The trial of Chicago political fixer Tony Rezko is making it tough for me to get around. Last night, there were so many TV vans around the Loop that I thought someone was filming a movie. Illinois may end up with the dubious honor of having two governors in a row go to jail if this leads as far as some say it will. And Illinois Republicans are not all that thrilled -- the trial of Rezko's money leads to their doors also. The only one local pol enjoying this whole thing is Tony Peracia, who is GOP Cook county commissioner from a suburban district who is hoping to get himself elected State's Attorney for Cook County. All the pols may be in jail by November, however, so he will have no one to prosecute. Which leads to this fun fact. The US Attorney for the Northern District is taking a personal interest in the case -- he is a real hands on guy. And his name is Patrick Fitzgerald. Sound familiar? He was the special prosecutor who took on the Bush Administration over the Palme Affair. The guy is fearless. He previously took on Conrad Black and even was involved in activity against Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. He has no political ties here. He is originally from Brooklyn and his "sponsor" Senator Peter Fitzgerald, was thrown under the bus by the Illinois GOP for not playing along with the "combine". When his time in office is done, Fitzgerald will probably go someplace else and practice law. So he will probably be very happy taking on the Illinois political establishment (GOP and Democrat). And if this reaches up to Obama, it will be difficult for the Left to claim this Fitzgerald is a GOP hack, especially as they coined the term "Fitzmas" as the day they thought would be better than Christmas. How high does it go? Who knows. For lots of reasons I hope Obama's involvment with Rezko was as minor as he says it was. But this has the possibility of getting very ugly.
What's the deal with Democrats and their felon fundraisers? Norman Szu? Antoin Rezko? Is every Democrat moneyman a crook? Seems that way! Sen. Barack Obama excuses his involvement with Antoin "Tony" Rezko as "a mistake" but I wonder if it is more... Well at least Messiah got a backyard addition out of it!
Thus far, there haven't been any credible accusations of wrongdoing by Obama. Any guilt comes by association. Same thing with McCain and that adviser of his who was recently indicted. Fitzgerald, I'll agree, has a fantastic reputation. Anthony, you'll recall that Fitz was accused by right-wingers of going on a political witch hunt!