No, I Have Not Been Drunking, Ossifer

12:20 pm, 4/28/05

No, I Have Not Been Drunking, Ossifer
Blagojevich's childhood friend Daniel Stefanski, teamster, suspected mobster and repeat DUI offender, who got a cushy job with the Illinois Department of Transportation thanks to his pal, has been picked up yet again.

An Illinois official who helps oversee mass-transit programs caused several drivers--including a sheriff's deputy--to swerve out of his way before he was arrested on drunken-driving charges in McHenry County this month, police said.

Stefanski, a longtime friend of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's, has previously been charged with DUI and reckless driving in Lake and Cook Counties, according to records.

"'Do you know who I am?'" Nygren quoted Stefanski as saying after police stopped Stefanski on April 15 near Johnsburg. "'I am the secretary to the director of the Illinois Department of Transportation.'"

"I am the shecretary to the directar of the Illinois Departement of Tranfor... Transepormata... Trai... Cars."

On April 15, it took three officers to get Stefanski into the back of the squad car, Nygren said.

At the McHenry County Jail, Stefanski allegedly swung at a corrections officer but missed. That resulted in the felony charge of aggravated assault, Nygren said.

Four people called police about 6:20 p.m. April 15 to report Stefanski's erratic driving on Ringwood Road near Johnsburg. Though they had to swerve out of his way, no one was injured, Nygren said.

A squad car approaching Stefanski's 2004 Chevrolet Malibu head-on on Chapel Hill Road near August Lane was forced to swerve off the road, Nygren said.

"'What's this all about?'" Stefanski asked the officer who stopped him, according to Nygren.

The sheriff said Stefanski's speech was slurred, there was a strong smell of alcohol and he used profanity several times.

Ah, our fair state under Blagojevich. Of course, it's not as if they're running a bookmaking racket together.

"I haven't seen him -- maybe once -- since I've been governor," Blagojevich said about Daniel E. Stefanski, whom the governor hired for a six-figure job with the Illinois Department of Transportation a few months after taking office. It's "not as if I spend time with him."

Once upon a time, these guys practically pranced through fields of daisies to the tune of "I Think I Love You".

"We talked about opportunities for him," said Blagojevich, who was in Washington lobbying for a $1 billion research project at Argonne National Laboratory.

"I was very clear with Tim Martin, the secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation, to play this by the book and treat Danny Stefanski as you would treat any other employee similarly situated with the same sort of issues," Blagojevich said.

That's ole' Rod for you, just like his father-in-law says, willing to throw anybody under the bus for political gain.

(Get it? Under the bus? Stefanski oversees mass transit? Ah, nevermind.)

Stefanski's license will likely be suspended for three years, but his job doesn't appear to require one.