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How much impact will the governor's troubles have on President-elect Obama? Probably not much. ...

It was ... fortunate for Obama that the story broke after the presidential election. The campaign of Sen. John McCain, who made a crack during one of the debates about not taking ethical advice from a "Chicago politician," might well have gone wild with guilt by association.

But from Chicago's point of view, Obama and Blagojevich occupy two opposing worlds of Democratic politics that work together out of convenience. Obama launched his political career among the Hyde Park and lakefront liberals. Blago came straight out of what's left of the old Bungalow Belt machine.

It is not uncommon to build a winning coalition in Illinois politics by making friends or, at least, neutralizing rivals.

Blagojevich, Obama: Parallel worlds


Clarence Page
December 10, 2008


A network news producer based in New York wanted to get my reaction to the arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Except she had a problem. She was reading the criminal complaint as she was talking to me. She couldn't stop gasping. "I'm sorry," she said. "This is . . . unbelievable!"

That's OK, I assured her. "Take your time. I'm a Chicago journalist. I am accustomed to the unbelievable."

That's why I came to Chicago several decades ago. It was a great news town.

I arrived, for example, about the time Paul Powell, a former Illinois secretary of state, was found after his death in 1970 to have had more than three-quarters of a million dollars in cash stuffed in a shoebox and other containers in Powell's St. Nicholas Hotel room in Springfield.

Our immediate past governor, Republican George Ryan, is serving a 6 1/2-year stretch in federal prison for fraud and racketeering.

We've had years of scandalous headlines tied to Blagojevich and his associates. The stories include 13 indictments or convictions on charges related to illegal kickbacks, sweetheart contract deals and shady hiring practices.

So there was a sense of the other shoe dropping when the feds came for the governor Tuesday. I was shocked not so much by the allegations of criminal conduct against "Blago" as by the bold audacity in the details, including his absence of any sensible realization that he might get caught.

U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald, bolstering his reputation as a modern-day Eliot Ness, says the governor treated his office like his personal ATM.

Allegations, according to the indictment, include conspiracy to sell President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat to the highest bidder. He hoped to parlay the offer into a possible ambassador's post, a secretary of health and human services appointment or some high-paying job in a non-profit or an organization connected to labor unions.

Blagojevich also tried to gain promises of money for his campaign fund, they said, and suggested that his wife could be placed on corporate boards where she might earn a lot of money.

But I almost spit out my morning coffee while reading the 76-page criminal complaint when I saw that Blagojevich allegedly tried to shake down owners of the Chicago Tribune. In exchange for state assistance with the sale of the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field, according to Fitzgerald, Blagojevich wanted members of the Tribune's editorial board who had criticized him to be fired. Even the long chain of scandalous stories, scathing editorials and a record low approval rating of 13 percent in a recent Tribune poll barely slowed the governor down. Most of the allegations occurred in the past few months, as if almost four years of known federal scrutiny actually had made him more flamboyant in his excesses.

How much impact will the governor's troubles have on President-elect Obama? Probably not much. Fitzgerald did Obama the large favor by noting at a news conference that, "We make no allegations that he [Obama] was aware of anything."

It was also fortunate for Obama that the story broke after the presidential election. The campaign of Sen. John McCain, who made a crack during one of the debates about not taking ethical advice from a "Chicago politician," might well have gone wild with guilt by association.

But from Chicago's point of view, Obama and Blagojevich occupy two opposing worlds of Democratic politics that work together out of convenience. Obama launched his political career among the Hyde Park and lakefront liberals. Blago came straight out of what's left of the old Bungalow Belt machine.

It is not uncommon to build a winning coalition in Illinois politics by making friends or, at least, neutralizing rivals.

Blagojevich's troubles will test how well Obama kept his own hands clean on his way up, even as Blago was slipping down.


Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board.



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