Blagojevich's key aide Chris Kelly awaits trial. So does former Alderman and former Cook County Democratic Chairman Ed Vyrdolak.
"Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak switched parties over 20 years ago. He has been a Republican since 1987.
The big loser yesterday was Blagojevich. It will be a joyous day in Illinois when he is indicted.
Rezko played on both sides of the fence. Illinois is a cesspool.
Rezko is not just Obama's problem—he's the GOP's
By John Kass
June 5, 2008
Will Sen. Barack Obama declare that, if elected president, he would not pardon his fundraiser and personal real estate fairy, Tony Rezko, who was convicted Wednesday of multiple corruption charges in a Chicago federal court?
Obama is Mr. Reform, isn't he? And that's a legitimate question, isn't it?
The National Republican Party is making a big deal out of Rezko, with a snazzy new Barack-Rezko video, questioning Obama's judgment for buying that $1.6 million dream house, with the Rezkos purchasing the lot next door on the very same day in what looked like an old-fashioned back-scratching.
"On the day Barack Obama hoped to unite his party after wheezing over the finish line and claiming the Democratic nomination, a jury in his hometown of Chicago convicted his longtime friend and fundraiser Tony Rezko of multiple felonies," said Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan.
"This is further proof that Obama's high-flying rhetoric is just that, and in no way represents the kind of change our nation demands."
As most adults know but pretend otherwise, Obama is backed by the Daleys of Chicago, yet he's run a personality-cult campaign tied to the idea that he's the archangel of political reform. The national story line has been all about Camelot and Obama as the boy king, knighted by Ted Kennedy, a story too full of mist to be believed except by children. Yet finally, with the Rezko verdict, the focus is on the real Chicago, not the fairy tale.
But even as the Republican National Committee uses Rezko to thwack Obama, the RNC has a Rezko problem of its own. And they forgot to mention it on Wednesday.
It's a big Rezko problem. A big fat one known as Big Bob Kjellander and Big Bill Cellini.
That's at least 500 pounds of angry Republican boss hog, being pestered by the idea that Rezko could cut a deal and talk not only of Democrats but Republicans, too. Republicans like them, I mean.
Obama's opponent in the general election, Republican Sen. John McCain, can at least say that Kjellander and Cellini were supporters of Mitt Romney. While campaigning in Illinois, Romney made it clear that he'd get rid of U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald, who authorized the prosecution of Rezko.
Kjellander, the former treasurer of the RNC, is currently helping plan the 2008 Republican anti-Barack convention in Minnesota. He was mentioned prominently in the Rezko corruption trial.
In trial documents, Rezko friend Kjellander is called, somewhat poetically, "Individual K." He made millions in finder's fees on state bond deals with Democratic Gov. Rod "The Unreformer" Blagojevich.
Now Kjellander is putting the chocolate mints on John McCain's pillow at the Republican Convention.
Kjellander's political boss is Illinois Republican power broker, asphalt king and casino magnate William Cellini, another featured player in the court papers and in the trial.
Though neither Kjellander nor Cellini was charged in this case, both have been implicated. Cellini was named "Co-schemer A" by prosecutors and called "The Pope" by insiders manipulating billions of dollars in state pension fund investments.
It's like a Bridge to Nowhere without the ironworkers.
The White House Rasputin, Karl "The Architect" Rove, also was mentioned in the trial, as was former House Speaker Dennis "Don't Ask Me About My Land Deal" Hastert, alleged to have been part of an effort by the bipartisan Illinois Combine to get rid of Fitzgerald. To demonstrate their kinship, Cellini and Rezko flew out to Washington on a play date and visited a White House reception with President Bush, where Kjellander joined them.
Later in the Rezko trial, two witnesses said that Rezko told them not to worry about the criminal investigation, because the Republicans—Rove and Kjellander—would get rid of Fitzgerald. Hastert would install a friendly federal puppy who wouldn't bother the Combine, according to the testimony. "The federal prosecutor will no longer be the same federal prosecutor," testified Elie Maloof, a Rezko associate who is now a cooperating witness.
And a state pension board lawyer who has already pleaded guilty told grand jurors that Cellini told him "Bob Kjellander's job is to take care of the U.S. attorney."
The Illinois Republican Party holds its own convention this week in Decatur. The party establishment, which has long been cozy with the Daley Democrats at City Hall, has done little or nothing to rid the Illinois GOP of Kjellander and Cellini influence.
"If I owe a response [about the putsch to remove him from his job], I owe it to Congress, first," Fitzgerald said when asked about all this after the verdict.
Obama owes us a response, too, about whether or not he'd pardon his real estate fairy. But while we wait for answers, let's not forget that Republicans are just as much a part of the Rezko story as are the Democrats.
jskass@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
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