Edward R. Vrdolyak might very well be the one political person in Chicago who had nothing to lose to his reputation by pleading 
guilty to government corruption charges.
Vrdolyak shocked many political observers when he showed up at the U.S. District Court building in the Loop on Monday, and entered a “guilty” plea to charges of mail fraud and wire fraud on the day that jury selection was scheduled to begin.
IT MEANS THE long-time lawyer will be disbarred. He can never run for political office in the future. Professionally, he is disgraced. But “Fast Eddie” is 71 years old. His career as an attorney is behind him. His sons run the family law firm, and likely will take it over.
Vrdolyak hasn’t run for office in nearly two full decades. That part of his life is the past.
And quite frankly, when one remembers the name “Vrdolyak” in connection with his activities as Cook County Democratic chairman-turned-Republican and as an alderman from the 10th Ward (the East Side, Hegewisch and South Deering neighborhoods, along with a part of South Chicago), there’s no way his reputation could go any lower.
In short, the people who are ideologically inclined to look down on Vrdolyak already do so. The people who respect him (they do exist, particularly in his home neighborhood) are not going to let something like this particular guilty plea change their view.
FOR ALL WE know, when Vrdolyak gets out of prison, there’s a good chance that he will gain the same “elder” status that one-time House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski gets at Chicago political gatherings.
So when one thinks about it objectively, what is Vrdolyak going to suffer? The activities for which his life will be remembered in Chicago political circles have already taken place. He has had his life.
If anything, his acceptance of a guilty plea merely means we now must think of Vrdolyak as being “retired.”
Once he gets out of prison, he will spend the rest of his life at the family “estate” (a spacious home with tennis court and swimming pool surrounded by bungalows and electricity towers) in the East Side neighborhood, playing with the grandchildren and trying not to annoy his long-time wife, Denise, with his behavioral quirks.
THERE’S ALSO THE possibility that by taking a guilty plea, Vrdolyak may significantly reduce the amount of prison time he would be expected to serve.
Broadcast news reports on Monday indicated that Vrdolyak could get about 5 years of hard time, and that would be true if the judge were to decide to give him the maximum. But other reports indicate that the number “16 months” is being tossed about the Dirksen Building.
That figure would make sense if Vrdolyak were to be given some credit for not putting the U.S. government through the expense of putting him on trial and having to prove its case against him.
And with the early release credits for “good behavior,” it could be possible for Vrdolyak to slash that sentence down to about 13 months – basically, he loses a year of his life in a minimum-security prison before getting to “enjoy” his retirement.
WHILE I’LL BE the first to admit a minimum-security prison is still a prison with confinement and loss of personal liberty, there are those people in Chicago who would say that such a fate is too good for the man who rose to prominence in 1980s-era Chicago by taking advantage of the racial tensions that were then (and still remain, to a degree) a part of the Second City’s character.
Vrdolyak was a South Sider from a Croatian immigrant family who rose in life from the steel mill country to the University of Chicago, before turning to the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago politics.
He earned the nickname “Fast Eddie” back in his earliest days in the City Council, long before the Washington era (1983-87) for which he is most remembered.
Vrdolyak was a “white ethnic” alderman when Chicago voters elected their first African-American mayor.
WHILE THE BLACK community and a segment of the white lakefront (a liberal enclave) saw Harold Washington as history in the making, the bungalow neighborhoods where ethnic enclaves were holding on resented what they saw as too radical a change.
While some people (such as former alderman Anna Langford) argued that Vrdolyak himself was not a racist (having experienced ethnic-inspired discrimination himself), he was willing to use the racial tensions of the era to bolster his own political career. He saw that he could get away with openly defying Washington.
Therefore, when Washington tried to use parliamentary maneuvers at his first City Council meeting to silence aldermanic opposition, Vrdolyak one-upped him and used the legislative rules to take control of the City Council.
He was the vocal critic of just about everything Washington tried to do (Washington himself privately referred to Vrdolyak as a “bully,” rather than a “bigot”), knowing he had 28 other aldermen (out of 50 total) who would back him up out of the belief that they were representing the “will of the people” who wanted Washington thwarted.
FUTURE ELECTIONS ULTIMATELY gave Washington allies in the City Council a slim majority, which was the point at which the county Democratic chairman became a Republican – a party preference he still maintains, although most GOP officials I have met regard Vrdolyak with disdain, believing he brings Democrat shame to their party.
Yet there was a segment of the electorate that disagreed. He made his own mayoral campaigns by trying to appeal to the same voters who backed his original coalition of 29 aldermen.
Others also were willing to look highly upon Vrdolyak once he quit running for elective office in the early 1990s.
Consider that in Cicero, former Mayor Betty Loren-Maltese (who herself is serving a term in a California-based federal prison) used him as an adviser. He was the man behind the scene, whispering his words of advice into her ear.
IN SHORT, THIS is not someone who lived an effete lifestyle.
Think of it. How many political people can say they were depicted as Darth Vader? Or Darth Vrdolyak, as comedian Aaron Freeman did it in his “Council Wars” sketches of the era – doing battle against “Harold Skytalker.”
This is Ed Vrdolyak’s true legacy. Does anyone think his reputation can be hurt any more by his involvement in a real estate deal that prosecutors say was too funky to be legal?
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Now that he’s entered a “guilty” plea, we’ll never get to see the criminal trial (http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/1256498,CST-NWS-watchdog03.article) of Edward R. Vrdolyak.
For those of you who want the intimate details of what “the feds” were claiming Vrdolyak did, the (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/indict/2007/us_v_vrdolyak.pdf) indictment can be found here. Vrdolyak prefers to think of himself (http://www.vrdolyak.com/bio_edwardvrdolyak.html) in these terms.
guilty to government corruption charges.Vrdolyak shocked many political observers when he showed up at the U.S. District Court building in the Loop on Monday, and entered a “guilty” plea to charges of mail fraud and wire fraud on the day that jury selection was scheduled to begin.
IT MEANS THE long-time lawyer will be disbarred. He can never run for political office in the future. Professionally, he is disgraced. But “Fast Eddie” is 71 years old. His career as an attorney is behind him. His sons run the family law firm, and likely will take it over.
Vrdolyak hasn’t run for office in nearly two full decades. That part of his life is the past.
And quite frankly, when one remembers the name “Vrdolyak” in connection with his activities as Cook County Democratic chairman-turned-Republican and as an alderman from the 10th Ward (the East Side, Hegewisch and South Deering neighborhoods, along with a part of South Chicago), there’s no way his reputation could go any lower.
In short, the people who are ideologically inclined to look down on Vrdolyak already do so. The people who respect him (they do exist, particularly in his home neighborhood) are not going to let something like this particular guilty plea change their view.
FOR ALL WE know, when Vrdolyak gets out of prison, there’s a good chance that he will gain the same “elder” status that one-time House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski gets at Chicago political gatherings.
So when one thinks about it objectively, what is Vrdolyak going to suffer? The activities for which his life will be remembered in Chicago political circles have already taken place. He has had his life.
If anything, his acceptance of a guilty plea merely means we now must think of Vrdolyak as being “retired.”
Once he gets out of prison, he will spend the rest of his life at the family “estate” (a spacious home with tennis court and swimming pool surrounded by bungalows and electricity towers) in the East Side neighborhood, playing with the grandchildren and trying not to annoy his long-time wife, Denise, with his behavioral quirks.
THERE’S ALSO THE possibility that by taking a guilty plea, Vrdolyak may significantly reduce the amount of prison time he would be expected to serve.
Broadcast news reports on Monday indicated that Vrdolyak could get about 5 years of hard time, and that would be true if the judge were to decide to give him the maximum. But other reports indicate that the number “16 months” is being tossed about the Dirksen Building.
That figure would make sense if Vrdolyak were to be given some credit for not putting the U.S. government through the expense of putting him on trial and having to prove its case against him.
And with the early release credits for “good behavior,” it could be possible for Vrdolyak to slash that sentence down to about 13 months – basically, he loses a year of his life in a minimum-security prison before getting to “enjoy” his retirement.
WHILE I’LL BE the first to admit a minimum-security prison is still a prison with confinement and loss of personal liberty, there are those people in Chicago who would say that such a fate is too good for the man who rose to prominence in 1980s-era Chicago by taking advantage of the racial tensions that were then (and still remain, to a degree) a part of the Second City’s character.
Vrdolyak was a South Sider from a Croatian immigrant family who rose in life from the steel mill country to the University of Chicago, before turning to the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago politics.
He earned the nickname “Fast Eddie” back in his earliest days in the City Council, long before the Washington era (1983-87) for which he is most remembered.
Vrdolyak was a “white ethnic” alderman when Chicago voters elected their first African-American mayor.
WHILE THE BLACK community and a segment of the white lakefront (a liberal enclave) saw Harold Washington as history in the making, the bungalow neighborhoods where ethnic enclaves were holding on resented what they saw as too radical a change.
While some people (such as former alderman Anna Langford) argued that Vrdolyak himself was not a racist (having experienced ethnic-inspired discrimination himself), he was willing to use the racial tensions of the era to bolster his own political career. He saw that he could get away with openly defying Washington.
Therefore, when Washington tried to use parliamentary maneuvers at his first City Council meeting to silence aldermanic opposition, Vrdolyak one-upped him and used the legislative rules to take control of the City Council.
He was the vocal critic of just about everything Washington tried to do (Washington himself privately referred to Vrdolyak as a “bully,” rather than a “bigot”), knowing he had 28 other aldermen (out of 50 total) who would back him up out of the belief that they were representing the “will of the people” who wanted Washington thwarted.
FUTURE ELECTIONS ULTIMATELY gave Washington allies in the City Council a slim majority, which was the point at which the county Democratic chairman became a Republican – a party preference he still maintains, although most GOP officials I have met regard Vrdolyak with disdain, believing he brings Democrat shame to their party.
Yet there was a segment of the electorate that disagreed. He made his own mayoral campaigns by trying to appeal to the same voters who backed his original coalition of 29 aldermen.
Others also were willing to look highly upon Vrdolyak once he quit running for elective office in the early 1990s.
Consider that in Cicero, former Mayor Betty Loren-Maltese (who herself is serving a term in a California-based federal prison) used him as an adviser. He was the man behind the scene, whispering his words of advice into her ear.
IN SHORT, THIS is not someone who lived an effete lifestyle.
Think of it. How many political people can say they were depicted as Darth Vader? Or Darth Vrdolyak, as comedian Aaron Freeman did it in his “Council Wars” sketches of the era – doing battle against “Harold Skytalker.”
This is Ed Vrdolyak’s true legacy. Does anyone think his reputation can be hurt any more by his involvement in a real estate deal that prosecutors say was too funky to be legal?
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Now that he’s entered a “guilty” plea, we’ll never get to see the criminal trial (http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/1256498,CST-NWS-watchdog03.article) of Edward R. Vrdolyak.
For those of you who want the intimate details of what “the feds” were claiming Vrdolyak did, the (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/indict/2007/us_v_vrdolyak.pdf) indictment can be found here. Vrdolyak prefers to think of himself (http://www.vrdolyak.com/bio_edwardvrdolyak.html) in these terms.
1 comment:
Pleading guilty saves Vrdolyak money too.
And, there's something cleansing about doing time for an old guy. When he's done he can tell people asking for favors that he's out of the business.
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