conflict in the 1990s - is a serious lapse, for which he has not apologized but lashed out at his opponent. […]
When you factor in other questions - how could he so repeatedly get wrong the name of an award for which he was supposedly so proud? - you cannot avoid other, less flattering conclusions.
Recognizing that, Kirk must apologize for having so misled voters - accidentally or otherwise. It is not unusual for business or community leaders caught in similar resume lapses to have to surrender their jobs
This is the first time in Kirk’s long career that he has received the trifecta of newspaper slams on the same day.
But what puzzles us, what makes no sense about this, is that his record — on its own — is admirable. And his opponent Alexi Giannoulias (D), as Kirk points out, never served. So what was he doing? The truth seemed good enough, but apparently wasn’t for Kirk.
That’s bothered me as well. Why embellish a pretty darned stellar record? Why, as the Sun-Times editorial points out, constantly refer to “combat” service when you really just flew over the scene in a plane? Why say you were “deployed,” which is a term of art, when you actually weren’t? Why say you “served in Operation Iraqi Freedom” when, as the Sun-Times again points out, you served “during” the conflict? Greg Sargent follows up on that one…
Kirk actually served stateside in the Navy reserves during the Iraq War. The Kirk campaign, which had previously refused to publicly acknowledge the misrepresentation or respond to repeated requests about it, sent me a statement this morning admitting they corrected the false claim:
“Kirk’s 2005 campaign Web site noted this correctly. Unfortunately, the official Web site listed the word ‘in’ instead of ‘during’ but was corrected in 2005.”
The use of “in” rather than “during” is precisely what Richard Blumenthal claimed as his excuse for misrepresenting his own record, though Blumenthal seems to have misled a bit more frequently.
* As the Tribune notes, Kirk has a hubris problem. Every politician has a hubris problem, and every politician tries to put the best spin on his or her past. But, in this country, fibbing about one’s military record has long been considered wholly dishonorable. As someone who has served with distinction and with honor, Kirk should know better. Is he overcompensating for something? Is this just a personality tick which is no big deal, or is there a deeper problem here? And was even last week’s explanation untrue? Maybe…
After years of wrongly claiming he had been named U.S. Navy intelligence officer of the year, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk says he corrected the error when his staff discovered it.
Turns out, it was the Navy that gave Kirk a heads-up after reporters inquired about the candidate’s military record.
* Today, Kirk dug the hole deeper by sending out a press release touting a statement by his former commanding officer…
Any suggestion that Mark Kirk did not earn or receive the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and the Rufus L. Taylor Intelligence Award is incorrect. I would further add, assertions I’ve seen that Mark Kirk embellished or exaggerated his record are ridiculous - he is one of the finest Naval Officers I have had the honor to work with. His intelligence, leadership skills, and keen understanding of global affairs are an asset that the Navy and, today, the Congress are fortunate to enjoy.
1) From what I’ve seen, nobody has ever claimed that Kirk didn’t earn or receive those awards except Mark Kirk, who claimed he alone received a different award.
2) There is no doubt that Kirk has embellished and exaggerated his record.
Mark Kirk’s clear exaggeration of an award — he did something along the lines of claiming to have been the MVP when his team won a championship — is winning him a real pounding in the local press, where his attempts to bluster through it seem to have failed totally. [Emphasis added.]
* 2d video shows false claim by Ill. candidate: Another video featuring Senate candidate Mark Kirk of Illinois making false claims of being the Navy’s intelligence officer of the year has surfaced as he campaigns for a seat once held by President Obama.
* Considering that Bill Brady has already run TV ads, a website counter-punch ain’t exactly sufficient. But the Democratic Governor’s Association has put up a new site blasting Brady. So, let’s give it a whirl and rate it.
* I know the spring session isn’t actually, completely, totally over yet (then again, maybe it is), but who do you think were the biggest winners and losers? Explain, please.
* The generally accepted rule of thumb when watching campaign coverage, particularly downstate, is that you can expect local newspapers will be far better at it than the local TV stations. But check out how WSIL TV covered GOP lt. governor nominee Jason Plummer’s campaign stop…
The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor visited southern Illinois Friday. Jason Plummer began the morning at a prayer breakfast, then hit the bocce ball court at Herrinfesta Italiana.
The candidate has come under fire recently for refusing to release his tax returns. Jason Plummer is the only candidate running for Lieutenant Governor or Governor who has not released his tax forms. News 3 tried to find out why, but that response never really came. When News 3 asked Plummer if he would release his tax forms, he turned the tables and questioned transparency in the Quinn administration.
“How come he hasn’t asked the members of his own party,” Plummer asked. “How come he hasn’t asked his hand-picked appointees that impact public policy about that issue?”
Plummer attended the morning’s prayer breakfast before making his way to the HerrinFesta Italiana Bocce Complex, where he participated in the Robert A. Ferarri Corporate Division Bocce Tournament. He said he frequently visited Southern Illinois during the Republican primaries, but Friday was his first trip to HerrinFesta.
“This is great. Somebody asked, ‘Have you ever played bocce ball?’ and I said, ‘Nowhere this nice,’” Plummer said. “I’ve played a lot in front yards and back yards, but this is phenomenal.”
Plummer, the 27-year-old from Edwardsville, has thus far refused requests to release his income tax returns, a subject that has become a political right of passage for serious candidates. Here Plummer says it would put his business interests at a “competitive disadvantage,” in that it would involve releasing sensitive information about his family’s company and its investors. Brady trotted out the same objections and then released the data anyway, under pressure to do so, if under overly controlled circumstances.
Look, Plummer is applying to be a heartbeat away from becoming the state’s CEO. And it was the Brady/Plummer campaign crew, after all, that questioned whether Attorney General Lisa Madigan, now first in line of succession with no one occupying the lieutenant governor’s seat, owed it to voters to release her tax data. She did, and her GOP opponent this fall is following suit. What’s good for the goose …
Beyond that, this is just a matter of Illinois voters deserving to know what they might be getting in Plummer. It should be no surprise to anyone who seeks high public office that it comes with some privacy sacrifices. Plummer has virtually no public record to judge. At 27, how much can he have to hide?
* By now, you’ve all heard about the Mark Kirk award controversy. Of everything I read, heard and saw, this video really did it for me. It’s Congressman Mark Kirk during a congressional committee hearing claiming he was the “Navy’s “Intelligence Officer of the Year in 1998.” Listen and watch closely as he emphasizes the award and the exact date, both of which are incorrect…
That video was from March of 2002. He has mentioned the award countless times during his congressional career.
Kirk has made the claim about the award over and over during the years, including to the Sun-Times and the Tribune back when he first ran for Congress. Nowhere did he ever say that a private group awarded the citation (although the Navy does officially nominate recipients), nor that it was his unit which received the award and not himself.
Kirk was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for his Kosovo service in 1999.
As I told subscribers this morning, notice that the phrase “combat service” has been dropped as well. That’s a big military no-no. Bernie Schoenburg wrote a little about this back in January…
The wording of campaign material obviously needs to be watched carefully, to make sure what is said is the same as what it seems to say.
For example, a flier for U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park, who is running for the U.S. Senate, says: “A Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Mark served over Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“Served over?” What does that mean? ]…]
Kirk, calling from Washington, D.C., Wednesday, said his record referred to flights he was on. The planes were based in Turkey, he said.
“I entered Yugoslavia without a passport in a U.S. Navy aircraft, but didn’t land,” he said. “We were conducting combat operations.” That was in 1999, he said.
Cmdr. Danny Hernandez, the Navy’s assistant chief of information, said for several days last week that he was having trouble finding records to clarify the matter. Then on Friday, he said Kirk, an Appropriations Committee member who co-chairs an electronic warfare working group, had changed his Web site to incorporate a different account of the award.
Isn’t it a little bit weird that the Navy would wait until after Kirk had changed his website to get back to the reporter? I had a similar experience with the Navy months ago when I wrote about Kirk posting on his campaign Twitter page from the War Room (which Kirk has claimed he commanded, but actually doesn’t.) The Navy said they’d get back to me after they took a look into the matter, but never did. I followed up with e-mails and calls, but never heard back.
#1: Giannoulias Provided Story Diminishes Kirk’s Outstanding Service
First, the Giannoulias-provided story diminishes Kirk’s Kosovo service by describing him only as “the intelligence officer for a single squadron at Aviano.” In fact, Kirk took charge of four squadrons and served as the lead officer for a combined intelligence team – the largest EA-6B intelligence shop in the history of naval aviation.
The Washington Post does appear to have made at least a semantics error. From its piece…
A copy of one of these commendations posted on his Web site describes him as the intelligence officer for a single squadron at Aviano and says he used a “keen analysis, far-reaching intelligence-gathering network and concise and complete flight briefings” to supply aviators with updates on the threats to their planes.
The commendation medal certificate does, indeed, say that Kirk was the intel officer for a single squadron, but it goes on to note that Kirk “took charge of four deployed squadron’s intelligence assets.”
Still, for Kirk to, on the one hand, make a huge, repeated error of completely misidentifying his award and his service record and then go after Giannoulias’ campaign for the wording of a WaPo story is beyond chutzpah.
The Tribune then dutifully reported it all as a he said/he said campaign kerfuffle…
The issue of character came to the fore Memorial Day in the U.S. Senate race as Democrat Alexi Giannoulias accused Republican Mark Kirk of embellishing his military record and being a typical Washington insider.
Giannoulias then found himself defending his own lack of military service and previous loans from his family bank to people with ties to organized crime.
“I take full responsibility for this and changed the record once my staff told me [the award] had a different title. But I received this award, the Rufus Taylor Award, as commander of this ad-hoc intelligence unit. I actually served oversees and spent 21 years now in the United States Navy Reserve.
“In this campaign I have a military record and so Alexi Giannoulias’ political goons have now gone through every detail of my military record. He has no military record. He’s never served a day in uniform in his life. As far as I can tell when I wore the uniform of the United States Navy serving in Allied Force, he was wearing a uniform too: of a basketball team in Greece.
“He has also failed to disclose his taxes and his Senate ethics forms. And so while all the other major statewide candidates for Governor and Senator have released their taxes and their ethics forms, the question I have for Alexi Giannoulias is: what are you hiding?”
Usually when a candidate goes way out like that, the other side has hit a nerve.
* As the above quote makes pretty clear, Kirk is also not totally backing down from his previous claims that he was given the award…
#4: Giannoulias Provided Story Suggests Kirk Did Not Earn Award
Fourth, the Giannoulias-provided story inaccurately suggests that Kirk did not personally earn the Rufus Taylor award since it was presented to a unit. In fact, the “unit” that received the award was an ad-hoc intelligence team that Mark Kirk established and ran to support Electronic Attack air combat operations during Kosovo. Kirk was presented with the award at the National Military Intelligence Association’s annual awards banquet.
Leader or not, it was his unit which received the award. So for Kirk to still be taking credit for that requires a whole lot of stones.
* There were lots of harsh reviews about last week’s General Assembly actions on the budget and pension borrowing…
* Watchdog Urges Quinn to Veto State Budget: Laurence Msall, president of the non-partisan Civic Federation, based in Chicago, calls the bill “irresponsible.”
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn says he wants to reduce the salaries of state lawmakers. It’s part of his plan to make cuts to try to balance the state’s $13 billion deficit.
Lawmakers granted Quinn extra powers to make those cuts himself. The governor says reducing salaries is only the beginning of the cuts he’ll be making. […]
Quinn says he also wants to cut travel expenses of state employees. He says he wants to spare health care, education and public safety.
Illinois House Republicans had a universal message for Rep. Bob Biggins (R-Elmhurst) last week: You are officially an outcast.
Rep. Biggins infuriated his fellow Republicans by switching his position and voting for a $3.7 billion borrowing plan supported by Democrats. The money would be used to make the state’s annual pension payment. Without it, the state would have to slash programs like education and human services and health care or delay the payment, which could cost the pension funds tens of billions of dollars in the long term.
The first attempt to pass the borrowing bill failed by one vote, with Republican Reps. Bill Black and Bob Pritchard voting for it. Democratic Reps. David Miller and Jack Franks both voted against the proposal.
Biggins is retiring at the end of this term, and it has been rumored for weeks that he is searching for a state job. Because of that, he has been on a very short list of Republicans who some suspected might be called upon at the last minute to help the Democrats pass a controversial bill. They definitely needed him last week.
The House Republican caucus had taken a firm position against the pension bill, claiming the plan to borrow to make the state’s pension payment was simply “kicking the can down the road.” More important, they believed that Gov. Quinn would be forced to the negotiating table if they could stop the bill, which required a three-fifths majority to pass. They thought they could use the failure of his plan to push him to cut the budget even more, or at least create chaos and make the Democrats look bad.
Immediately after Rep. Miller’s “No” vote caused the pension bill to fail, House Speaker Michael Madigan huddled with Miller, who sits two chairs down from Madigan’s official floor seat. A few minutes into the conversation, Miller made a motion to reconsider the vote and the Republicans then met in private for an hour.
Miller, the Democratic nominee for comptroller, dodged reporters after the vote and sprinted into the governor’s office. Rep. Biggins strolled in later.
Biggins spoke at length by mobile phone with a top Democratic operative after the initial floor vote. He reportedly told the operative that he was thinking about switching his vote and asked the operative for advice.
The operative offered to help Biggins obtain whatever he needed from the Quinn administration, but Biggins reportedly declined, saying there would be time enough for that in the coming weeks, if at all.
The operative then helped Biggins draft a statement to the media, which Biggins wrote down verbatim, explaining that he has had trouble remembering details since his stroke six years ago. Not long afterward, Biggins met with Quinn’s chief of staff to discuss his vote.
Democrats say that Biggins has privately expressed frustration and disappointment with his caucus and his party for weeks. He has been unhappy with what he considers to be an obstructionist minority leader who refuses to cooperate on much of anything, and was also reportedly appalled at conservative state Sen. Bill Brady’s gubernatorial nomination and gaffe prone candidacy.
Meanwhile, the House Republicans began pressuring Rep. Pritchard, who had voted “yes” during the first round. They used a strong call to party loyalty to eventually flip Pritchard the other way. Rep. Black had made it clear he would not switch his vote and held firm throughout.
When Biggins didn’t show up for caucus, the Republicans suspected he was about to flip. They were right. Both he and Miller switched to “Yes” during the second roll call and the bill passed. Miller said he received nothing for his vote, but he has a tough campaign ahead against former GOP state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka and he will need all the help he can get.
Many of Biggins’ colleagues were beside themselves with rage at his vote-switching. Rep. Jim Sacia passed by Biggins while Biggins was speaking to reporters and called him a “two-faced son of a b__.”
Rep. Black told me as many as a dozen House Republicans wanted to vote for the pension bill. They voted against it because of the absolute party position against the proposal.
So, while I can easily sympathize with Republicans who felt blind-sided by a guy who broke his word, it’s mighty tough to feel sorry for anyone who stuck with their party instead of voting their conscience.
Illinois House Speaker and Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan said all the successes of the legislative session were on the backs of the Democrats. Madigan said pension reform, nursing home resident protections and the McCormick Place overhaul, for instance, were fashioned by Democrats, whereas Republicans were “just bystanders.”
“They want to win an election. They’re not real good at winning elections. They want to win an election, so they got a campaign plan for November which says there are lots of problems, not completely solved. Democrats are in the majority, they should’ve done better,” Madigan said.
And that general theme is, in fact, pretty close to what Republicans have in mind.
“I think people are tired of wasteful spending and watching people continue to borrow and spend money they don’t have and not improve the job climate. If those are the issues that are resonating, then those will be the issues of the day,” said House Republican leader Tom Cross said. “I do think people have been paying attention more than they ever have before. I think they will look at the party in charge.”
* Nothing quite typifies the ridiculous snake oil sales pitch of Rod Blagojevich as this…
“When I’m governor again…” said former Gov. Rod Blagojevich during his final talk-radio show before his federal corruption trial starts Thursday.
Blagojevich surely knows he can never be governor again. After removing him from office, the Senate voted to bar him from holding “any public office of this State” ever again. He can’t ever run for governor or any state or local office. He can’t even be appointed. He’s just blowing smoke and being Rod - the total huckster.
He also announced during his Sunday radio program that he would run for office some day. Under the Constitution, he can only run for a federal office in Illinois, and I highly doubt that he could ever win either a congressional seat or the US Senate. He’s done. Washed up. Wiped out. Gone.
Rod Blagojevich lawyer Sam Adam Jr. has long said the best weapon his defense team has is the government’s view of it.
“We’re a joke,” he said. “They think I’m a clown.”
Adam has had great success with Cook County cases, but that infamous schtick of his doesn’t work all that well in a federal courtroom with a no-nonsense judge. The rules are a lot different, which is why defendants in these cases almost never get off. Adam’s father and the rest of the team are more experienced in those matters, so Blagojevich will get a mostly competent defense, but the clown show will almost certainly be reined in.
They’re not yellers, they’re not flashy and they’re loathe to speak in front of cameras (they refused interviews for this piece).
Hailing from Harvard, Stanford and Northwestern, you might call them the Brainy Bunch; they are the buttoned-down opposites of the defense team.
“Here there was an opportunity for them to get side-tracked with all the TV cameras and [Blagojevich] TV interviews and they didn’t do it,” said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who now heads Kroll investigations in Chicago. “They haven’t been distracted by the circus.”
They’re also the same trio who put notorious Blagojevich fund-raiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko” behind bars two years ago.
“They came of age in the Rezko trial,” said Patrick Collins, an attorney at Perkins Coie and former federal prosecutor familiar with the team’s work. “That was a high-profile trial, there was a lot at stake.”
The team is likely to use a “no-nonsense, just-the-facts-ma’am” approach, Collins said — a stark contrast to the “shock and awe” of the fiery defense team.
Some observers with knowledge of the government’s case expect it to be presented in mostly chronological fashion, with Monk an early witness. Few have been closer with Blagojevich than Monk, who roomed with the future governor at law school and later served as a groomsman at his wedding. A one-time sports agent, Monk managed Blagojevich’s campaigns as well as the governor’s office for much of the first term.
Government documents indicate that Monk will testify that he, Rezko and another top fundraiser, Christopher Kelly, plotted with Blagojevich to cash in on the governor’s office even before Blagojevich was elected in 2002. They allegedly schemed to extort campaign contributions or kickbacks from people hoping to do business with the state and planned to divvy up money with Blagojevich once he left office. […]
Monk’s testimony may also serve as a bridge to discussion of alleged illegal activity that occurred near the end of Blagojevich’s six years in office. In fall 2008, Blagojevich allegedly was taped discussing extortion schemes with advisers, Monk included. Some of the talk allegedly revolved around how Blagojevich could leverage his power to pick a Senate replacement for Obama to either secure a Cabinet post in the new administration or a lucrative job in the private sector for the governor or his wife, Patti.
“You’re going to see all these little independent storylines that the prosecutors will try to weave into one larger one,” Cramer said. “The tricky part is going to be putting all the pieces together, so the jury starts to see a pattern.”
* Has the Blagojevich PR strategy of showing up everywhere and acting the clown worked? This analysis seems plausible…
[Former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson] said Blagojevich’s greatest success may have been in showing the world that he’s prone to scattershot thinking.
“It’s just Blagojevich-like, nobody takes me seriously,” Levenson said. “I’m just an odd duck, and I always say over-the-top things. I don’t mean them. I’m a rogue personality, and the statements I’ve made have to be viewed in that context.”
Indeed, several prosecution witnesses who are former Blagojevich aides are expected to testify they often ignored his directives because they knew they would change the next day.
On trial, Blago will ask, ‘What has changed in Springfield since I was impeached?’ A very valid question with very painful answers,” said Serafin. “The irony is a real-life federal jury becomes Quinn’s most important focus group.”
As mentioned above, federal trial rules are strict and tough and the judge has already warned against stuff like that.
That’s thanks in large measure to something called the state Property Tax Assessment Freeze Program, which offers a financial incentive in the form of a break on property taxes to owners of historic homes and homes in designated historic districts across Illinois, to put money into rehabilitating the houses and condos.
The Smiths’ home is among only about 3,200 houses and condos statewide that have been accepted into the tax-freeze program since 1985, state officials say, with most of the homes in Chicago that are in the program clustered in pockets along the lakefront.
