Should
citizens of this state have a right to know whether their governor and his
administration are under criminal investigation?
According
to the governor, the answer is "no."
Around
the same time as this year's campaign season moved into full swing the
governor's state press operation stopped answering questions about whether the
office had received subpoenas from federal or state prosecutors, or even about
the existence of new or ongoing investigations.
Politically,
that appeared to be a smart move. There are somewhere around nine or ten
separate federal and state investigations of the governor's office right now
(that we know of) and some of them are really starting to heat up, so it's
natural that the subpoenas would be flying in the door. And it's also natural
that the administration wouldn't want to confirm information that reporters had
dug up. Without confirmations, some stories undoubtedly haven't been published
or broadcast because reporters may not have had enough other sources.
But
the governor's refusal to directly answer whether he is under investigation led
to a bizarre reaction last week.
The
Chicago Tribune reported that the governor's top legal advisor had sent a
letter to a dozen state agencies requiring them to disclose all personnel
records back to 2003, when the governor was sworn in. The order applied to
everyone, all the way down to the lowliest interns.
The
Tribune claimed that its sources said the letter was a result of a federal
investigation into the governor's hiring practices. The probe goes back to at
least last year, when the governor's office admitted that three agencies were
subpoenaed by the feds (back when the governor's office was admitting those
things). Since FBI agents don't usually just ask for government documents over
a friendly cup of coffee at the local diner, we can safely assume that more
subpoenas have been issued.
The
Tribune story appeared the same day that Gov. Blagojevich was set to announce
his new All Kids program, so he had no choice but to answer a few questions
from the assembled throng of reporters.
His
refusal to confirm or deny the existence of investigations and subpoenas put
him in a bit of a tight spot, however. If the Tribune story was untrue (highly
unlikely) he couldn't just denounce the paper because when a true story came
along reporters would insist that he verify that one, too. And if the Tribune
story was true (highly likely) he couldn't confirm it or risk putting his press
staff in the same situation every time a reporter heard a rumor about a new
subpoena.
Instead,
he took a deep breath and blamed his troubles on...
Are
you ready for this one?
George
Ryan.
Yes,
George Ryan is to blame for an ever-widening federal probe into Rod
Blagojevich's administration.
How,
you may ask?
Let's
allow the governor's own words to explain.
When
asked about the letter written in response to the federal probe, the governor
said it was "an example of what weÕve been doing for 3 years, and that is
making sure that we clean up the old practices of the previous administration
that had bloated state payrolls, incompetent employees, people hired for all
the wrong reasons."
Yeah,
I don't get it either.
I
understand why the feds are keeping a close eye on Illinois. Our recent history
justifies it. And you can certainly blame George Ryan for much of that.
But
you'd think that if the Blagojevich administration was completely clean and the
governor really was the "un-Ryan" the feds would have looked closely
at those initial three state agencies, including the governor's own personnel
office, then folded the books and gone home.
Instead,
they apparently issued subpoenas for the hiring records of twelve more
agencies.
And
that's not George Ryan's fault.
The
people should have a right to know as much about their government as possible,
and that includes a right to know whether their federal government suspects
their state government of being corrupt. Governor Blagojevich should reverse
his decision to not confirm the existence of subpoenas and stop this ridiculous
game of blaming George Ryan for everything that he screws up.
And,
for his sake, I hope he's being a lot more honest with the US Attorney's office
than he is with Illinois voters. Bad things can happen if he's not.
-30-
Rich
Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com