World? Meet Nadhmi Auchi.

If there's anything the Obama campaign has accomplished, it has drawn national media attention to the vile world of the Chicago Democrats. Now, even the Times of London wades into the murky seas of Illinois corruption, and, in doing so, splashes it all over the Obama campaign.

A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain's wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.

Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city's South Side while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Auchi, a name beloved to Illinoisans in the know, is turning up elsewhere, as well, including RealClearPolitics.

You probably would have heard of Nadhmi Auchi by now if Sen. Barack Obama were a Republican.

A British citizen of Iraqi descent, Mr. Auchi, 70, is a billionaire, the 279th richest man in the world, according to a Forbes magazine survey last year.

A great deal of Mr. Auchi's money was made doing business with the regime of Saddam Hussein, much of it under the table. In 1987, Mr. Auchi helped French and Italian firms win a huge oil pipeline contract in Iraq, chiefly by paying off Iraqi officials, according to testimony given by an Italian banker to prosecutors in Milan. In 2003, he was convicted for his role in what was then the largest scandal in French history, involving payoffs from executives of the oil company now known as Total to political figures in Spain, Germany and Africa.

"The name Nadhmi Auchi was just another name for Saddam's intelligence service, or so we thought," said Nibras Kazimi, a former Iraqi dissident who is now a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.

You may remember the French TotalFinaElf scandal, since Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's family was deeply tied in to the company, which led some to speculate that perhaps Chretien's motives for opposing the war in Iraq were identical to those of Jacques Chirac.

According to Nick Cohen and other sources, Auchi also sold arms to Saddam's Iraq even after Saddam had Auchi's brother killed, and had, in his younger days, been tried as a collaborator in one of the early Ba'athist coup attempts. He appears to have been something of a prime mover in the Oil-for-Food scandal and the related European embezzling operations. In 2006, this blog referenced his role in the maintenance of the euphemistically codenamed "Satan" Swiss bank account used to launder Saddam's money, and Auchi's similar deal with Gadhafi. A Pentagon report described him as "Hussein's principle international financial manipulator and bag man." He and his daughter are even suspected of involvement in swindling millions from the NHS.

Today, however, Nadhmi Auchi's reputation seems to foster strong working relationships with Chicago Democrats: Tony Rezko first partnered with Auchi to build a power plant in Iraq, then went on to sell him a tremendous real estate development project in downtown Chicago. Rezko even had to be jailed in January for violating his bail after Auchi wired him millions of dollars, leading the court to fear he was preparing to flee the country to avoid trial. If, as Rezko claimed in court, he's broke and, among his debts, owes Auchi tens of millions of dollars, Auchi must be a very good friend to front him more money, ne'st pas?

As I've said before, the "coincidental" associations between Rezko and Obama have a history of occurring at an incredibly convenient pace. If Barack Obama's campaign has been taking money from an avowed Ba'athist sympathizer, especially one who seems to have been heavily involved in buying off the French government, it casts his protestations that he is "the only candidate who opposed the war from the start" in an entirely different light.

Of course, it'd probably merely enhance his standing with the anti-war crowd, but personally, I've given Obama the benefit of the doubt for quite some time on his more suspect affiliations. These "accidental" brushes with radicalism and corruption always raise the question of whether the man is actually a closeted corrupt radical, or just unbelievably naive and clumsy at politics to have let it happen. He portrays himself as the latter and, amazingly, capitalizes on it, but consider that if that naivety and clumsiness includes "accidentally" affiliating himself with someone like Auchi, that's a whole new level of trouble, one he may not be able to talk himself out of should the American press get half as excited about it as the British are. I couldn't help but notice this prescient January 31th post at Democratic Underground:

If they so much as tie Obama to Rezko's "friend" and "moneyman" Nadhmi Auchi, Obama is fucked.

It should be known that Auchi is quick to threaten British papers that question his moral standing, and Auchi denies that he has ever done anything wrong in his entire life, criminal conviction to the contrary. In a scattergun-style denial, Auchi concludes:

The above is not an exhaustive list of the matters Mr. Auchi disputes and says are inaccurate in Observer and Guardian articles published in 2003. Mr. Auchi requests that the articles are not relied upon as an accurate source of information about him.

We've been through this stupidity so many times before with all of Rod Blagojevich's other friends and acquaintences, you'd think that Auchi, at the very least, would be the creative one. Next, like Dominic Longo, he'll be complaining that he's being persecuted by the media because he has a vowel at the end of his name.

The Adventures of Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy

The Chicago Sun-Times's Lynn Sweet noticed that Barack Obama is avoiding Rod Blagojevich.

Blagojevich radioactive; every Dem state official to stump for Obama except tainted Illinois governor.

The Obama Illinois campaign, in advance of the Feb. 5 balloting--where the Clinton team is making a run for Illinois delegates--is ramping up, with all the top Democratic office holders stumping for Barack Obama starting on Monday with one exception--Gov. Blagojevich. There's just too much heat on Blagojevich.

Ever-helpful Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff called Sweet to set her straight:

Blagojevich spokesman Abby Ottenhoff called to say that the Obama campaign has given Blagojevich an assignment, to woo six Democratic governors for Obama.

She also said that a new poll from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shows the governor has better ratings than the legislature and aked that this be noted.

I'm sure I'm more popular than they are, too, but that's not the kind of low standard you brag about at parties. Dan Curry asks the obvious question:

Why is Barack Obama accepting the support of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, whose two top fundraisers have been indicted and who the federal government has labeled Public Official "A" in the largest public corruption investigation in Illinois history?

Barack not only is accepting Rod's support, he's giving him an "assignment."

Maybe it's like the Farrakhan thing, where the support is just so overwhelming that Obama apparently can't bring himself to reject it. Still, with friends like Abby Ottenhoff, who needs Clinton campaign smear jobs?

"Yes you are." "No I'm not!" "Yes you are."

Back in 2005, former Democratic National Committee finance chair Joseph Cari identified "Public Official A" as the tip of the spear on the schemes to funnel state money to firms that donated money to his campaign. Public Official A was, obviously, Rod Blagojevich, a claim which the Blagojevich administration passionately denied.

"I have no involvement whatsoever in anything surrounding the alleged corruption at the teachers retirement system, and nobody close to me does either," Blagojevich said at a news conference.

"We don't operate that way," the Democratic governor said. "No one who is associated with me operates that way, and if they did, they understand I wouldn't tolerate that for a split second."

Blagojevich said Friday he did not know the identity of the public official cited in the plea agreements.

Now, a federal judge confirms that the newspapers had the right man.

A ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Amy St. Eve dispensed with an array of pseudonyms that had cloaked the identities of several people who allegedly benefited from Rezko's financial schemes, including Blagojevich. He had previously been referred to in court documents only as Public Official A.

The nine-page ruling was heavy on political names and dealmaking, revealing for the first time what Robert Kjellander, Illinois' Republican national committeeman, allegedly did with a controversial $809,000 finder's fee he got as part of a Blagojevich administration bond deal. Prosecutors contend much of the windfall ended up with Rezko associates, according to St. Eve's ruling.

Blagojevich has repeatedly denied that he was Public Official A, but St. Eve underscored the link Monday by saying prosecutors claimed he was the intended beneficiary of an alleged attempt by Rezko to extort a $1.5 million campaign donation from Chicago financier Tom Rosenberg.

The governor has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and St. Eve did not suggest that he was aware of the alleged extortion attempt.

Al Capone was also not "aware" of his bootlegging operations.

And Mayor Daley Is His Prophet

If Barack Obama is Jesus, then Rod Blagojevich is...

State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a fellow Democrat, called him the "anti-Obama."

Lawmakers' dissatisfaction was clear Wednesday from the anemic applause that greeted Blagojevich when he entered the House chamber to deliver his State of the State address. The clapping ended long before he finished making his way down the center aisle to the podium.

That's never even happened to Bush.

"I've never seen a governor receive such little respect and support as I saw this governor in this budget address -- from when he entered the building to when he left," Republican Sen. Bill Brady said.

"I can tell you, I now have a better appreciation for that old Hank Williams song I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry...," Blagojevich joked...

Hah. Hahahahaha.

Haaaaah.

"I think he tried to sound conciliatory, but the very fact that he was unwilling to release any details whatsoever of this speech -- as has been the case for every year prior to this -- says 'I don't really want to work with you,'" said Republican Sen. Christine Radogno of Lemont.

I think Christine is overanalyzing: It isn't that he doesn't want to work with the legislature, it's that he doesn't respect them as human beings.

Maybe the grownups should be in charge?

Various Illinois officials propose a solution to the state's continuing fiscal crisis: Stop using $100 bills to light cigars.

"[Blagojevich] needs to be straight with us," Comptroller Dan Hynes said Wednesday. "He needs to give a true reflection of where state finances are. How do you ask people to make tough decisions and deal with a problem you are not even admitting exists?"

Rep. Gary Hannig of Litchfield, the House Democrats' budget guru, offered his own assessment.

"If I were asked, I would suggest he put together a budget that reflects the money we have in hand," Hannig said. "That means we don't do any new programs to speak of. We try to get our spending down to the point we can pay the bills we owe."

"Each and every year, the governor has made his budget presentation and declared that the deficit has been eliminated," Hynes said. "Each and every year, that has proven to be untrue when the final numbers come out. There's a multi-billion structural deficit."

Since Blagojevich took office in 2003, Hynes said, tax collections for the state's general account have increased $5.6 billion, or an average of $1.4 billion a year.

"We were not investing some of this in paying down liabilities," Hynes told the editorial board of The State Journal-Register. "We were putting it all toward new programs and more money for education. It's hard to argue against that. Everybody wants that, but there's a consequence if the economy slows down."

Actually, it's not hard to argue against it at all. Some of us have been doing it for years.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said the administration doesn't believe the deficit is as bad as portrayed by Hynes, in part because Medicaid costs are not just borne by the state. Federal reimbursements pay part of the bill.

She also said the administration isn't hiding anything.

"We're making it very clear we face a deficit. We're up front about that," Rausch said.

Blago's 2006 budget speech included the following passage:

"We dug ourselves out of the worst fiscal crisis in our state's history. We did it while investing more in education. We did it while giving more people health care. And we did it without raising the income tax or the sales tax," he said.

According to the same article, assembled state Republicans reacted to his claims with "jeers and laughter". Who was proven right?

"The budget doesn't require that (Blagojevich) spend all of that money," Hannig said.

No, it doesn't.

The Allegory of Bad Government

The house that Rod built is made of cards, and may be collapsing soon.

[Illinois State Comptroller Dan] Hynes on Monday released a "special report" on state finances that predicted sales-tax and corporate income-tax collections will continue to decrease. That, in turn, could further delay state payments to Medicaid providers, prompting them to stop serving the poor because they can't afford to wait more time to be paid.

"The fiscal outlook for Illinois is not optimistic," Hynes says.

"I don't think there's any more latitude in terms of pushing [Medicaid] bills off," he told the Sun-Times' editorial board. "Providers are starting to say 'We've had enough.' They're starting to walk away."

Longtime readers know that almost as long as this blog has existed, I've been warning everyone who'll listen that this was the inevitable outcome of the Blagojevich administration. The State of Illinois didn't have enough money to pay it's bills when Blagojevich was elected, and knowing that the state was already falling into a black hole, certainly aware of that economic slowdown that's been predicted for years, he constructed expensive new programs around populist nonsense, held the legislature hostage even as other Chicago Democrats tried to stop him, and brutalized the economy with countless new taxes, fees and arbitrary regulatory burdens, the worst of which, a $7.6 billion gross receipts tax, was mercifully shot down by a unanimous vote in the Illinois House. This, as he illegally siphoned money from special funds and private endowments to cover the shortfall, as millions of dollars went out the door to various politically favorable causes and ethically dubious "consultants" and lumbering bureaucracies supposedly tasked with trying to figure out why the state was losing money, while Blagojevich praised himself for fighting Springfield's culture of "failure and mediocrity" and compared his struggle to that of Abraham Lincoln.

If the Governor is right, that his electorate doesn't feel that his incompetence and corrupt, criminalistic nature is "relevant to their lives", maybe they'll consider it "relevant" when state services begin grinding to a halt entirely.

Perhaps Illinois Democrats have finally elected a governor who can give them a beautiful death. (Via Reverse Spin)

Oh God, I Can See Forever

Every time I see some passage like this one, I scream inside.

For years, Rod Blagojevich has projected two images that define his tenure as Illinois' governor.

Now, under the lights of a federal investigation, the distinctions are blurring, and the crony image is threatening to wash out the populist one.

For the first time, federal prosecutors have put the Illinois governor inside their widespread investigation of corruption in his administration. Blagojevich told one convicted federal informant, "You stick with us and you will do very well for yourself," according to a court document prosecutors filed.

The Governor's Office denied that he is "Public Official A," described in the document as offering state business to convicted political insiders.

While he has tried to put the blame on lawmakers, his credibility in Springfield already was damaged from a legislative stalemate that has left key aspects of the people's business unresolved: The Chicago Transit Authority is in near meltdown; education reform is in limbo, and the state's deteriorating roads and bridges aren't being repaired for lack of a way to pay for it.

Anyone who's been paying attention has been able to figure out the score from the very beginning. To act as though any of this is some kind of shocking revelation is self-delusion as performance art. Zorn was probably right.

They're All Criminals, You Know

"Roofing contractor" Chris Kelly, "the other half" of the Blagojevich administration's "gruesome twosome", is indicted. Kelly is also brother to a woman who got was conveniently given a job running the Bureau of Real Estate Professions five days after getting her real estate license, and the man who threatened to sue Blagojevich's father-in-law for accusing the two of them of corruption, a claim that the reams of available evidence suggests to be profoundly correct.

The U.S. attorney's office charged Christopher Kelly with understating his personal and business income by more than $1.3 million over five years, concealing his efforts to disguise shifting corporate funds to pay gambling debts. Mr. Kelly stepped down about a year ago as head of the governor’s political campaign fund.

Mr. Kelly, who ironically had represented Gov. Blagojevich in early talks several years ago about expanding gaming in Illinois, was not indicted for any impropriety regarding state government, noted his attorney, Michael Monico.

"This case doesn't involve any political action or any fundraising. This is strictly about his personal life," Mr. Monico said. "Mr. Kelly has paid millions of dollars in taxes. This is a dispute over whether he should have paid more. We strongly feel he paid what he owed."

Coincidentally, the case against Al Capone didn't involve murder, bootlegging, or racketeering, either.

Mr. Kelly, 49, was charged with one count of obstructing and impeding the Internal Revenue Service, five counts each of filing false individual and corporate income tax returns and one count of illegally structuring a monetary transaction.

On at least one occasion, he hid the use of corporate funds to pay a gambling debt to someone named in the indictment only as "Individual A" by falsely ordering that the payment be listed in BCI records as a loan to "Individual A."

On other occasions, he allegedly improperly recorded payments or disguised them as checks payable to himself, his children and his wife.

In a statement, Gov. Blagojevich said: "I am saddened to hear these allegations about Chris' personal life. I know the pain it must be causing him and his family. My thoughts and my prayers are with them during this difficult time. In fairness to Chris, I believe it is important to let the legal process play out and not rush to judgment."

Blagojevich knew about the "allegations" regarding Kelly's personal life as far back as 2003, when GamblingMagazine.com and, by extension, this blog reported them. He also knew about his father-in-law's "allegations" regarding both of their personal lives. Having the gall to express any sort of surprise at all is jaw-dropping.

"Speaking of analogies, which of these self-aggrandizing comparisons do you find the most absurd/offensive/apt?" asks the Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn:

I take (the Tribune editorial suggesting voters in Illinois be allowed to recall their governor) as a very good sign. I have gone a long way being for the things I'm for and being against things the Tribune's for. And I am in good company. Franklin Roosevelt, who gave us Social Security, who led America out of the Great Depression, who led America victoriously through World War II, received more than a thousand negative editorials from the Chicago Tribune. More than a thousand! And in one editorial, the Chicago Tribune compared Franklin Roosevelt to Mussolini, Stalin and Adolf Hitler. When you compare me to Franklin Roosevelt, I think they're going easy on me - Gov. Rod Blagojevich

It would at this time venture to read out an excerpt of President Abraham Lincoln especially to all my listeners in United States. As an idealist, Abraham Lincoln had one consuming passion during the time of supreme crisis and this was to preserve the Union because the Union was in danger. Towards that end, he broke laws, he violated the Constitution, he usurped arbitrary power, he trampled individual liberties...We are also learning democracy...I look at this from this point of view... - Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf

Well, Blagojevich already said that Jesus backed his healthcare plan (comparing his monstrous tax proposal to the Battle of Armageddon in an irony that was doubtlessly lost on him) and compared himself to Abraham Lincoln.

"Look, I'm modest. You want me to pat myself on the back? I'm not going to do that...Not every military initiative from the Union Army was successful. It took a while to kind of get that together and get it right. But the whole purpose of what they were trying to do was absolutely right, keeping the country together and then emancipating the slaves and providing freedom to millions and millions of people."

Modest.

Obviously, he couldn't just go back and use Lincoln again. I wonder if he's considered invoking Huey Long?

Day Rued

The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn says Illinoisans don't need, or deserve a recall option.

You had your chance. Blagojevich has been a banquet-sized turkey as a chief executive -- our editorial cited "his reckless financial stewardship, his dictatorial antics (and) his penchant for creating political enemies" as well as the smog of scandal that's hovered over his administration -- but no one can argue that he was stealth turkey.

Blagojevich ran for re-election in a primary and general election last year as a notorious self-basting holiday bird whose record for grandstanding, stubbornness and cronyism in his first term was widely reported.

Democrats could have supported his primary opponent, the smart, decent, independent but woefully underfunded Edwin Eisendrath whom Blagojevich refused to debate. Instead, they rewarded the incumbent with 72 percent of the vote.

In 2002, I voted in the Democratic primary for the express purpose of voting for Paul Vallas. Sometime after that fell through, I left the state entirely. So don't look at me.

The general electorate, then, with eyes presumably wide open, chose Blagojevich last November over Republican Judy Baar Topinka and Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney.

You may be disappointed by the pettiness, paralysis, polarization and general gobble-gobble-gobble in Springfield, but, unless you weren't paying attention last year, you can't be surprised. And you can't, in good conscience, ask for a re-do just because Blagojevich is running true to form.

Even if he weren't, you, the voters, have given us no reason to think you'd make a better decision choosing his replacement.

Here are some words of wisdom from a letter copied to me last week:

We do not need to act in anger at politics gone wrong. Instead we need to hold ourselves accountable for the people we elect in the first place.

The author? Edwin Eisendrath.

That's some industrial-sized bitterness right there, but not unfounded. Good people rarely run for state office in Illinois because good people rarely show up to elect them. As I said before, there's really no reason to believe that better candidates will show up in a recall election than they do in the normal ones, unless they intend to break the power of the party machine, which the party machine will never allow. There's nothing wrong, though, that a constitutional convention couldn't fix.

Meanwhile, at the Blagocave:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's wife received the real estate commission in a $650,000 condominium sale from a businessman who since has won $10 million in no-bid state contracts.

It is the third time the Tribune has disclosed similar commissions earned by the first lady and her home-based real estate business, revealing a steady income to the Blagojevich household from key political supporters, fundraisers and state contractors.

The governor and his wife have declined to personally answer questions or provide a detailed accounting of Patricia Blagojevich's real estate income and clients. In his only comment on the matter to the Tribune, the governor last year called the questions..."sexist."

...but of course.

There's Time Enough For Rest In The Grave

Wait a minute, what just happened here?

Beginning today, public schools across Illinois are required to offer students a moment of silence to pray, ponder the day or otherwise reflect on their lives.

Such moments have been allowed under state law for years, but this year a group of lawmakers -- all Democrats -- decided to require it.

Did they do it just to spite Blagojevich, or was it mainly motivated by some bizarre feel-good bureaucratic impulse?

Gov. Rod Blagojevich rejected the plan this summer, but in recent days, lawmakers cast aside his veto, the final stroke coming Thursday when the House voted 74-37 to support the moment of silence.

Supporters said a little silence in the hectic classroom wouldn't hurt and said this has nothing to do with religion in the classroom.

"Our children today are bombarded by noise," said state Rep. Monique Davis, a Chicago Democrat and supporter.

Other critics questioned why lawmakers would spend so much time and energy on something that state law already allowed and even now includes no penalties for non-compliance. Meanwhile, a financial crisis looms for the region's mass transit agencies and school funding remains unaddressed, as does tax help for Cook County homeowners.

The time to contemplate your day is in the car, on the way. Given that the time students spend in the classroom is ridiculously expensive, maybe this moment, and as many other moments as possible, should be spent teaching? I'm just throwing it out there. The classroom might seem a bit less hectic if they weren't cramming it full of ineffective social programs and other purely non-academic material.

Perhaps the moment of silence is actually the perfect metaphor for so much of what's wrong with public education: Students and teachers gathered together, staring at each other, accomplishing nothing.

On Friday, "students still talked (during the moment of silence), explaining to one another why it was happening or complaining about how they felt it was stupid. Overall, the actual moment of silence was relatively short and left many students wondering how one can reflect on the day or pray in a short amount of time.

"The students were generally confused. I heard many thinking it was specifically to honor those who had fought/died for our country.

"One student brought up how she thought it was ridiculous how legislators spent so much time discussing the law, instead of spending their time on things that the students actually need, like supplies and air conditioning."

From the mouths of babes.

Update: In an escalation of this rampant stupidity, someone is suing to have the moment of silence declared unconstitutional, because they're afraid of students using it to pray on their own initiative.

The Blue Bush

It's "in" to hate Blagojevich, says Rich Miller:

Just 23 percent of voters said they approve of the way Blagojevich is handling his job, a recent Wesleyan University poll found. A different survey, from the respected Rasmussen Reports, found that only a tiny fraction of the population -- just 5 percent -- rate the governor's job performance as "excellent."

It's to the point where Blagojevich probably wishes he could move "up" to Richard Nixon's ratings. And he's very close to George Ryan's job approval ratings as the soon-to-be prison inmate was leaving office under a cloud of federal investigations.

Only 29 percent of voters in overwhelmingly Democratic Cook County said they approved of Blagojevich's job performance, according to the Wesleyan poll. By contrast, 67 percent of Cook voters gave the thumbs up to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and 67 percent said they will vote for a Democrat for U.S. Congress. The governor's doing better with county voters than President Bush, but statewide the two are locked in a dead heat.

Not a single demographic in Illinois, whether it's race, party affiliation, gender, ideology, income or region, gives the governor a majority or even a plurality of support.

That's diversity.

I guess this makes me at trend setter. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune wonders how to get rid of the autotheistic Governor.

He shows no inclination to resign from office. And while the state constitution does allow for his impeachment by the Illinois House and trial by the Senate, it's doubtful legislators could bring themselves to such drastic action. So the realistic question becomes this: Given the multiple ineptitudes of Rod Blagojevich -- his reckless financial stewardship, his dictatorial antics, his penchant for creating political enemies -- should citizens create a new way to terminate a chief executive who won't, or can't, do his job?

The odds are not great that a process for removing inept governors can be initiated in time to remove this inept governor. But that effort, which must begin in the Illinois General Assembly, would be worth the burden it creates, possibly including a special election to replace Blagojevich with a new governor.

In practical terms: The earliest that voters could be asked to add a recall amendment to the state constitution is the November 2008 general election. If the amendment is worded properly, there would be time to recall Blagojevich before voters get a chance to dump him the old-fashioned way: in a 2010 primary or general election, should he seek a third term.

There wouldn't have been a second term if the GOP had nominated a decent candidate. I'm not sure a recall mechanism can fix the dearth of talent interested in the position.

A Metaphor For The Entire Administration

An accurate description of Rod Blagojevich, as overheard in Springfield:

It's a bird . . . it's a plane . . . no, it's SuperPopulist!

On Tuesday, the governor played that Halloween game on the lawn of a very nice family in the 2200 block of West Winona to protest the Legislature's refusal to make permanent a 7 percent cap on property taxes, passing instead a three-year program that provides the level of relief sought by the governor only in the first year. Blago called what lawmakers did "Treat, then Trick." That prompted one lawmaker to later acidly observe, "What did the governor call his doomed, gigantic gross receipts tax proposal? A razorblade in an apple?"

I thought that's what people called his election.

As pressing as the tax issue is, for the moment -- repeat -- for the moment, the Legislature has managed to give the governor some of what he wanted, a continuation of the tax relief at least for one year. That will mean some help for homeowners on their 2006 property tax bills. A majority will save up to $250. Higher-end homeowners will do even better.

Like the governor, for instance.

For 2005, the Blagojevich family paid $9,789.40 in property taxes. But this year, the first couple will see a whopping 18 percent reduction. They will pay, according to county records, just $7,996.85 for 2006.

How's that for a load of candy dumped in your pumpkin, trick-or-treaters?

I don't think that's candy.

Joe Nobody

How corrupt is the City of Chicago?

So corrupt that the president of the Chicago Crime Commission and the executive director of the Better Governmant Association say they can't be trusted with a casino license.

Meanwhile, for some strange reason, it appears that whenever people try to investigate people connected to Governor Rod Blagojevich, they face "political interference" designed to sabotage their investigation.

The [Medicaid] fraud investigation, which involved a half-dozen investigators from three state agencies, ended last year with no charges and no state sanctions.

"Everyone was really frustrated," said Abbey Romanek, the former senior assistant attorney general. "It was a case in which we felt there was something wrong, and we kept running up against roadblocks."

Illinois State Police dismissed as unfounded the allegations of improper political influence after what the agency describes as a "thorough investigation."

But the pharmacist, Harish M. Bhatt, and the pharmacy regulator, Yashwant Amin, both say they were never interviewed by state police about interference allegations. State police refused to provide the Tribune reports to buttress their findings about the interference allegations.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) insists its fraud investigation was thorough but likewise refused Tribune requests for investigative records or other documents to confirm those assertions independently.

That's because there are no such documents. In fact, nobody, including the Governor, knows nothin':

Bhatt, 57, who described himself as "Joe nobody from Joliet," denied that he exerted any political influence and said he was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing because the probe was error-ridden and without foundation.

A spokeswoman for Blagojevich did not answer detailed questions but said in a written response that the governor had no knowledge of the investigation of Bhatt's Basinger's Pharmacy stores. She acknowledged that Bhatt is among a number of the governor's Indian-American supporters.

"The governor has said on a number of occasions, to a number of communities, that he wants a diverse and inclusive administration. He believes state government should reflect the people it represents," spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said in an e-mail.

Criminals are diverse.

The Hammer of Rod

Governor Blagojevich has found the ultimate weapon to use against the legislature: cancelling law enforcement.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is threatening to lay off 1,800 of the state's roughly 2,000 Illinois State Police troopers in January unless lawmakers approve key budget legislation soon.

Just as Illinois thought they'd escaped the "Mad Max" future, Blagojevich finds a way to put that back on the table.

The State of Illinois is almost completely controlled by Chicago Democrats. This is what that looks like: gridlock isn't a matter of partisanship, it's a matter of imbecility.

DON'T LET THEM TOUCH YOU!

Barack is in imminent danger of contracting Blagojeleprosy.

Becky Carroll, deputy chief of staff to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and a veteran of Illinois political campaigns, this week moves to the Barack Obama presidential campaign as director of Women for Obama.

Carroll's experience includes time as a communications aide to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. She also was communications director for Chicago congressman Rahm Emanuel's crucial first campaign for his seat in Congress.

Longtime readers know that back in the day, this blog was so in-depth on the subject of Rod Blagojevich's ultra-corruption that I probably could've taught Blagojevich Theory at the graduate level. Carroll's work with Blagojevich has been almost as hilarious as the Iraqi Information Minister, including her announcement in 2003 that we should apparently be honored to subsidize her decision to continue living in Chicago and instead, with the help of taxpayer funds, rent a second home in Springfield.

Carroll said workers like herself are making a financial sacrifice that actually saves the state money. "I make more money than some average people do. Because I really enjoy being a public servant, I'm willing to incur a little extra fiscal distress" by paying rent in two cities, she said.

Carroll had billed the state $975 for her $325/month apartment during "the final months" of a legislative session. (Carroll does get points for restraint, however: Two other aids had rented an apartment that cost $1,256 a month, presumably built in an actual Ivory Tower, given Springfield rents, and only chipped in a total of $360 between themselves.)

Nice Constitution You Got There

It'd be a shame if it developed any "issues".

"The recent actions of the Clerk of the House of Representatives directly contravene the express language of the Illinois Constitution and prevent the governor from faithfully exercising his constitutionally mandated obligations," the lawsuit says, calling Mahoney's inaction "chicanery."

In a lawsuit filed in Sangamon County, Blagojevich says clerk Mark Mahoney, who reports to Madigan, should have entered the governor's budget reductions into the record when the House met Sept. 4. That would have started a 15-day clock ticking, requiring the House to vote on restoring the cuts by Sept. 19.

However, Madigan has scheduled a series of statewide hearings on the cuts that will last through Sept. 27. He has not set a time for the House to vote on restoring the $463 million Blagojevich cut from the new state budget in August.

Unless the courts step in, Blagojevich argues, a "constitutional issue" will develop Sept. 19 on whether the cuts he has made will go into effect. He is asking the courts to order Mahoney, who also is Springfield's Ward 6 alderman, to enter the budget cuts into the House record of Sept. 4.

Blagojevich's office is not responding to calls requesting comment. This is not surprising, because almost anything they could say would sound imbecilic.

Mission Accomplished - Three Year Benchmarks Not Met

Reader 'Tony Stark' defends the work of Team Services, LLC, the company that was hired to find sponsorship schemes to generate revenue in the State of Illinois. This scheme basically proposed to raise capital by turning state government into NASCAR, with products like "a state beverage" and "a state credit card". (That the company's founder gave Blago's campaign $4,000 and was tied to his chief-of-staff is surely sheer coincidence.)

By the way, according to a recent press release, Team Services just passed the $1,000,000 mark in sponsorship for the State of Illinois. Thought you guys might be interested in an update on that issue. I guess maybe they were worth their salt after all, huh?

The post this comment was placed on was written almost exactly three years ago, and the press release actually came out two years ago. Here's an excerpt from the original story:

Administration officials said the sponsorships could produce millions of dollars for the state. State agencies were asked for sponsorship ideas. A marketing firm was hired and paid more than $107,000 to work on the project.

A year later, the marketing firm has produced only one sponsorship deal, worth about $60,000....Officials with Team Services LLC of Maryland, the company hired to secure sponsorship deals, did not return phone calls. Seth Webb, the Blagojevich aide overseeing the sponsorship program, was not available for interviews, Ottenhoff said.

[T]he administration contends the state is on the verge of making a significant sponsorship deal for a state beverage and that other deals, possibly including a state credit card, are in the works.

"Deals of this magnitude don't happen overnight," said Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff. "There is time and careful consideration of what is involved."

There was a $15,000-a-month retainer fee.

So, if by "on the verge" the Blagojevich administration meant "years", and if by "this magnitude" they meant "a pathetically tiny fraction of the predicted revenues", then yes, you could say the program was "worth it's salt". Kindly disregard the original projections, which promised $40 million in the first year (when the original post was written), and $300 million after three (which passed a year ago).

What Team Services actually delivered, deals like a bank sponsoring 'ethnically diverse Christmas trees', are radically and hilariously different from what the Blagojevich administration originally promoted in defending the idea. In a state where prisons and universities are falling apart and health service providers aren't getting paid (in one case, mailing a pharmacist a check for $6 and change against the $2,000,000 they owed him), this was an idiotic project.

In fact, the "idea", such as it was, ultimately slipped quietly beneath the waves for exactly that reason. Since announcing the Christmas Tree deal (critical to making the state's books balance, I'm sure) in December 2005, Team Services, LLC has posted no new press releases to their site containing the word "Illinois".

You go, Gov!

The Protectorate

Even Mayor Daley is disappointed with Rod Blagojevich, and his sock puppet, Dick Durbin, says the situation has become an embarrassment, as reported in the Sun-Times.

He's called 16 special sessions on this or that issue so far this year, one less than 2004, when he also was engaged in a battle with lawmakers over the budget. He accounts for nearly half of the 67 special sessions called by governors since the state's 1970 Constitution was adopted.

That constitution gives him the authority to call for the special meetings to discuss a specific topic, but it doesn't clearly say the governor may set the date and time. It would probably be a good thing to settle that issue. But that will do nothing to settle the underlying problem -- that Blagojevich was ordering lawmakers to show up when there was nothing for them to do, often on weekends. For instance, he called a special session to address CTA funding on August 13. He offered no bill of his own, but he did threaten to veto the only realistic proposal on the table, an increase in the regional mass transit sales tax.

This is not a constitutional crisis, as the governor claims. It's a crisis of our leadership, and no court in the world can sort that out.

Of course, who isn't disappointed? Blago is so unpopular that he's waxing reclusive.

Tradition has the governor and first lady participate in the opening ribbon cutting ceremony for the fair, but weather conditions in northern Illinois prevented them from attending.

Obviously, because his personal presence is crucial. Or...

Chuck Hartke, director of the state's Department of Agriculture, represented Blagojevich at the fair. He was joined at the ribbon-cutting ceremony by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes.

...he didn't want to hang out with his new foes.

Blagojevich, who has finally signed the utility rate relief package after weeks of claiming he will "make it better", and perhaps ultimately being forced to recognize that nobody wants him to, continues to defends his budget manipulation, ignoring that the reason laws are called "bills" is because they represent negotiations between the executive and the legislature exchanging policies and cash.

Instead, Blagojevich, with his manufactured constitutional crisis, seems to fancy himself Oliver Cromwell.

Of Gods and Chicago Democrats

As national Democrats struggle to keep state parties in line, Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Chicago Democrat, begins suing other Chicago Democrats.

The arguments over a state budget are escalating again, with Governor Rod Blagojevich suing the speaker of the Illinois House.

Blagojevich is angry that Speaker Michael Madigan has defied his proclamations requiring the Legislature to meet in special session.

In some cases, Madigan has told lawmakers not to bother showing up. He has also convened sessions at different times of day than Blagojevich had ordered.

He wants Madigan to hold sessions at specific times and require members to attend. A state budget has passed, but Blagojevich says other related issues still require attention.

Legislators argue the special sessions are just for show. They note the governor usually doesn't submit proposals for lawmakers to consider.

One issue that still requires attention? The utility rate relief package, which the legislature sent to Rod's desk last month. That, like hundreds of other bills, has not been signed.

Obviously, it's the legislature that needs to spend more time in session, so Blagojevich can terrorize them with heavy-handed political maneuvers that are so targeted and spiteful they're increasingly causing onlookers to question his well-being. Rich Miller details what can only be described as the wrath of Rod:

He drastically slashed funding for the Illinois Arts Council, chaired by Shirley Madigan, the House Speaker's wife. At least $9 million was cut out of grants distributed by the Arts council, including a million dollars for the Illinois Channel and $1.5 million for Public Radio and TV grants.

The auditor general's office, which has produced some brutally honest audits of the Blagojevich administration, saw its funding proposal cut way back, as did the comptroller and attorney general offices, both of whom are headed by frequent Blagojevich critics. Blagojevich did not cut the spending request for his own office.

The governor also zero-funded "Operation Ceasefire," which works with former gang members. The Senate Democrats had sought to eliminate funding for the program, but it was insisted upon by the House Democrats and Senate Republicans. Blagojevich sided with the Senate Dems yet again on that one.

At least $700,000 in budgetary add-ons sought by House Democrats for AIDS testing and prevention programs were slashed from the budget and $500,000 for a program to track birth defects, backed strongly by some House Dems, also was removed.

The House Democrats had pushed for an extra $50 million for nursing homes in the budget, but that was eliminated, as was money for cost of living increases and "safety net" money for providers in areas such as alcoholism and substance abuse ($6.6 million), developmental disabilities ($11 million), mental health ($8 million) and hospitals ($40 million).

A newborn hearing program was eliminated, for instance, as was a $1.2 million pandemic flu preparedness plan. Two hundred fifty thousand dollars for a capital punishment reform study committee was zeroed out, as well as a $240,000 grant to the Downstate Innocence Project, which works to release wrongly convicted prisoners.

This, from the guy who engineered and insisted on funding for a program called "AllKids", so that his supporters could accuse his opponents of "voting against all kids".

The ultimate irony? As Blagojevich declares Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and DeKalb counties state disaster areas in response to the upper midwest's tragic outbreak of flooding, leaders are wondering why he vetoed hundreds of thousands of dollars in flood protection funds, another unresolved problem that the legislature had been addressing until Blagojevich got involved:

[Prospect Heights Mayor Rodney] Pace, sweating through his black shirt and pants next to dozens of people piling up sandbags, criticized the Democratic governor for cutting $100,000 for a berm along the west side of River Road and channeling money to health care instead.

"His health-care initiative is more important than these people's homes and livelihoods," Pace said.

Yes, it is. In fact, pretty much any insanely politicized program the Governor cooks up, no matter how low it may be on the tree for Illinoisans, is the top priority, whatever harm it may do to the state. Rod Blagojevich's daily floor show of shocking malfeasance has, quite literally, led to ruin, distracting the state for years from urgent problems that should've been dealt with years ago.

Sen. Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) said it was "clearly an outrage" that Blagojevich vetoed two $350,000 projects to help Lemont and Homer Glen, where people watched from their windows as an overflowing detention pool sent water toward their homes.

Sen. John Millner (R-Carol Stream) said his district was the victim of another Blagojevich split decision. Blagojevich vetoed Millner's half of $400,000 to replace a bridge that leads to Benjamin Middle School next to Carol Stream and West Chicago, but approved the half sponsored by Rep. Randy Ramey (R-Carol Stream), Millner said.

"Now the day after the veto, the bridge is actually closed, and there's water flowing over the top of it," Millner said.Rod doesn't want to hear about it:

"Like in a lot of disaster areas, what is most mindful to me is the resilience of the people," he said. "We want to help."

But when asked about his veto of anti-flooding funds, Blagojevich angrily turned away.

"I am not here to talk about the budget," he said.

The resilience of the people is going to be pretty much the only thing keeping Illinois going, at this rate.

At Fox Lake, Blagojevich walked through a flooded neighborhood, calling it "an act of God," asking residents to help one another and suggesting they "maybe say a prayer."

Sure, and the Utica tornado was "God's will", a veritable smiting. Blagojevich seems to claim to have a wire to God on this stuff, though this wouldn't be the first time Blagojevich has confused his personal authority with that of the Almighty. He's not alone:

In Wheeling, for example, Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) had secured $80,000 and Rep. Sydney Mathias (R-Buffalo Grove) $120,000 to build up and stabilize a bank along Buffalo Creek when the budget passed.

Murphy suggested that the rising floodwaters may signal a higher power at work.

"It's a classic example of Mother Nature overriding the governor's veto," he said.

But Mathias had a different take: "As they say, the governor acts in mysterious ways."

It's an Act of Rod.

Yes, this whole thing is every bit as completely mad as it looks. With Blagojevich in open war with Madigan, can Ragnarok be far behind?