This has been a dizzying week for deciding who is above the law or below it, with figures from Ted Stevens and Rod Blagojevich to the AIG bonus recipients parading before the public bench for reappraisal.
*The former Republican senator from Alaska gets a pass from a Democratic Attorney General on the grounds of bad behavior by prosecutors from the Bush Justice Department, which still faces unresolved accusations of firing eight federal prosecutors for not being political enough.
(Sarah Palin wants the Democrat who defeated Stevens to resign, but that idea has as much chance as the moose she shoots from airplanes.)
*The Disney World vacation of the impeached former Illinois governor is interrupted by news he has been charged with numerous counts of fraud and corruption, but only after successfully naming Barack Obama's successor to the US Senate.
His indictment raises again questions about the part played in his case by the universally sainted prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who went public with an inflammatory attack on Blagojevich in December but failed to charge him then. Was Fitzgerald's move, an obvious attempt to keep the governor from selling the seat, proper behavior for a federal prosecutor? Does it open the door to others hounding elected officials in less cut-and-dried cases?
*From, of all people, Fox News' usually rabidly wrong Glenn Beck comes a scathing interview with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal pressuring him for legal reasons for his public hounding of AIG bonus recipients, laying bare blatant political grandstanding by Blumenthal and, to a lesser degree, New York's Andrew Cuomo for political gain rather than duties of office. Beck wins that argument handily. Political piling on by officers of the law is an ugly sight, no matter who is at the bottom.
Eric Holder's action in the Stevens case is an encouraging sign that we are moving back to the traditional norms of rule by law but a New York Times editorial suggests more:
"He should not stop with this case. Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, and Paul Minor, a prominent Mississippi trial lawyer, have charged that Justice Department prosecutors engaged in unethical behavior in cases that led to their convictions. Both men claim that they were singled out for prosecution because of their affiliation with the Democratic Party.
"Given the flagrant partisanship of the Bush Justice Department, it is especially reassuring to see Mr. Holder ignore party lines to do the right thing by Mr. Stevens. It has been far too long since the attorney general seemed interested in enforcing ethics and nonpartisanship in a department that has been shockingly lacking in both."
It's time to reaffirm that, while nobody is above the law, neither is anyone below it.
Showing posts with label Patrick Fitzgerald. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Patrick Fitzgerald. Show all posts
Friday, April 03, 2009
Friday, January 09, 2009
Blagojevich, Muddled Movie Maven
The ethically deprived Illinois governor is a trifle short of smarts about pop culture as well.
Reacting to his impeachment today by the legislature, Rod Blagojevich said, "I feel like the old Alan Sillitoe short story 'The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.' ... And that's what this is by the way, a long-distance run."
If he ever read the story or saw the 1962 movie, Blagojevich might recall it's all about a petty thief with swift feet and serious psychological problems who, in a key scene, stuffs his loot into a drainpipe, only to have a rainstorm wash it down at his feet while being questioned by a detective.
Even the ending should be no consolation, as the rebellious hero, well ahead in the race, stops short of the finish line with a defiant sneer on his face, the last gesture of a loser.
Patrick Fitzgerald may have seen the movie, too.
Reacting to his impeachment today by the legislature, Rod Blagojevich said, "I feel like the old Alan Sillitoe short story 'The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.' ... And that's what this is by the way, a long-distance run."
If he ever read the story or saw the 1962 movie, Blagojevich might recall it's all about a petty thief with swift feet and serious psychological problems who, in a key scene, stuffs his loot into a drainpipe, only to have a rainstorm wash it down at his feet while being questioned by a detective.
Even the ending should be no consolation, as the rebellious hero, well ahead in the race, stops short of the finish line with a defiant sneer on his face, the last gesture of a loser.
Patrick Fitzgerald may have seen the movie, too.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Blagojevich's Human Shield
Taking a cue from Saddam Hussein who surrounded himself with innocent civilians when under attack, Rod Blagojevich has added a new touch, playing the race card by appointing an African-American to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat and daring Democrats to reject his pick and try to bomb him out of the governor's chair.
Blagojevich, who has a lock on the Shameless Person of the Year Award, is in Hall of Fame territory here by appointing Roland Burris, a 71-year-old non-Caucasian who has served as Illinois state comptroller and attorney general.
But as the Governor celebrates his new coup, someone should remind him that the tactic did not work out too well for Saddam (see Baghdad, fallen statue). Senate Democrats have made it clear they won't seat Blagojevich's choice, Patrick Fitzgerald is getting ready to release some of the juicier taped phone calls and the Illinois legislature is on track with impeachment proceedings.
Happy New Year, Governor, it's all downhill from here.
Blagojevich, who has a lock on the Shameless Person of the Year Award, is in Hall of Fame territory here by appointing Roland Burris, a 71-year-old non-Caucasian who has served as Illinois state comptroller and attorney general.
But as the Governor celebrates his new coup, someone should remind him that the tactic did not work out too well for Saddam (see Baghdad, fallen statue). Senate Democrats have made it clear they won't seat Blagojevich's choice, Patrick Fitzgerald is getting ready to release some of the juicier taped phone calls and the Illinois legislature is on track with impeachment proceedings.
Happy New Year, Governor, it's all downhill from here.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Blagojevich, Fitzgerald--and Obama
As the President-Elect vacations in Hawaii and the besieged governor hunkers down back home, the relentless prosecutor keeps chipping away at their state's institutionalized corruption.
Today there is a leaked backgrounder in the Washington Post, headlined "Secret Tapes Helped Build Graft Cases In Illinois," detailing five years of what Fitzgerald calls "wide-ranging schemes where people are seeking to make people pay contributions to get contracts or appointments or do other stuff."
In the interconnected stories of this threesome, there are clues to the nature of 21st century political life and the human beings who struggle with its temptations and contradictions.
Fitzgerald and Blagojevich are stereotypical--the crusader who never sleeps and the corkscrew pol who never stops stealing--but their collision is moving beyond clichés into a more complicated picture of people and power in a new century and raising questions about how Barack Obama managed to navigate that world without being tainted by it.
The Obama organization wants to take Rahm Emanuel off the hook by insisting the prospective chief of staff had "only had one phone call with Gov. Blagojevich. It wasn’t even really about the Senate seat.” But the governor's new phone friend, Willie Brown of California, is saying "there were some pretty heated conversations between Blagojevich and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, which I understand will burn your ears off."
Be that as it may, the melodrama of New Politics vs. Old is likely to go on for some time now, at the cost of an empty Illinois Senate seat, while the Obama administration struggles with the high-profile problems that are plaguing the country.
As Fitzgerald keeps plodding forward, nagging questions involving the new president will center on convicted fixer Tony Rezko, described by the Post as the "gatekeeper to Blagojevich, advising him on appointments to boards and commissions."
During the campaign, Obama returned Rezko's contributions, stressing he had not been accused of any wrongdoing in his association with him while admitting that Rezko's involvement in the buying of the Obamas' Chicago home was a "boneheaded" mistake.
The Fitzgerald-Blagojevich confrontation is a high-wire media circus of good vs. evil, but the peripheral role of the new president who is shouldering the burdens of America's future is a reminder that what human beings do when the stakes are high is never that simple.
An incident from 40 years ago keeps coming back to mind. As a delegate to the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, I found myself alone in a hotel elevator with political boss Stanley Steingut, a decent man, after his egregious power play had cut off an antiwar resolution in the state caucus meeting.
Enraged, I asked him, "Does your mother know what you do for a living?"
He gave me the kindliest of smiles, took my elbow and said sadly, "Politics, kid."
Today there is a leaked backgrounder in the Washington Post, headlined "Secret Tapes Helped Build Graft Cases In Illinois," detailing five years of what Fitzgerald calls "wide-ranging schemes where people are seeking to make people pay contributions to get contracts or appointments or do other stuff."
In the interconnected stories of this threesome, there are clues to the nature of 21st century political life and the human beings who struggle with its temptations and contradictions.
Fitzgerald and Blagojevich are stereotypical--the crusader who never sleeps and the corkscrew pol who never stops stealing--but their collision is moving beyond clichés into a more complicated picture of people and power in a new century and raising questions about how Barack Obama managed to navigate that world without being tainted by it.
The Obama organization wants to take Rahm Emanuel off the hook by insisting the prospective chief of staff had "only had one phone call with Gov. Blagojevich. It wasn’t even really about the Senate seat.” But the governor's new phone friend, Willie Brown of California, is saying "there were some pretty heated conversations between Blagojevich and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, which I understand will burn your ears off."
Be that as it may, the melodrama of New Politics vs. Old is likely to go on for some time now, at the cost of an empty Illinois Senate seat, while the Obama administration struggles with the high-profile problems that are plaguing the country.
As Fitzgerald keeps plodding forward, nagging questions involving the new president will center on convicted fixer Tony Rezko, described by the Post as the "gatekeeper to Blagojevich, advising him on appointments to boards and commissions."
During the campaign, Obama returned Rezko's contributions, stressing he had not been accused of any wrongdoing in his association with him while admitting that Rezko's involvement in the buying of the Obamas' Chicago home was a "boneheaded" mistake.
The Fitzgerald-Blagojevich confrontation is a high-wire media circus of good vs. evil, but the peripheral role of the new president who is shouldering the burdens of America's future is a reminder that what human beings do when the stakes are high is never that simple.
An incident from 40 years ago keeps coming back to mind. As a delegate to the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, I found myself alone in a hotel elevator with political boss Stanley Steingut, a decent man, after his egregious power play had cut off an antiwar resolution in the state caucus meeting.
Enraged, I asked him, "Does your mother know what you do for a living?"
He gave me the kindliest of smiles, took my elbow and said sadly, "Politics, kid."
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Patrick Fitzgerald's Problem
He is right out of a Frank Capra movie--a clean-cut crime fighter who lives to bring down the bad guys--but in the current Illinois Senate seat mess, Patrick Fitzgerald had to make a hard choice that could eventually let Rod Blagojevich off the hook: Should he try to stop the crime before it happens or nail the wrongdoer but only after the damage has been done?
The results of his decision to go public prematurely can be seen in a New York Times analysis under the headline, "In Blagojevich Case, Is it a Crime, or Just Talk?" that explores the fine line between political wheeling-dealing and a prosecutable crime:
"Mr. Fitzgerald’s decision to bypass a grand jury initially could signal a belief on his part that he did not yet have a fully prosecutable case on his hand, though it appears to have been prompted at least in part by the publication...of an article that tipped off Mr. Blagojevich that investigators were listening in on his conversations.
"Mr. Fitzgerald has also said he had been worried that if he did not intervene, Mr. Blagojevich might go ahead with some of his schemes, including appointing a successor to Mr. Obama."
Just so. If Fitzgerald had waited to catch Blagojevich with a smoking gun, he would have had an airtight case, but the US Senate would have had a replacement for Obama who, directly or indirectly, had bribed his or her way there.
The US Attorney's decision to prevent the crime has been drawing the fire of prosecutorial purists such as Victoria Toensing complaining in the Wall Street Journal that "he is not permitted to make the kind of inflammatory statements Mr. Fitzgerald made during his media appearance."
In an ideal world, she is right but the bottom line is that, in 21st century real life rather than a Frank Capra movie, most onlookers may readily forgive Patrick Fitzgerald for not playing a Boy Scout in the Blagojevich bad movie.
The results of his decision to go public prematurely can be seen in a New York Times analysis under the headline, "In Blagojevich Case, Is it a Crime, or Just Talk?" that explores the fine line between political wheeling-dealing and a prosecutable crime:
"Mr. Fitzgerald’s decision to bypass a grand jury initially could signal a belief on his part that he did not yet have a fully prosecutable case on his hand, though it appears to have been prompted at least in part by the publication...of an article that tipped off Mr. Blagojevich that investigators were listening in on his conversations.
"Mr. Fitzgerald has also said he had been worried that if he did not intervene, Mr. Blagojevich might go ahead with some of his schemes, including appointing a successor to Mr. Obama."
Just so. If Fitzgerald had waited to catch Blagojevich with a smoking gun, he would have had an airtight case, but the US Senate would have had a replacement for Obama who, directly or indirectly, had bribed his or her way there.
The US Attorney's decision to prevent the crime has been drawing the fire of prosecutorial purists such as Victoria Toensing complaining in the Wall Street Journal that "he is not permitted to make the kind of inflammatory statements Mr. Fitzgerald made during his media appearance."
In an ideal world, she is right but the bottom line is that, in 21st century real life rather than a Frank Capra movie, most onlookers may readily forgive Patrick Fitzgerald for not playing a Boy Scout in the Blagojevich bad movie.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Impeachment, Treatment or Exorcism?
That goofy vacant look, the Elvis combover and, above all, over-the-top arrogance are pushing the Blagojevich brouhaha into mental-health territory as the Illinois governor announces his intention of returning to work today.
“I’m not sure he’s playing with a full deck anymore,” says Mike Jacobs, a Democratic state senator and former friend quoted by the New York Times, as suggesting that "Blagojevich may have lost his grip on reality."
The Times backgrounder is replete with diagnostic terms such as "grandiosity," "pathology" and "no feedback loop or reality check" to suggest that Blagojevich's legal team may be planning to cop a psychiatric plea.
We are back in "disorder" territory to explain very bad, eventually self-defeating behavior by public officials (see Clinton, Bill: sex addiction), but labeling Blagojevich a sociopath is too easy an out.
That diagnosis, in the era of a new president's emphasis on personal responsibility, won't wash. It may pigeonhole the Illinois governor's odd antics to relieve us of thinking too hard about the corrupting effects of power, but straight arrows like Patrick Fitzgerald are more socially useful in expressing public outrage and disgust.
Nowadays, every exposed rogue (see Foley, Mark: rehab clinic) opts for treatment rather punishment but, at the risk of sounding insufficiently postmodern, the focus should be, not of explicating or exorcising Blagojevich's demons, but getting him out of office and into jail.
Update: This afternoon Barack Obama joined the chorus for a Blagojevich exit as his spokesman announced: "The president-elect agrees with [Illinois] Lt. Gov. [Pat] Quinn and many others that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois."
Adios, Elvis.
“I’m not sure he’s playing with a full deck anymore,” says Mike Jacobs, a Democratic state senator and former friend quoted by the New York Times, as suggesting that "Blagojevich may have lost his grip on reality."
The Times backgrounder is replete with diagnostic terms such as "grandiosity," "pathology" and "no feedback loop or reality check" to suggest that Blagojevich's legal team may be planning to cop a psychiatric plea.
We are back in "disorder" territory to explain very bad, eventually self-defeating behavior by public officials (see Clinton, Bill: sex addiction), but labeling Blagojevich a sociopath is too easy an out.
That diagnosis, in the era of a new president's emphasis on personal responsibility, won't wash. It may pigeonhole the Illinois governor's odd antics to relieve us of thinking too hard about the corrupting effects of power, but straight arrows like Patrick Fitzgerald are more socially useful in expressing public outrage and disgust.
Nowadays, every exposed rogue (see Foley, Mark: rehab clinic) opts for treatment rather punishment but, at the risk of sounding insufficiently postmodern, the focus should be, not of explicating or exorcising Blagojevich's demons, but getting him out of office and into jail.
Update: This afternoon Barack Obama joined the chorus for a Blagojevich exit as his spokesman announced: "The president-elect agrees with [Illinois] Lt. Gov. [Pat] Quinn and many others that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois."
Adios, Elvis.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Obama, Rove: Six Degrees of Separation
What's the journalistic etiquette for exposing someone who works for the same publication? In the new Newsweek, Michael Isikoff reports that the name of fellow columnist Karl Rove has surfaced in the federal trial of Barack Obama's albatross, Antoin Rezko:
"Former Illinois state official Ali Ata is expected to testify about a conversation he had with Rezko in which the developer alleged Rove was 'working with' a top Illinois Republican to remove the Chicago US attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald.
"The allegation, which Rove denies, quickly reverberated in Washington. Democrats in Congress now want to question Ata. They believe he can help buttress their theory that Rove played a key role in discussions that led to the firings of U.S. attorneys at the Justice Department in 2006."
According to the Chicago Tribune, "Prosecutors at...Rezko's fraud trial caught a break when Ali Ata, former Illinois Finance Authority executive director, pleaded guilty to tax fraud and lying about Rezko and agreed to become a witness at the trial."
Rove's motive would have been to derail Fitzgerald's Scooter Libby prosecution, in which Bush's Brain was being implicated in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame as retaliation for her husband's revelation that the Administration lied about Saddam Hussein's pursuit of nuclear material in Africa.
Now that Obama has turned out to be a distant cousin of Dick Cheney, his six-degrees-of-separation tie to Karl Rove may not come as too much of a shock.
Maybe Rove will explain it all in his next Newsweek column.
"Former Illinois state official Ali Ata is expected to testify about a conversation he had with Rezko in which the developer alleged Rove was 'working with' a top Illinois Republican to remove the Chicago US attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald.
"The allegation, which Rove denies, quickly reverberated in Washington. Democrats in Congress now want to question Ata. They believe he can help buttress their theory that Rove played a key role in discussions that led to the firings of U.S. attorneys at the Justice Department in 2006."
According to the Chicago Tribune, "Prosecutors at...Rezko's fraud trial caught a break when Ali Ata, former Illinois Finance Authority executive director, pleaded guilty to tax fraud and lying about Rezko and agreed to become a witness at the trial."
Rove's motive would have been to derail Fitzgerald's Scooter Libby prosecution, in which Bush's Brain was being implicated in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame as retaliation for her husband's revelation that the Administration lied about Saddam Hussein's pursuit of nuclear material in Africa.
Now that Obama has turned out to be a distant cousin of Dick Cheney, his six-degrees-of-separation tie to Karl Rove may not come as too much of a shock.
Maybe Rove will explain it all in his next Newsweek column.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Obama, Scooter Libby and Saddam
The six-degrees-of-separation game starts today as Antoin Rezko goes on trial for corruption, prosecuted by Patrick Fitzgerald, Scooter Libby's nemesis, after being jailed for violating his bail terms by taking $3.7 million from a British-Iraqi billionaire previously convicted of smuggling arms to Saddam Hussein.
Barack Obama is on the far margins of this ripe stew of Chicago corruption, but Hillary Clinton's top campaign advisor and the Wall Street Journal, among others, are eager to smear him with the overflow.
Obama's campaign has returned $150 million of Rezko contributions, and the candidate himself has called "boneheaded" his involvement with the slumlord in the purchase of his own home in 2005. But that may not be enough to deflect pressure to explain more fully.
“Now the trial is beginning, and I think it will be more difficult for him to avoid these various serious questions,” Howard Wolfson, the Clinton communications director, told reporters last week. “(I)f the shoe were on the other foot...I’d be having to answer them to people who are very serious investigative reporters who know the right questions to ask and don’t take ‘no comment’ for an answer.”
In the Journal today, columnist John Fund predicts, "Mr. Obama will eventually have to talk about Illinois, if only to clear the air. After John McCain last month was attacked for cozy ties to lobbyists, he held a news conference and answered every question. Hillary Clinton held a White House news conference on Whitewater and her cattle futures. Mr. Obama must do the same for questions about Mr. Rezko and 'the Chicago way' of politics. If he doesn't, they may increasingly haunt his candidacy."
Obama's meteoric rise carries with it the threat of a media backlash against his unvetted history, and opponents in both parties will do their best to make Rezko an albatross to weigh him down. After tomorrow's primaries, he would do well to try to cut it off as he races from here to November.
Barack Obama is on the far margins of this ripe stew of Chicago corruption, but Hillary Clinton's top campaign advisor and the Wall Street Journal, among others, are eager to smear him with the overflow.
Obama's campaign has returned $150 million of Rezko contributions, and the candidate himself has called "boneheaded" his involvement with the slumlord in the purchase of his own home in 2005. But that may not be enough to deflect pressure to explain more fully.
“Now the trial is beginning, and I think it will be more difficult for him to avoid these various serious questions,” Howard Wolfson, the Clinton communications director, told reporters last week. “(I)f the shoe were on the other foot...I’d be having to answer them to people who are very serious investigative reporters who know the right questions to ask and don’t take ‘no comment’ for an answer.”
In the Journal today, columnist John Fund predicts, "Mr. Obama will eventually have to talk about Illinois, if only to clear the air. After John McCain last month was attacked for cozy ties to lobbyists, he held a news conference and answered every question. Hillary Clinton held a White House news conference on Whitewater and her cattle futures. Mr. Obama must do the same for questions about Mr. Rezko and 'the Chicago way' of politics. If he doesn't, they may increasingly haunt his candidacy."
Obama's meteoric rise carries with it the threat of a media backlash against his unvetted history, and opponents in both parties will do their best to make Rezko an albatross to weigh him down. After tomorrow's primaries, he would do well to try to cut it off as he races from here to November.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Nutsy Fagin Conservative Notions
Maybe they should sell the Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch after all. How much worse could its Editorial Page get?
Aside from the estimable Peggy Noonan, the space seems to have been taken over by escapees from the old Commentary booby hatch. A couple of weeks ago, Norman Podhoretz prays on its pages for Bush to bomb Iran immediately if not sooner. Now Dorothy Rabinowitz compares Patrick Fitzgerald to Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong.
It’s a stunning parallel except for the tiny problem that the Duke players were innocent and Scooter Libby was covering up blatantly criminal activity by the Vice President of the United States and the President’s chief adviser.
But before we start carpet-bombing Terehan, let’s disbar Fitzgerald just for the hell of it. Alberto Gonzales never liked him.
Aside from the estimable Peggy Noonan, the space seems to have been taken over by escapees from the old Commentary booby hatch. A couple of weeks ago, Norman Podhoretz prays on its pages for Bush to bomb Iran immediately if not sooner. Now Dorothy Rabinowitz compares Patrick Fitzgerald to Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong.
It’s a stunning parallel except for the tiny problem that the Duke players were innocent and Scooter Libby was covering up blatantly criminal activity by the Vice President of the United States and the President’s chief adviser.
But before we start carpet-bombing Terehan, let’s disbar Fitzgerald just for the hell of it. Alberto Gonzales never liked him.
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