CHICAGO (AP) – Rod Blagojevich, the ousted Illinois governor whose three-year battle against criminal charges became a national spectacle, was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday, one of the stiffest penalties imposed for corruption in a state with a history of crooked politics.

Blagojevich’s 18 convictions included allegations of trying to leverage his power to appoint someone to President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat to raise campaign cash or land a high-paying job.

“When it is the governor who goes bad the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured and not easily repaired,” Judge James Zagel said.

The twice-elected Democrat is now the second former Illinois governor in a row to be sentenced to prison, and the fourth Illinois governor in the last four decades. His Republican predecessor, George Ryan, currently is serving a sentence of 6 1/2 years, also for corruption.

Blagojevich, in a last plea for mercy, tried something he never had before: an apology. After years of insisting he was innocent, he told the judge he’d made “terrible mistakes” and acknowledged that he broke the law.

“I’m here convicted of crimes … ,” Blagojevich said, “and I am accepting of it, I acknowledge it and I of course am unbelievably sorry for it.”

But Zagel gave him little leeway, telling him that he gave him credit for taking responsibility but that his apology didn’t mitigate his crimes.

“Whatever good things you did for people as governor, and you did some, I am more concerned with the occasions when you wanted to use your powers when you wanted to do things that were only good for yourself.”

Read more here. We were all sentenced to at least 4 years of “the Chicago Way” in 2008. Hopefully we can win parole in 2012.

The Solyndra scandal cost at least a half-billion public dollars. It is plaguing President Barack Obama. And it’s being billed as a Washington story.

But back in Obama’s political hometown, those of us familiar with the Chicago Way can see something else in Solyndra — something that the Washington crowd calls “optics.” In fact, it’s not just a Washington saga — it has all the elements of a Chicago City Hall story, except with more zeros.

The FBI is investigating what happened with Solyndra, a solar panel company that got a $535 million government-backed loan with the help of the Obama White House over the objections of federal budget analysts.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden got a nice photo op. They got to make speeches about being “green.” But then Solyndra went bankrupt. Americans lost jobs. Taxpayers got stuck with the bill. And members of Congress are now in high dudgeon and making speeches.

Federal investigators want to know what role political fundraising played in the guarantee of the questionable loan. Washington bureaucrats warned the deal was lousy. And White House spokesmen flail desperately, like weakened victims in a cheesy vampire movie.

So forget optics. What about smell? It smells bad, and it’s going to smell worse.

Or, did you really believe it when the White House mouthpieces — who are also Chicago City Hall mouthpieces — promised they were bringing a new kind of politics to Washington?

This is not a new kind of politics. It’s the old kind. The Chicago kind.

Read the whole thing here.

Rod Blagojevich, who rode his talkative everyman image to two terms as Illinois governor before scandal made him a national punch line, was convicted Monday of a wide range of corruption charges, including the incendiary allegation that he tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s Senate seat.

The verdict was a bitter defeat for Blagojevich, who had spent 2 1/2 years professing his innocence on reality TV shows and later on the witness stand. His defense team had insisted that hours of FBI wiretap recordings were just the ramblings of a politician who liked to think out loud. He faces up to 300 years in prison, although sentencing guidelines are sure to reduce his time behind bars.

The decision capped a long-running spectacle in which Blagojevich became famous for blurting on a recorded phone call that his ability to appoint Obama’s successor to the Senate was “f—ing golden” and that he wouldn’t let it go “for f—ing nothing.”

Blagojevich becomes the second straight Illinois governor convicted of corruption. His predecessor, George Ryan, is now serving 6 1/2 years in federal prison.

Judge James Zagel has ruled that Blagojevich will be barred from travelling outside the area without permission from the judge. A status hearing for sentencing was set for Aug. 1.

The case exploded into scandal when Blagojevich was awakened by federal agents on Dec. 9, 2008, at his Chicago home and was led away in handcuffs. Federal prosecutors had been investigating his administration for years, and some of his closest cronies had already been convicted.

“The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said before a bank of television cameras after the arrest.

Blagojevich, who was also accused of shaking down businessmen for campaign contributions, was swiftly impeached and removed from office.

Read the whole thing here.

All around the country, people are trying to replicate what we do in Chicago. They–we have a tradition of knockin’ on doors, of pulling people out–you know, people, they talk about “message” and “persuasion.” Here’s our message: “I don’t get off your doorstep until you get out to the polls and vote.” That’s our message! That’s our message!

There’s nothing wrong with going door-to-door and urging people to vote. There is something wrong–and illegal–with “pulling” people out of their homes, or threatening that you won’t leave until they do what you tell them.

It’s called intimidation, and it is a felony under Illinois law–even if it is, in Jan Schakowsky’s experience, a “tradition” in Chicago politics.

There are two reasons to be concerned about Schakowsky’s exhortation. One is that it may be part of a national strategy for desperate Democrats in this election cycle. Indeed, her husband, Washington insider and convicted felon Robert Creamer, gave the same advice (almost word-for-word) in a recent Huffington Post column. (And repeated it. And repeated it again. And again.)

The other reason is that Schakowsky and Creamer are ardent supporters of Card Check (euphemistically called the “Employee Free Choice Act”), which will take the secret ballot away from workers in elections to form unions. Schakowsky’s method of campaigning will be exactly the sort of pressure that workers will suffer if Card Check ever passes: “I won’t get off your porch until you sign up.”

Our campaign intends to press charges against anyone who tries to intimidate voters. Others across the country should be aware of what some Democrats may be up to. And voters should think about whether they really want to re-elect people who are prepared to use thuggery to hold onto power.

Source: http://achicagosojourn.blogspot.com

Under pressure from a contributor named Balvinder Singh (who gave her $500 in 2004, $2000 in 2006, and who knows what in 2010), Schakowsky twisted arms at the United Central Bank to back away from foreclosing on Singh and on several other business owners in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood.

United Central Bank took over the failed Mutual Bank of Harvey in 2009. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, Mutual funded Barack Obama’s “boneheaded” land deal with Rezko. Mutual’s former CEO also once raised major cash for Blagojevich.

The ghost of Mutual has returned to haunt Chicago politics, this time in a pay-to-play scheme that has unfolded barely a month before Election Day, with Schakowsky, the embattled incumbent, desperate and dishing out favors to survive.

Local journalists have heaped praise on Schakowsky for “saving” the neighborhood. In fact, West Rogers Park has suffered 253 foreclosures in the residential market in the last year alone, to say nothing of business foreclosures, according to the local Pioneer Press.

Schakowsky’s intervention will help less than a tiny fraction of the people in the neighborhood who are struggling to pay their loans.

As for Singh, he is no small fish. He has donated over $30,000 to Democrats in recent years, including to Obama in both his campaigns for U.S. Senate and for president.

My campaign will be filing a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Monday. We will be asking the OCE to waive its usual rule against investigations within 60 days of an election, because Ms. Schakowsky’s conduct occurred within that 60-day window.

The real victims of Jan Schakowsky’s behavior are the thousands of families in the 9th congressional district who are losing their homes and businesses because they can’t cough up thousands of dollars to pay their elected representative.

In the mid-1980’s, Chicago Outfit Lawyer Robert Cooley voluntarily went undercover for the FBI as part of an investigation called Operation Gambat. Cooley wore a wire on, among others, Burke’s good friend and made-man, Alderman Fred Roti.  The Chief Judge of Cook County’s Chancery Court and an Assistant Senate Majority Leader of the Illinois State Senate were also targeted. Cooley’s work eventually led to the only judge in U.S. history being convicted of fixing a murder trial. More on that Judge in Part 3.

Operation Gambat resulted in a series of trials, guilty pleas and convictions involving 24 people – mobsters, police officers, politicians, attorneys, and judges.

In 2004, Cooley wrote a book wherein he accused Alderman Burke of fixing a murder trial for the Chicago Outfit. Cooley claims Burke pressured Cook County Judge Arthur Cieslik to acquit the defendant as a favor to the Outfit. The case before Judge Cieslik concerned the beating death of an African-American by a Chicago Police officer who was related to a Chicago Outfit Capo named Angelo “The Hook” LaPiertra. (Angelo liked to hang bodies on hooks.) Cooley’s book quotes Burke saying this about the case:

“It’s only a fucking nigger,” Burke said. “I can’t see what’s the big deal.”

One the cover of Cooley’s book an excerpt from a Chicago Tribune review reads,

An insider’s tour of a mob-dominated metropolis in the 1970’s and 80’s – and the high risk…federal investigation that cracked its lurid secrets.

Yet, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and other local MSM outlets didn’t report on Cooley’s allegations against Burk, and Burke never sued the publisher or Cooley.

Cooley repeated the murder case-fixing allegations on three occasions, including this cable show, and this one.  After the shows aired, Burke still took no legal action against Cooley.

Shortly after Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested, Cooley appeared on Riz Khan’s internet show. Even though Burke wasn’t mentioned by name, there’s no doubt that Cooley was talking about him.

The people in power, the first thing they have to do, they have to get control of the media. The perfect example was my case. The main person that I attempted to give information on, the person who was in charge of a lot of things, the person who was able to pick all the judges, was one of my main targets. While he also happens to be the same person who’s able to give out all the money in the city; he’s Chairman of the Finance Committee in Chicago.

He was able to hire the U.S. Attorney who was supposed to prosecute him, pay him huge sums of money and he never got prosecuted. There was no explanation as to why he didn’t. He just was not prosecuted. To this day he continues there in that same position where he’s able to pick all the judges. He’s Chairman of the Democratic Judicial Slating Committee. He picks all the judges in Chicago.

After I reported what I did, and it was out there, that he was fixing murder cases and molesting cases, himself and his wife, his wife afterwards was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court where she sits today. When she ran for re-election nobody dared oppose her. I mean that’s the basic problem with Chicago and why Chicago will not change, because the people in charge are the most powerful people, have the media in their pockets.

What I did when I came forward was I attempted to give information to different people in the media, both the TV people, also the newspaper people. They indicated they could not do my story without verification from the judge involved. I convinced the judge involved to go on the record. He was terrified. He didn’t want to because he was afraid of the mob connections of this particular person. He eventually did. After he did the reporter reported back to me: ‘We are not allowed to do this story,’ end of conversation. ‘We are not allowed to do this story on him.’

That’s why you have the problem you have in Chicago and it will not change.

In his interview with Khan, Cooley alleged that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was once a bookmaker for the Chicago Outfit in the 1980’s. After the Khan interview, WLS-TV reporter Chuck Goudie did four stories on Cooley’s allegation. The first dealt with Cooley’s statement that Blagojevich paid a “street tax” to the Outfit. The second dealt with a mafia associate denying knowing Blagojevich.  In the third, former Senior FBI Agent James Wagner revealed that Cooley told the FBI about Blagojevich. In April of 2009, in his fourth story, Goudie asked Blagojevich about Cooley’s accusation.  Blagojevich said,

That Cooley is a liar,” he said. “I am going to sue that (bleepin’) Cooley,” Blagojevich stated, his face red at this point with apparent anger. He repeated: “I’m going to sue him.”

But Blago didn’t sue Cooley or WLS. Neither did Burke. Strangely enough, Goudie’s follow-up stories on Khan’s interview with Cooley didn’t even mention Cooley’s accusations against Burke.

Obviously, the Chicago MSM is afraid to criticize Alderman Burke. And, the allegations of Blagojevich’s bookmaking activities never made it to the Chicago Sun-Times or the Chicago Tribune.

The July 30, 2003, Chicago Sun-Times edition ran a piece by Fran Spielman entitled “Burke Takes Action Against TV Reporter’s Address.”  It described how Burke, in an audacious display of power, intimidated a local reporter.

The curious public feud between City Council’s most powerful alderman and one of Chicago’s highest profile television reporters was turned up a notch Wednesday. Unable to persuade WLS-TV Channel 7 to pull reporter Andy Shaw off the City Hall beat because of the bed and breakfast Shaw and his wife run out of their Lincoln Park home, Finance Committee Chairman, Edward M. Burke (14^th) did what he considers to be the next best thing. He introduced a legislative “order” directing six city departments—Fire, Revenue, Buildings, Streets and Sanitation, Zoning and Public Health—to enforce “any and all provisions” of the municipal code at only one address:607 West Deming. That happens to be the address of the Windy City Urban Inn, where the Shaws have continued to rent seven rooms at their three-story mansion…

The Chicago MSM fear of the city’s most powerful alderman may be based on more than just the threat of City Hall recriminations against pesky reporters. After all, there are business interests involved, too. For example: Aldermen are allowed to have income sources in addition to their city salaries. Burke runs a successful property tax appeals law firm. One Klafter & Burke client is WBBM, the Chicago affiliate of CBS.

According to Cooley, after he left Chicago, the FBI asked him to help build a case against Burke.

A couple of years after I left Chicago, the FBI had me fly into Milwaukee to help develop a case against Ed Burke…They put me up in a hotel and even got a conference room for the day. The agents told me they were finally ready to investigate Burke. I just laughed at them. “Why are you wasting my time?” I asked. “Nothing is going to happen to him.” “Oh, no,” one agent said. “We’re here to build a case.”

To date, there’s been no such case.

There is more to come…

Not even three or four pipes full of Hopium could have convinced me that the Congress of the United States would ever start looking like the Chicago City Council.

But now, with the Chicago Way White House twisting arms for its federal health care legislation, Democrats in Congress and Chicago aldermen are beginning to share a remarkable resemblance.

They’re starting to look like fall guys.

“The Congress? They’re acting like aldermen. Like fall guys. And we know all about fall guys in the city of Chicago,” said Jim Laski, a former Chicago alderman and former federal inmate who is now a WGN radio talk show host.

And:

In Chicago, the mayor gets what he wants, and the mayor’s friends get what they want. And the aldermen? They get the ridicule and the blame.

If the president gets what he desires — a health care victory — then Congress will pay for it in the midterm elections in November, and they know it.

The proof is in that latest congressional trick announced on Tuesday, a ploy so weaselly that it could have been hatched by Chicago politicians.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland is now talking about allowing his members to pass the president’s health care package — whatever’s in it exactly, no one really knows — without a direct up-or-down vote on the current bill.

“It’s consistent with the rules,” Hoyer was quoted as saying on Tuesday. “It’s consistent with former practice.”

Consistent with the rules? Perhaps, but it sure isn’t what President Barack Obama promised when he was talking like a reformer.

Read the whole thing here.