"There
is so much more coming it is breathtaking," an almost always reliable
source said recently when asked about the recent flood of news stories about
alleged corruption within Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration.
That
source wasn't the only one making this prediction. Plenty of others are saying
that the Chicago Tribune is sitting on a large pile of explosives. Unlike 1998,
when the Tribune mostly sat by while other media outlets ran stories about
George Ryan's alleged corruption, the paper is clearly trying to stay out front
on this Blagojevich thing. As you may have seen, the Trib published several
more stories over the long July 4th holiday weekend and then published
follow-ups for days.
The
Associated Press also seems eager to become the outlet of record for stories on
state corruption. The AP may have even published more stories to date than the
Tribune about the Blagojevich administration's allegedly shady hiring
practices.
The
AP, like the Tribune, seemed to lay back a little in 1998, when a few outlets
were diligently trying to track down stories about George Ryan's corruption.
Things are much different now, of course, but there is another big
dissimilarity between this year and 1998. Back then, the sitting US Attorney
all but cleared George Ryan shortly before the election, announcing that Ryan
wasn't a target of any federal investigation. Patrick Fitzgerald proved again
several days ago that he is a different sort of guy.
Fitzgerald
has already essentially labeled Blagojevich as "Official A" in a
federal plea agreement - a very good indication that Governor Blagojevich is on
his radar screen. Then, recently, Fitzgerald allowed the public release of a
letter he had sent to Attorney General Lisa Madigan which contained some
explosive information about his ongoing investigations.
As
you almost certainly know by now, Fitzgerald wrote to Madigan of "very
serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud" within the Blagojevich
administration. Fitzgerald alluded to allegations about fraudulent hiring
records, and claimed that "multiple state agencies and departments"
have been implicated.
At
least one insider has reportedly told friends that he expects to be indicted
before the election, but right now that's all just pure speculation. In the
past, federal prosecutors have tried to avoid doing anything that might tip an
election one way or another (Scott Lassar may have been trying to keep his
office out of the race entirely with his late 1998 announcement about Ryan not
being a target, but he ended up helping Ryan's campaign). Fitzgerald obviously
has little care for what his investigation might do to Gov. Blagojevich's
electoral chances, and that has made him the most important person in the
governor's race. Despite all of his campaign cash and political acumen,
Blagojevich may ultimately have no control over his own destiny.
I
am a little surprised, however, that the governor's people didn't take their
usual shot at Republican opponent Judy Baar Topinka after a recent Tribune
report surfaced. When the Trib revealed that the human resources director at
the Illinois Department of Employment Security was deemed unqualified, and that
certain questionable hires were made there, the governor harped on the fact
that it was his own inspector general who had uncovered the alleged wrongdoing.
He
has since declared that he is ecstatic over all the negative headlines because
it somehow proves that he and his investigators are doing a great job of
ferreting out corruption. "The headlines are great," he told stunned
reporters last week.
Despite
the fact that almost nobody believes it, the Inspector General angle is one of
the only avenues the governor had, but he left another one wide open. The
Department of Employment Security hiring director in question was eventually
hired by Treasurer Topinka's office. Topinka's people did have some defenses at
the ready, including the fact that they had done a State Police background
check and that the Blagojevich administration allowed the person to resign,
rather than fire her. But a reasonable defense by the other side has never
stopped the governor's attack machine before.
You
would think that Blagojevich would try to pivot on this and blame Topinka for
continuing the "culture of corruption" while he was trying to clean
it up. Maybe he's off his game. Or maybe his campaign is just saving the hit
for their TV ads.
-30-
Rich
Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com