In early
2006, Gov. Rod Blagojevich faced a firestorm of criticism from Jewish leaders
for his appointment of Louis Farrakhan's "minister of protocol" to
the Illinois Hate Crimes Commission. Several Jewish members resigned from the
Commission in protest of Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad's appointment, but
Blagojevich refused to back down and claimed he didn't know who she was when he
put her on the Commission.
A small
handful of Jewish leaders opposed the mass resignations from the Hate Crimes
Commission. One of those was Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz, of the Agudas Achim -
North Shore Congregation. Lefkowitz claims he was sharply and repeatedly
criticized by other Jewish leaders for opposing the resignations.
The
situation had indeed created a gigantic firestorm in Chicago at the time and
tensions were high. Blagojevich, who had just kicked off his reelection
campaign, began desperately seeking allies as he tried to walk a fine line
between angering African-American allies (several black legislators wanted him
to stand firm on the appointment) and the Jewish community. So, he asked some
of the more sympathetic clergy to a meeting in his Chicago office.
Rabbi
Lefkowitz attended that meeting with the governor and other religious leaders
to discuss how to deal with the Hate Crime Commission resignations. Before the
meeting started, Rabbi Lefkowitz claims he was told by Blagojevich's Senate
Floor Leader, Carol Ronen, that the governor was interested in helping with his
work and offered to free up $400,000 in grant money to help him build a
nonsectarian community center in Uptown. Lefkowitz asked for $500,000, and was
allegedly told that Ronen would see what she could do.
After the
meeting, Gov. Blagojevich helped Rabbi Lefkowitz with his coat and allegedly
said he wanted to assist with the center project. Later, Blagojevich attended a
Passover Seder at the Rabbi's synagogue and once again promised him and the
synagogue president, Steve Tuck, that he was still committed to the community
center grant.
As you
might have guessed by now, Rabbi Lefkowitz never got the money. The furor over
the Hate Crimes Commission eventually died down, the media moved on to other
things, and Lefkowitz received a letter last May from the governor's deputy
chief of staff informing him that the state simply didn't have enough money to
help build the facility.
Last week,
Lefkowitz sent a snarky letter to various Chicago newspapers asking whether
it's possible "that as with Pilgrim Baptist Church, the check was sent to
'the wrong place.'"
Pilgrim
Baptist Church, you will recall, was the African-American church in Chicago
that burnt down later on in Blagojevich's 2006 reelection campaign. The
governor made a big show of pledging a million dollars to help rebuild the
church during the campaign.
But for
some as yet unexplained reason, the money instead went to a private school at
the church. That school took the cash and then moved far away from Pilgrim's
neighborhood. The church itself got nothing.
All of the
school's new state money, in fact, was spent to buy an entire floor of a
building in Chicago's Loop from an undercover FBI mole who was helping the feds
get the goods on Tony Rezko, the governor's campaign fundraiser and a bigtime
Chicago real estate developer. The school has not yet reopened and the flap has
caused Blagojevich to find another million dollars to help rebuild the church
complex.
As you may
know, it gets weirder. The governor has granted just 67 pardons since taking
office, but a rush pardon was put in place for the school's director, who
claimed on her pardon application that she feared she couldn't operate the
school with a felony on her record. The school also never completed the
paperwork to operate as a nonprofit entity, so that was taken care of as well.
The
governor's office has claimed that Blagojevich didn't put two and two together
when he approved the woman's application. Blagojevich himself has blamed a
couple of former staffers for sending the money to the "wrong" place.
Whether you
believe him or not, Blagojevich is now apparently saying that the fastest,
easiest, most efficient way to get money out of the state is if the governor
screws up.
Rabbi
Lefkowitz, take heed.
-30-
Rich Miller
also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com.