Blagojevich the 2-ton gorilla in the room that crushes out real corruption cases

I know I’m in the minority for thinking this way – but I actually believe that the criminal case against Rod Blagojevich is, at best, the third most interesting one to come up this summer at the Dirksen Building courthouse.

To me, much of what has been heard in testimony is merely evidence that Blagojevich was a goof, and more capable of talking trash than committing crimes. If anything, he was an amateur incapable of pulling off any schemes – which is what U.S. District Judge James Zagel alluded to when he was heard making a remark saying Blagojevich was a “.110 (hitter) in the D-minor leagues.”

ALTHOUGH I WONDER how many baseball fans under the age of 50 realize that the minor leagues ever extended down to the Class D level?

Personally, I take more interest in the other two court cases that have made the Summer of ’10 at the Dirksen Building a bizarre place to be.

We had the trial of Jon Burge, the one-time police commander on the far South Side who was found guilty of not telling the truth about his use of physical force during interrogations. Of course, had he told the truth, he would have been in significant amounts of trouble – since his idea of force is what many of us consider to be torture.

Then, we got the sequel to the criminal trial of Al Sanchez, the one-time head of the Hispanic Democratic Organization (which was supposed to be the part of the Democratic Party that locally pushed for Latino political empowerment).

SANCHEZ WAS FOUND guilty this week of using the oldest trick in the political handbook to achieve and maintain political influence. Sanchez also was head of the city Streets and Sanitation department, which means that people who did tasks that helped him maintain his poltiical influence were rewarded with city jobs – nearly 4,000 people worked for Sanchez’ department when he was a city commissioner.

The idea of driving around in a smelly truck and picking up peoples’ trash may sound unappealing to some, but I have known many people who get over the fact that the stink of trash will stick to them after work by looking at the financial rewards and job security.

You can’t very well outsource trash pickup to a firm in India, can you?

So people were getting city jobs for doing work for campaigns favored by Sanchez and the HDO leadership (which gained the rightful reputation as an organization devoted more to picking Latinos who would be loyal to Daley, than trying to get Latinos elected to office in general). The degree to which they engaged in such activity became so blatant that the U.S. Attorney’s office got involved.

THAT IS WHY Sanchez was found guilty in 2009, and was again found guilty on Wednesday (that original conviction was tossed out by an appeals court because prosecutors did not let it be known that at least one key witness against Sanchez had a criminal record that could be seen as tainting his testimony).

The fact that this trial was a do-over, so to speak, is what caused it to get much less attention this time around, which is why I got a giggle over reading a commentary I wrote about a year ago, wondering if Sanchez had the potential to steal public attention away from Blagojevich.

I thought the fact that he was city government would have some sort of attention-grabbing appeal. It didn’t. It shows you how much I know.

But I really can’t help but wonder if this has become an instance where the more significant cases are getting less attention because of Milorod. Is it just that Blagojevich’s behavior is so comical at times that we can laugh at it, unlike the behavior of Burge (where people were beaten, then locked away in prison for many years – if not decades) or Sanchez (who was using his city government position to bolster his political position, and trying to disguise it under the noble concept of promoting Latino political empowerment).

I’M NOT KIDDING when I say that the behavior of Sanchez offends me, and Burge’s conduct is nauseating, whereas Blagojevich is more buffoonish than anything else. How else to think of the fact that Blagojevich may have been delusional enough to think he could force some sort of reward for himself in exchange for his appointment to the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois?

That seat was never actually sold, and it seems from some of the testimony that even Blagojevich eventually came to realize it wasn’t going to happen, that he wasn’t going to get anything.

Yet Sanchez turned his Hispanic Democratic Organization into a group that influenced city politics (and has several aldermen currently sitting who owe their initial elections to HDO), while Burge put people in prison who shouldn’t have had to endure such a fate.

Burge and Sanchez, however, have their defenders, while Blagojevich is the man whom many people these days want to believe is somehow the political Public Enemy Number One. That logic is just twisted.

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We ought to hold courts to high ideal

I can already hear in my mind all the complaints from courthouse types who will be upset that a federal judge dared to overturn the conviction of the former Streets and Sanitation commissioner.

Al Sanchez was the former high-ranking Latino politico who got caught up in the petty graft that takes place at City Hall, which was the reason he went from being a noble public servant to just another corrupt official.

ON TUESDAY, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman issued a ruling that struck down Sanchez’ conviction.

His reasoning?

One of the primary witnesses to Sanchez’ behavior crossing over the line from political to criminal was someone who, to put it politely, sells illicit narcotics to earn a living.

It was the opinion of Sanchez’ attorneys that they should have been informed of that aspect of the witness’ character so they could use it against him during the trial, doing everything they could to besmirch his reputation in the eyes of the jury.

NOT THAT THAT alone would have guaranteed an acquittal for Sanchez. Anyone who has ever covered criminal proceedings realizes that the people who usually know the most about criminal behavior and activity are criminals themselves.

The idea of Jane Q. Citizen being an eyewitness and testifying as her way of serving her public duty occurs so rarely. Most of the witnesses in criminal cases are people who have something to gain by seeing the defendant receive a criminal conviction.

Prosecutors in this case admit they didn’t disclose all the information about their primary witness, although they claim it doesn’t matter. Even if he is not an ideal human being, this should not (in their opinion) be enough of an excuse to toss out the conviction that they worked so many years to obtain.

That is where I would have to disagree.

I REALIZE WE don’t live in the ideal world and that all witnesses have some sort of taint to them.

But something like this should have been made public. Let the defense do their best to try to “take down” the witness.

Because if the overall totality of the evidence is such that it persuades the jury to vote “guilty,” then it can be overcome.

How many organized crime figures are currently serving prison time because their one-time associates decided it was in their best interest (less prison time for themselves) to “give up” their former colleagues?

MY POINT IS that this factor can be overcome by prosecutors. Trying to downplay it by taking the attitude that the prosecution is somehow entitled to a bit of favoritism (seriously, I have heard prosecutors argue that judges are naïve when they use this type of logic to toss out evidence) is a sad case.

For the reality of every criminal case I have ever seen is that the prosecution has so many built-in advantages that there are times I wonder how any defendant ever gets an acquittal.

They shouldn’t have had to try to cut corners such as this.

For now we’re going to have to go through another trial, which will cost the federal taxpayers yet more dollars.

I DON’T ENVISION Sanchez being suddenly willing to plead guilty to lesser charges. He told the Chicago Tribune, “I’ve always maintained I’ve done nothing wrong.”

But then again, I don’t envision the prosecution wanting to give Sanchez any sort of deal that would let him plead guilty to a lesser charge – even though that would be the practical way to try to resolve this case at this stage in time.

For Sanchez is one of the former Hispanic Democratic Organization officials (even the group itself no longer exists) who got caught up in what prosecutors say was a scam to get around the rules that are supposed to govern hiring of employees for city government.

(Yes, there really are rules about how to get a job at City Hall, even though most people don’t have a clue what those rules really are).

NOW, WE GET to relive the whole hiring scam, and probably will get to hear a few stories about the venal way in which HDO attempted to bolster the political interests of Richard M. Daley by working on behalf of Latinos who were sympathetic to Hizzoner Jr.

By this point, it ought to be old news.

But that is what happens when prosecutors think they ought to have more advantages, rather than remembering that – in theory – defendants are innocent until proven otherwise.

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Sanchez not lying when he says he merely did government business the city way

The only aspect of the verdict against former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez is that he wasn’t found guilty of all seven counts of mail fraud (the vague, all-purpose charge that says something improper was sent through the U.S. mail) pending against him.

He actually beat the rap on three charges. But Sanchez was still found guilty of four others, and that’s more than enough for federal prosecutors to crow about how much safer the streets of Chicago are now that another corrupt politico will be sent to prison.

THE JURY SPENT the past few days deciding they didn’t buy Sanchez’ claims that he merely was following the hiring practices of city government of the past. And if it turns out that his superiors hired people who did campaign work in order to get jobs picking up trash and spreading salt (at high union wages), then he should not be blamed.

“I just did my job the way I was supposed to do it,” Sanchez told reporter-types after the verdict against him was read.

Now this isn’t a defense of Sanchez’ conduct on the job. He probably did do things and engage in actions that prosecutors once looked the other way at. The true offense is that more political people decades ago were not prosecuted, not that Sanchez is now.

But there is one aspect of Sanchez that truly does fit into the idea of a guy just trying to do his job within city government in a way that makes him fit in.

THERE ARE THOSE who make a big deal about Sanchez’ political title, head of the now-defunct Hispanic Democratic Organization, which in theory was no different than a group such as Illinois Democratic Women or the Indo-American Democratic Organization.

It was a group that tried to increase political involvement of a group that didn’t fit into the traditional Irish-American demographic that for decades has dominated activity at City Hall.

Those people with a nativist streak in them like to imply that this shows Latinos are somehow inherently corrupt that the group trying to promote their political involvement would somehow get so tainted by allegations of political hiring.

Sanchez himself tried to play off such sentiment, saying sarcastically that his efforts to hire Latinos for city government jobs was being turned into “a federal crime” by the prosecutorial crew for the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago.

BUT ANYONE WHO watched the Hispanic Democratic Organization at work would realize how ridiculous such claims were.

Because in some respects, the Hispanic Democratic Organization was the biggest obstacle faced by some Latinos who wanted to be involved in Chicago’s public affairs.

Sanchez used his political influence to promote the interests of Latinos who were willing to accept the idea of Richard M. Daley as the “sun” upon which all of the Chicago government “universe” rotated around.

Hispanic Democratic Organization political workers would do their bidding and turn out the vote for candidates willing to back Daley. If it happened that a Latino candidate fell into that category, then it would work.

BUT THERE WERE cases where Latinos wishing to run for office had to fight against the Hispanic Democratic Organization, which smart alecks always claimed really stood for Hispanic Daley Organization.

In some cases, the group went so far as to back Anglo candidates against Latinos, if it were told to do so to promote the Daley interests.

Of course, this really follows the general trend of electoral politics in the city wards where a predominantly Spanish-speaking population exists. It is all too typical for the local elections that too many political observers think of as being between two anonymous Latinos to actually be between a Daley-allied Latino and (in the eyes of the Democratic organization) some Spanish-speaking smart aleck who dares to speak out against Hizzoner.

This trend was enhanced by the Hispanic Democratic Organization, which gave political muscle to one side. But it is by no means brought to an end by the conviction of Sanchez.

MY POINT IS to say that in certain aspects, it is true that Sanchez and the Hispanic Democratic Organization (which has withered away in recent years and become irrelevant) was merely reflecting the general attitude of the Daley administration.

Sanchez isn’t exaggerating when he says he was merely doing things the way they are done at “the Hall.”

Does this mean that I believe Richard M. Daley ought to be facing criminal indictment himself? I’m not willing to go that far.

But the idea that a major segment of Chicago political corruption has been brought to a close by the conviction of 61-year-old Al Sanchez (who could now be looking at up to two decades in a federal prison) is ridiculous.

THE GENERAL CONCEPTS espoused by Sanchez exist in other officials currently on the city payroll, and likely also the Cook County and Illinois government payrolls as well. So the actual effect of the Sanchez verdict could be minimal, unless federal prosecutors are determined to continue their efforts throughout the City Hall culture.

Actually, there is one other potential affect of the verdict. The streets of Chicago during the winter seasons could get very sloppy.

To many Chicagoans, Sanchez was the guy from “Streets & San” who got interviewed on television newscasts whenever it snowed. He was the guy who decided how much salt got dumped on city streets, and which side streets got plowed first.

Because to many city residents, so long as he did that job competently, they were more than willing to ignore all this other political talk that came up during the trial. If anything, the willingness of city residents to tolerate such activity in exchange for a clean street or two may be the real crime.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: A crook or a victim? Al Sanchez was hardly the only person behaving (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/03/al-sanchez-corruption-trial.html) the way he did while doing “the people’s business” at City Hall.

Certain Latinos benefited from the creation of the Hispanic Democratic Organization (http://www.ipsn.org/hired_truck_scandal/hdo_grows_into_political_powerho.htm), while others had their political aspirations squashed.

A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): Leave it to Chicago Cubs to go “wrong” way

When it comes to professional baseball and the spring training camps they operate every March, there has been a definite trend. Ball clubs that historically took up shop in a Florida city have moved west – to Arizona.

It has reached the point where the teams of the American and National leagues literally are split equally between the Grapefruit League (Florida) and the Cactus League (Arizona).

OUR VERY OWN Chicago White Sox were among that trend – leaving Sarasota, Fla., for Tuscon, Ariz., a decade ago, then shifting to a new stadium and training camp in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale (home of the almost Super Bowl champion Arizona Cardinals).

Even teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, which had historic ties to having a training camp in Vero Beach, Fla., joined the trend – as they also share a training camp with the White Sox.

Yet now, the Chicago Cubs – a ball club that has long been in Arizona and historically has sought the southwestern U.S. such as Scottsdale, Ariz., and Catalina Island near Los Angeles for its training camps – is looking to the east when it comes to establishing a new springtime home. Sarasota's Payne Park was once the springtime home of the Chicago White Sox. Would the Cubs really "desecrate" that city in the minds of older Sox fans with their presence? Or is this just a negotiating ploy? Photograph provided by Sarasota County History Center.

It turns out the Cubs are talking with a Florida city about the possibility of relocating there as of 2013. In a sense of irony, they are looking at Sarasota, which would mean they literally would set up shop in the city once used by the White Sox – unless the Cubs can con Sarasota into building them a new facility (which is always a possibility).

ADMITTEDLY, THE CUBS could just be engaged in a negotiating ploy to pressure their current spring training city of Mesa, Ariz., to come up with better facilities. Team officials admit they like the conditions of HoHoKam Park, but have their problems with the other athletic facilities used by the Cubs and their minor league affiliates for training camp.

But it reminds me of a film by the late actor John Candy (who always bragged during his life of being a Cubs fan). One of his final films was the cowboy comedy “Wagons East!” about western folk who decided to go to the Atlantic coast in search of a better life.

All I know is that the next time anyone tries to bring up the existence of U.S. Cellular Field (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29767575/) as evidence the White Sox extorted Illinois for a new stadium, we can now say that the Cubs are just as capable of playing political hardball for new facilities. In fact, just about every sports team (with the possible exception of the Florida Marlins) is good at extorting government.

What else was notable in the world, as perceived from the shores of Lake Michigan?

AL SANCHEZ – PUBLIC SERVANT OR PUBLIC ENEMY?: A part of me has always questioned the vigilance with which some people wanted to monitor the Hispanic Democratic Organization.

The group that on the surface promotes Latino political empowerment in Chicago was really about promoting Latinos who were willing to be supportive of the electoral interests of Richard M. Daley. And I don’t doubt that the criminal charges pending against group members have some basis in reality.

Yet a part of me can’t help but sense that people who were always willing to look the other way at political corruption in Chicago are now willing to crack down on Latinos getting caught, because they’d just as soon drive them out altogether – even though Chicago is a city with a Latino population of 26 percent, one could argue that Latinos are not a large enough presence at City Hall.

So is HDO head and former Streets and Sanitation commissioner Al Sanchez a benevolent (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sanchez-trial-20mar19,0,291060.story) Latino politico (as his defense attorneys argued this week) or just a corrupt political hack? The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

HOW DARE THEY REPAVE THE STREETS: I’m starting to wonder if the reason some people are adamantly opposed to having the 2016 Olympic Games in Chicago is because they know they will not have much of a say in dictating where improvements are made.

The City Council became a battleground this week because of aldermen who were upset (http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1485873,w-streets-olympic-repave-031909.article) about a recent repaving of streets surrounding Washington Park – the South Side site being considered for an Olympic Stadium

International Olympics Committee officials will be in Chicago in early April, and the critics say city officials rushed the repavement to make the site look good, even though there are other streets on the South Side that could have used repairs just as badly.

I have always thought the benefit of an Olympics in Chicago is that it could pressure city officials to make long overdue improvements, even if the motivation for those improvements was to make the city look good for outsiders, rather than to benefit residents. But now, these aldermen are going to realize that the traditional right to veto any projects in their ward is going to be trampled on, if an international project like the Olympic Games were to come to our city. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that.

SIX BITS FOR THE BRIGHT ONE: Ten more days until one will have to cough up an extra quarter to buy a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times.

As is usual when it comes to the business news of a newspaper, the competition reported it first. The Chicago Tribune let us read all about it Thursday that the paper now costing $0.50 will go up in price as of March 30.

I couldn’t help but notice that the Tribune told us that it was just the Sun-Times raising its price – not any of the suburban publications that the company also owns. Yet most of those papers were already charging $0.75 on weekdays for a copy of the paper (http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2009/03/chicago-suntimes-raising-singlecopy-price-to-75-cents.html), as was the Tribune.

Some news readers will claim that the Sun-Times ought not be charging the same price as the Tribune. Yet I can’t help but wonder if this will be the justification for the Trib to suddenly decide its newsstand price ought to go up – at least to $1 per copy. For the bulk of the past 18 years, the Trib has cost more than the Times (first $0.50 vs. $0.35, then $0.75 vs $0.50.

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Peraica tactics include HDO ‘demonization’

Is this going to be the tactic of those people who want to take down a Latino politico – dredge up the letters “HDO” and try to scare white ethnic Chicago into believing that those crazy Hispanics are somehow more corrupt than their Irish and Polish and Croatian counterparts at City Hall ever were?

It is the means being used by Tony Peraica, the Republican nominee for state’s attorney of Cook County, to try to trash his opponent. He has to resort to this in large part because Democratic opponent Anita Alvarez is so far better qualified for the top prosecutor’s post (roughly two decades experience) that he can’t argue on the merits of his record.

SPECIFICALLY, PERAICA IS waving around copies of El Dia, a Spanish-language newspaper based out of Cicero (and not exactly a heavy-hitter in the world of Chicago’s Spanish media), which ran on its front page a photograph taken at a political fundraiser.

It is the standard shot of an aspiring politico (Alvarez) standing next to someone else and trying to smile. It is meant to give the person in the picture with the politico some sort of personal souvenir, and perhaps a bit of physical evidence that an actual relationship exists between the two.

Peraica is trying to use the photograph for the same reason – it is a picture of Alvarez posing with the son of the newspaper’s owner. It turns out that Jorge Montes de Oca, Jr. actually had a warrant issued for his arrest at the time of the March 6 fundraiser at a neighborhood restaurant.

In theory, as a high-ranking deputy in the state’s attorney’s office who aspires the top job in the Nov. 4 election, Alvarez is a law enforcement official who should have arrested Oca.

SHE DIDN’T.

I’m not going to get all bent out of shape about this. I don’t view it as a moment of corruption (as Peraica would like us to think of it). It is more a sense of reality that makes me realize I don’t expect anybody to know off the top of their head at all times the names of every single person who happens to have an arrest warrant issued in their name.

I particularly am willing to overlook this lapse (I believe that had it been brought to her attention, Alvarez would have acted like the life-long employee of the state’s attorney’s office that she is) because the warrant was not even issued in Cook County.

It was issued by a judge in neighboring Lake County, Ill., after Oca allegedly wrote bad checks to a car dealership in the far northern suburbs of Chicago. Since his photographic appearance with Alvarez, he has been picked up by police, hit with the relevant criminal charges, and is only free now because he posted the mandatory 10 percent of bond set at $30,000.

NOW IF SOMEONE could come up with evidence that Alvarez in some way is trying to cover up for him, or get his charges reduced, or in some way is interfering with the ability of Lake County officials to prosecute the case, that would be a sign of inappropriate behavior by a potential state’s attorney.

That would be an example of potential corrupt behavior. Heck, it would be just a good story.

Peraica doesn’t have any of that.

He just has that Alvarez was in the same room with someone whom the police were interested in, and didn’t do anything because she didn’t know anything.

I WOULD BE willing to overlook this ridiculous charge, if that were the extent to which Peraica took it. But he went further, dragging the acronym “HDO” into the mix by noting that the fundraiser was largely attended by HDO members.

For those of you who are clueless about City Hall and Chicago politics, HDO is the Hispanic Democratic Organization. It is the political action committee used by some Latinos who want to be involved in Chicago politics, which theoretically makes it no different than the organizations used by women, labor unions or any other special interest group that wants to get ahead politically.

It also is a group whose founder faces criminal charges for his alleged involvement in the city’s now-defunct “Hired Truck Program,” where private companies were hired to provide trucks and drivers to do municipal work.

Federal prosecutors say some of the companies had ties to organized crime, while others paid bribes to city officials to get contracts. In many cases, the companies hired by the city were grossly overpaid for their work, or the companies did no work whatsoever.

PERAICA WANTS TO create the impression of the Hispanic politicos dragging a city program into corrupt behavior, and then trying to show that Alvarez is merely one of their followers. “The HDO has been at the epicenter of all the corruption that has done on at the city of Chicago,” Peraica told WBBM-TV, which played the story up big during their Tuesday evening newscast.

That is just a ridiculous statement. There’s too much improper behavior that takes place at Chicago City Hall for “epicenter of all the corruption” to be true.

HDO didn’t give Chicago corruption. It merely is trying to use the means of the past by which other ethnic groups used politics to get ahead – not realizing that the ways of Michael “Hinky Dink” Kenna are long dead and buried, although their zombie corpse occasionally tries to come crawling out of the grave.

The other thing to realize about HDO is that it does not speak for all Latino political people in Chicago. It is a group whose leaders are firmly behind the policies of Mayor Richard M. Daley. Its members routinely focus their political work on bashing the candidacies of would-be Latino politicos who appeared as though they might oppose Daley if they won elective office.

HDO’s REAL “SIN” is that it is willing to put politics ahead of the concept of increased Latino political empowerment – it has been known to back the candidacies of white politicos in Latino neighborhoods in order to help Daley maintain his political control in Chicago.

Of course, none of this nuance came through in Peraica’s charges. He just wanted to create the image of a batch of corrupt Hispanic people, one of whom was literally a “wanted man” by the police – with Alvarez smiling for pretty pictures.

This tactic does not shock me in the least. This is, after all, the man who engaged in the ultimate “sore loser” behavior after losing his 2006 bid to be Cook County Board president to Todd Stroger. Peraica is not somebody who’s going to take the political high road.

I FULLY EXPECT Peraica to keep hitting us with subtle (like a sledgehammer) reminders that Alvarez is Mexican-American, hoping that he can stir up enough people who have a problem with the concept of the first Latina to win a county-wide office to get their votes.

That is why Alvarez herself was totally justified when she responded as she did to Peraica’s charge by refusing to discuss whether or not she had her picture taken with Oca (She did, so what!) and instead denounced the whole attack as “racist.”

“To insinuate that any public official of Hispanic heritage has connections to the HDO is racist,” she said, in a prepared statement. “These allegations are completely absurd and if they were not coming from (Cook County Board) Commissioner Tony Peraica, our campaign would consider this an April Fool’s Day joke.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: I expect Republican state’s attorney hopeful Tony Peraica to spend the bulk of this year making outrageous claims about his Democratic opponent. I’d also expect a responsible news media organization to realize when it is being fed garbage charges (http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/alvarez.peraica.scandal.2.689886.html) by a politico. Oh well, at least I was 50 percent correct.