Something a bit out of the ordinary happened
earlier this month. On a Saturday, the Chicago
Tribune published a story about a
relatively minor allegation of corruption at the Illinois
Department of Children and Family Services. The next day, the Sun-Times ran a similar
story. According to the newspaper, a longtime pal of
the governor’s was given a high-level position at DCFS and
then somehow ended up with a bunch of money in an account he
controlled. It was a significant story but not really a huge deal
in the pantheon of Illinois corruption. The unusual thing happened on the first
business day after the stories appeared, when federal prosecutors
immediately subpoenaed documents relating to the scandal. The DCFS inspector general is known to have
forwarded the results of her investigation to an unnamed
law-enforcement authority way back in late July, so it’s
possible that the papers got a heads-up that something was about to
go down with the federales — or investigators read the stories
over the weekend and decided to take action on Monday. Back when George Ryan was governor, every
time a news outlet broke a story that was even a little related to
Ryan’s alleged corruption, the feds subpoenaed documents and
hauled people into their offices for not-so-friendly visits.
It’s possible that we’re entering
a similar phase with the administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. It
was obvious last month what the feds were doing when they allowed
two guilty pleas alleging corruption at the Teachers’
Retirement System to contain unnecessary language describing an
alleged “fundraising strategy” supposedly perpetrated
by the governor and his two top fundraisers, Chris Kelly and Tony
Rezko. As I’ve already noted, if the feds didn’t have their collective eye on the
governor’s operation, they most likely would have kept the
allegations by two admitted felons out of the agreements. Rounding up and then putting the arm on a few
minor suspects would be an expected next step if prosecutors want
to build a case against the state’s highest executive.
We’ll just have to wait and see. The Blagojevich administration has proved
fertile ground for investigators. Though we haven’t seen any
high-level convictions yet, the “G” is crawling all
over the place. And remember: The George Ryan probe began in 1998,
and he’s just now coming to trial. The list of state and federal probes is as
long as the bathroom line at White Sox Park during a playoff game. There’s the new DCFS investigation, of
course. And then there are the twin probes concerning
Blagojevich appointee Stu Levine at the Illinois Health Facilities
Planning Board and the TRS board. Levine was allegedly shaking down
hospitals and financial contractors. Attorney General Lisa Madigan has an
investigation, along with Cook County State’s Attorney Dick
Devine, into Chicago Ald. Dick Mell’s allegations —
since retracted — that the governor’s people were
selling board and commission seats in exchange for campaign
contributions. The attorney general is also involved in a
hard-hitting probe of the Illinois Commerce Commission that’s
resulted in the forced resignation of its Blagojevich-appointed
chairman. She’s also investigating the Department of Central
Management Services at the urging of Auditor General Bill Holland. There’s a federal investigation of the
so-called power-washing scandal at the Illinois Department of
Transportation, where a top Blagojevich administration hire
allegedly funneled a contract to a relative’s company. DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe
Birkett is conducting a “civil” investigation of the
Illinois Tollway. And there’ a federal probe into the
mysterious decision by CMS to drop the longtime state
employee/retiree health-care company, Health Alliance, after
allegedly changing the bidding rules midstream. My apologies if I’ve missed any.
This article appears in Oct 13-19, 2005.
