The A-list is impressive. Consider:
– Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, tells the attorney general of Illinois in a letter that federal agents are probing “very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud” in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration. Fitzgerald says the feds have “implicated multiple state agencies and departments” in politically motivated and illegal hiring. Whither that? Fitzgerald raises the possibility of indictments for unnamed state officials.
– A few days later, a federal jury convicts four former officials of Chicago’s City Hall on public corruption charges. Fitzgerald’s top assistant, Gary Shapiro, promises that the feds will continue to pursue that scandal too. Who’ll be indicted when? “I really can’t say anything more than, `Stay tuned,'” Shapiro tells reporters.
– Former Gov. George Ryan is only six weeks from learning for how long he’ll be imprisoned. In April, a federal jury convicted Ryan of steering millions of dollars in state contracts and leases to his friends in return for vacations, gifts and other benefits for himself and his family.
Not every day brings a development in one of this sorry state’s major corruption cases. It only seems that way. Some days the feds debrief witnesses and dig through documents for their assault on the Illinois culture of political sleaze. That quiet investigative work yields no screaming headlines in the next day’s newspaper.
But even when the A-list cases run silent, the drumroll of corruption news in Illinois continues. We’ve reached a point that, with so many investigations of so much alleged and confirmed illegality in government here, there’s almost always a new development in the numerous B-list cases. Last week, just one day’s Tribune brought news that:
– A construction company president and longtime Democratic fundraiser was charged in federal court with bribing a former Chicago Public Schools official to get millions of dollars in fence construction and snow removal work. Prosecutors say James Levin’s company also overbilled the school system and falsely suggested that minority subcontractors were doing part of the work.
– A federal judge sentenced a veteran Republican political consultant to two months’ imprisonment, plus probation, community service work and a fine, for his role in a kickback scheme during former Gov. George Ryan’s tenure as secretary of state. Alan Drazek had pleaded guilty to tax fraud stemming from his laundering of nearly $400,000 that a friend of Ryan’s extorted from vendors vying for state business.
– Another federal judge sentenced Michael Tristano, a one-time chief of staff to former GOP House leader Lee Daniels, to a year and a day in prison for assigning legislative staffers to do campaign work on state time. Tristano will pay $125,000 in partial restitution to the state. Daniels has been a target of the investigation but has not been charged.
On and on it goes.
The day those articles appeared, the former head of the agency that oversees state historic sites filed suit alleging that he lost his post after refusing orders from Blagojevich’s office to fire Republicans from jobs that were supposed to be free of political influence. Maynard Crossland said gubernatorial aides came to his office with a chart in which red X’s were marked over the names of Republicans whom Blagojevich’s administration wanted fired. Blagojevich retorted that the civil suit’s charges are absurd. A court can now determine the truth.
This drumroll of cases, convictions and allegations hasn’t yet reached a thunderous intensity. But our hunch is that it’s coming. Even on the days when the bass drums fall silent, you still hear the powerful cadence of the snares.
