Scott Turow: State Of Shame

[babylonsister]

State of Shame
Scott Turow


HERE in Chicago, where we are accustomed to news that challenges the thresholds of belief, we awoke Tuesday to find that our governor, Rod Blagojevich, had become the second Illinois chief executive in a row to be subjected to criminal charges.

The 76-page criminal complaint implies that Mr. Blagojevich was such an inveterate schemer that despite being the obvious target of a three-year federal grand jury investigation into trading state jobs and contracts for campaign contributions, he had to be taken out of his house in handcuffs to prevent him from selling off the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Even by Chicago’s picaresque standards, Tuesday’s developments are mind-boggling, even more so to a former federal prosecutor like me with an understanding of some of the nuances of the federal criminal justice system. The most worrisome element is that Mr. Blagojevich’s shameless behavior seems to have put Chicago’s United States attorney, the estimable Patrick Fitzgerald, into the unenviable position of having to bring a case before he was ready.

Mr. Fitzgerald has lived by the Machiavellian motto that if you shoot at the king, you had better kill the king. Mr. Fitzgerald’s highest-profile prosecutions — like those of I. Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, and of Mr. Blagojevich’s predecessor as governor, George Ryan — have been assembled methodically, with an almost obsessive desire to tie down evidentiary details before charges are returned.

Furthermore, Mr. Fitzgerald has a history of trying not to use the justice system to pre-empt the operation of other democratic institutions. Thus, despite a more than five-year investigation, the Ryan indictment was withheld until after the governor left office in 2003, and Mr. Fitzgerald did not oppose a defense request to schedule Mr. Libby’s perjury and obstruction justice trial after the 2006 midterm elections.

Undoubtedly one of the events Patrick Fitzgerald has no desire to influence is his own possible reappointment as United States attorney for four more years (all United States attorneys can be replaced by the incoming administration). Mr. Fitzgerald’s effectiveness as a prosecutor is unquestioned, and the state’s senior senator, the Democrat Dick Durbin, has said Mr. Fitzgerald can stay in the job if he wants to.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/10turow.html

[madrchsod]

1. chicago`s political reporter dick kay

was talking about this yesterday. fitzgerald was not ready to bring this case public and the tip off was when he asked people to come forward with any information. another reporter on his am820 air america show brought up the fact that fitzgerald still has to go to the grand jury and has to prove that an actual crime was committed.

what he did was put the possibility of a tainted senate selection ahead of his case against blago.

contrary to some here at du..patrick fitzgerald is a true stand up guy.

[babylonsister]

2. I'm not one of the Fitz naysayers, and you have a good point.

He is stand-up for possibly jeopardizing all the work he's put into this investigation because he felt he had to right a wrong and nip Blago's actions in the bud.