Chicago out-conned by Rio de Janeiro?

For all the rhetoric we hear about how venal and corrupt the inherent character of Chicago truly is, I couldn’t help but wonder if the real problem is that our city is run by a batch of goo-goos.

The 'games' that never were

It was the thought that popped into my head when I read reports about the bribery and corruption that is being alleged, tied to the decision more than a decade ago to stage the 2016 Summer Olympic games in Rio de Janiero.

THE OFFICIAL RHETORIC was that the International Olympic Committee decided it was FINALLY time to stage an Olympics in a city south of the equator.

But now, we have a former governor of Rio saying he paid the U.S. equivalent of over $2 million to committee members in order to ensure they voted for Rio over any of the other cities around the world that were competing for those games.

In short, bribes were paid. The process was rigged.

Now how truthful should we think all of this is? Well there’s the fact that former Governor Sergio Cabral already is convicted of criminal acts and is serving a lengthy prison term – at 200 years, it is one he may never be free from.

SO WHAT REASON would Cabral have to lie? It seems he has nothing to gain, or lose, by coming forth now with the testimony he offered in court last week. Or it could be the ultimate reason – political revenge.

There are other officials who will have trials coming up soon – and this could be a desire on his part to take down those officials to make them suffer the same fate that he is now enduring.

Daley's soul supposedly too black, but … 

Attorneys for those officials, by the way, claim it’s all trash-talk on Cabral’s part. He’s got no proof! Or so they say.

Now how is any of this the least bit relevant – or interesting – to those of us in Chicago? It’s because those 2016 Olympic Games were the ones that then-Mayor Richard M. Daley was determined to bring to the Second City. Remember the plans for a stadium to be temporarily erected in Washington Park?

REMEMBER THE GLOBAL battles between Tokyo, Madrid, Rio and Chicago? Remember the sentiment that this was a fight for Chicago to win so as to show our global dominance?

… was Hizzoner really too honest to prevail?

Remember the thousands of people gathered in Daley Plaza on that date in 2009 when the Olympic site was chosen – with fanatics chanting “We’re Number Four” (Chicago’s place on the four-city ballot) only to be suddenly silenced when it was learned that Chicago’s bid was the first to be knocked out of the running.

We really were number four – in terms of actually getting those games. The visions of Barack Obama presiding over an Olympics held in his home city turned out to be fantasy.

Mayor Daley was so disgusted by the city’s failure to win the Olympic games that the city has pretty much given up on attracting the International sports scene. It’s a large part of the reason why the 2026 World Cup tourney for soccer will be played partially in the United States – yet none of the matches will be held in Chicago.

EVEN RAHM EMANUEL had enough of the bad aftertaste to not want to bother with the international sports scene.

But now, we hear the whole thing may well have been rigged. We may well have lost that political fight to Rio de Janeiro because we weren’t corrupt enough. As in maybe we would have attracted the Olympic games and all the international attention that Daley wanted to bring to Chicago if only we were as corrupt as some of the political ideologues would want to insist we are.

The 'facility' that never became!

Not that I’m claiming we in Chicago should have loosened up our wallets and come up with more cash than the International Olympic Committee demanded from the Brazilians.

But it makes me wonder how much those ideologues are choking on their rhetoric at the notion that Chicago was out-corrupted by somebody else. And that it may well have been a Daley who got out-hard-balled politically for being too honest.

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Will ‘da Judge’ buy “Fast Eddie” claim his witnesses are too old to remember?

I understand that Edward R. Vrdolyak has no desire to go to prison.

VRDOLYAK: Trying to get charges dismissed

The one-time Cook County Democratic chairman and City Council member who led the vocal opposition to then-Mayor Harold Washington has already done one stint as a “guest” of the government, and sure doesn’t want to go back there ever again.

BUT I FIND myself intrigued by the line of defense that Vrdolyak is trying to put up for himself.

Vrdolyak spent the bulk of 2011 in a federal prison work camp in Terre Haute, Ind., following his conviction on charges related to real estate transactions in the Gold Coast neighborhood.

Two years ago, he was hit with another round of indictments – for his involvement in the settlement of a national lawsuit against the tobacco industry back in the 1990s. It resulted in a $9.2 billion payout by “Big Tobacco,” and Vrdolyak managed to enrich himself significantly.

So much so that federal prosecutors say he did too well, to the point of being criminal. They use the word “unauthorized” to describe it.

BUT VRDOLYAK CONTENDS he didn’t do anything illegal, and in fact had the blessing of political people (including then-Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan) for his conduct.

WASHINGTON: Eddie's legacy exceed Harold

He’s trying to get a judge to dismiss the charges, with his own attorneys filing motions claiming that the people who could testify under oath that Vrdolyak’s legal activities were truly legitimate aren’t capable of doing so.

They point out one person who was fully aware of Vrdolyak is now dead, while another suffers from severe dementia. A third would be Jim Ryan himself, although the one-time Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate suffers from his own ailments that would make it impossible for him to be called upon to testify.

All this may be true. But I will be amazed if any judge out there would be inclined to dismiss the case on these grounds.

BECAUSE IT WOULD truly create a circumstance where someone could escape the legal system and “justice” because of the passage of time.

RYAN: Could Jim 'clear' Vrdolyak?

And when it comes to Vrdolyak, I’m sure the kind of people most eager to see him obtain another criminal conviction and prison term (one most likely long enough that the 80-year-old would die in prison) will not want to allow for any reason to come up that would let him escape justice.

For the politico known as “Fast Eddie” is the man who will forevermore be remembered for the way he openly led a resistance to Washington’s election in 1983 as the city’s first black mayor.

That was something some people would want forevermore celebrated. The fact that Vrdolyak was able to tie up in knots just about everything Washington tried to accomplish during the first few years of his mayoral term is something they will forevermore be bitter about.

TO THEM, THE only true justice will be if Vrdolyak gains as his political legacy a record of recidivism. To become one of the few people in Chicago political people who wind up with multiple convictions and prison terms would be the only true justice to those individuals.

Seriously, most people with political corruption convictions wind up withering away into nothingness. It would be Vrdolyak and someone like one-time alderman Ambrosio Medrano who would have records of returns to prison.

MEDRANO: In Vrdolyak's league?

But a part of me can’t help but wonder if Vrdolyak’s attorneys have a point about the 20-year delay between the actions and the bringing of an indictment “dramatically, and even fatally hindering (Vrdolyak) from establishing that fact to the jury.”

All of which makes me think no matter how a judge ultimately rules, this is going to be a criminal case that will leave some people seriously p-o’ed about its outcome and complaining for life about the lack of justice.

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Madigan has investigation into sexual harassment by clout-heavy aide

I remember once someone telling me what was supposed to be the biggest of secrets into how politics really worked – the reason that Michael Madigan had managed to last so long (now nearly a half-century) as a public official is that he never resisted efforts to investigate himself.

MADIGAN: A sexual harassment firing

The way it was put to me is that any time federal investigators approached Madigan for information, he was always forthcoming with precisely whatever data was sought.

HE WASN’T SOMEONE likely to get caught up in some stupid technicality. In fact, I have heard of many of the political people who have been indicted throughout the years who, supposedly, got caught because Madigan’s staff essentially turned them in.

Meaning Madigan would snitch out anybody if it meant detracting investigatory attention from himself.

Admittedly, the person who told me this was trying to put as negative spin as possible on this – as though Madigan were the moral-less one who was selling out everybody else for his self-preservation.

Or could it be that the long-time Illinois House speaker (a legislator since 1971 and holder of the top leadership post for all but two years since 1983) has that bit of honesty in him that he’s not going to make the mistake of covering up for other officials just because they have that “D” following their names that indicates their Democratic Party leanings.

THIS POPPED INTO my mind when I read the statement Madigan had issued in his name about the dismissal of Kevin Quinn, an aide to the speaker in various roles for nearly two decades.

What also should have made Quinn safe is that he is the brother of Marty Quinn – as in the 13rd Ward alderman (Madigan’s home ward) who has his City Council post largely because of Madigan’s influence.

Yet when Madigan was made aware of complaints by women regarding Kevin Quinn’s behavior to them, the speaker brought in an attorney to investigate.

QUINN: Not enough clout to keep brother employed

That attorney, Madigan said, “recently came to the conclusion that the individual engaged in inappropriate conduct and failed to exercise the professional judgment I expect of those affiliated with my political organizations and the office of the Speaker.”

NOW I’M SURE the political cynics are going to complain that Madigan is only behaving in such a way because of the outburst of complaints we have heard in recent months concerning sexual harassment.

I’m sure they’re going to see this as Madigan selling out one aide so as to protect the overall structure.

But I can’t help but see it as a step in the right direction. Because a large part of the reason why the “old boy’s network” attitude that treats many female officials as potential playthings is because of the perception that the people in charge aren’t going to do anything about it.

This may be a sign that someone will do something about it, although the real acts of significance in Madigan’s statement are his claims that his attorneys have made recommendations for preventing inappropriate behavior and improving methods of reporting such allegations.

WE’LL HAVE TO see what becomes of this. If it results in future action, or just a whole lot of talk about nothing.

Could it be that part of the Madigan legacy (aside from being the longest-serving House speaker from any state) will be that he addressed the sexist culture that some would definitely like to have kept in the 19^th Century – rather than advancing to the 21^st?

DALEY: Had his own morals rules

Or is this just a moralist quirk that allows things to remain the same, similar to the old Mayor Richard J. Daley who supposedly was willing to turn a blind eye to all types of corruption EXCEPT that of government officials engaged in adulterous behavior.

Which would almost be proof of that old cliche, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

  -30-

EXTRA: Life in government goes on

Election Day is past, yet I couldn’t help but get my chuckle from a television spot I saw air Thursday afternoon that desperately urges me to tell my Cook County Board member to vote against the sweetened beverages tax hike.
 

PRECKWINKLE: She passed the pop tax hike

That’s the one that will raise, by a penny per ounce, the tax charged on carbonated drinks like pop, along with fruit juices and other sweet drinks. All to try to raise some $174.3 million to plug a hole in the county government budget next year

I DON’T DOUBT the earnestness of those who put the spot together, claiming we’re already paying too much for everything in life, and that government ought to – in the favorite cliché of anti-taxers – “live within its means.”

But it was funny because by the time the spot aired, the issue was long over.

The county board heard debate on the issue Thursday morning, putting up with some 80 people who felt the need to express themselves on the calamitous issue of more-expensive pop. Then, they voted to a tie.

Which means that county board President Toni Preckwinkle herself got to break the tie, in her favor of course. Or, as it could also be viewed, she had to put her own neck on the line and publicly take a stance.

I’M SURE SHE would have preferred to have the county board members do the dirty work of passing this. Instead, it’s now on her record. She’s a tax-hiker!

Although her timing, if she had to do this, is good. So many people are p-o’ed about the concept of “President” Donald Trump that Preckwinkle’s actions may well slip past the public consciousness.

I don’t doubt some people will be upset about the cost of their pop can or two-liter bottle going up. A part of me doesn’t blame them.

 

SCHOCK: Tried to keep low profile in recent months

But we should also realize we no longer have nickel pop bottles of glass, with a refund if you return the bottle unshattered. Things invariably cost more. Even our pop, which if truth must be told we’d probably be better off if we drank less of it.

AND THIS IS coming from a man who believes seriously in the merits of a Coca-Cola every now and then!

The price of pop wasn’t the only issue of concern that came up on Thursday. For Aaron Schock, the one-time boy wonder who was supposed to be on the path to being the next Republican governor of Illinois, has learned a federal grand jury has hit him with 24 criminal charges – numerous counts for using campaign funds to pay for things such as cars, interior decorating of his office and a charter flight for he and friends to see the Chicago Bears play.

Schock has tried to keep a low-profile since resigning from Congress last year. But now, he’s likely to crop up more and more as we figure out if the guy who got himself elected to the Illinois Legislature in his early 20s and worked his way up the political ladder is now going to wind up getting an “Oxford education” – a stint at the minimum-security federal pen in Oxford, Wis.

Or maybe the outrage against Schock, who probably was a bit too flamboyant to “play in Peoria” as he tried to do, will also get drowned out by those who want to commit unmentionable acts upon Trump’s physical being?

  -30-

Emanuel likely to have to ‘take the stand’ in lawsuit filed by pair of cops

It will be interesting to see just how it plays out when, and if, Mayor Rahm Emanuel winds up having to testify during court hearings related to a lawsuit filed by a pair of police officers.

 

EMANUEL: Will he testify, so help him God?

The two cops in question are suing the city for what they claim is harassment they suffered within the Police Department when they cooperated with federal prosecutors who were investigating corruption within the city police Narcotics Unit.

THE TWO OFFICERS say they were penalized for violating the “code of silence” that supposedly says police do not talk about their own internal workings or against each other.

During the squabbling over various police-related shootings, Emanuel made public acknowledgement of the “thin blue line” of silence that cops are supposed to observe.

Which is why the two officers now want Emanuel to have to testify on behalf of their case. They figure if he publicly confirms that police are supposed to keep quiet about each others’ improprieties, it will give their case more legitimacy.

Because then they can claim it proof that police officers really were penalizing the pair because they dared to speak out against colleagues who acted improperly.

ATTORNEYS FOR EMANUEL went so far last week as to offer to make a public statement confirming that a code of silence exists, provided that it meant Emanuel wouldn’t have to participate in the lawsuit in any way.

U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman wouldn’t go along with such a deal. In fact, he implied during a hearing in his federal courtroom last week that he may still order Emanuel to have to testify during the trial – which is expected to take place during the month of June.

Personally, I’m skeptical that the tactic will work, particularly since Emanuel likely would be perceived as a hostile witness of sorts. He’ll probably go out of his way to say as little as possible, while also doing nothing that would cause a judge to find him in contempt of court.

Although I suspect there are those people who are so eager to bash Rahm Emanuel that they would gain great pleasure from the thought of Emanuel being found in contempt and getting tossed in a jail cell – even if for just a few hours.

THIS ACTUALLY REMINDS me of a nearly two-decade old trial in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Ill., when then-Gov. Jim Edgar had to spend a day testifying in court in a criminal case involving executives with Management Services of Illinois who eventually were found guilty of bribing state officials to get an overly-generous contract to do work for the state Public Aid Department.

Defendants tried to get Edgar to say he was unaware of any connection between the executives and state government officials – which defense attorneys then argued meant there couldn’t have been any intent to bribe anybody.

A jury back in 1997 didn’t buy the argument then – the defendants were found guilty and wound up doing some prison time.

Why do I suspect that anything Emanuel would say wouldn’t wind up providing any benefit to the lawsuit by the pair of police officers?

IT MAY WELL come out that Emanuel, in talking of how police tend to “clam up” when publicly discussing their own activities, was merely talking in a general sense, and wouldn’t know of specific incidents.

Even though the idea that police tend to keep quiet about each other isn’t a unique concept. It’s just one that’s incredibly hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the law requires as proof for a legal case.

Just like it’s also next to impossible to prove that a police officer behaves in a racist manner when engaging in acts that, on the surface, are abhorrent!

Which could mean the only ultimate winner from the idea of forcing Rahm Emanuel to take the stand and testify will be the political pundits – on the off-chance that Hizzoner happens to say something particularly foolish while supposedly offering to tell us, “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

  -30-

A Tax Day warning?!? Or what could have been of Reynolds legacy?

If I didn’t know better, I’d think the federal government staged the return of one-time Congressman Mel Reynolds on Monday just to try to scare the rest of us into complying with federal laws concerning the income tax.

REYNOLDS: Back in the U.S. of A.

For we’re approaching the deadline by which the American public is expected to acknowledge our incomes and just how much our tax obligation is (and also to pay up any debt owed, if that is the case).

FOR THOSE OF us who might be inclined to think that no one would miss it if their return wasn’t amongst the millions that the Internal Revenue Service will have to go through, Reynolds becomes the prime example of how to get caught

For it seems the former representative from the far South Side and surrounding suburbs is facing criminal charges for what federal officials say was his failure to even file income tax returns from 2009 to 2012.

He doesn’t have much of an income these days. I’m sure he’ll offer up some grandiose attempt at justifying his behavior when he goes on trial next month in U.S. District Court.

But Reynolds, whose case has been pending for over a year, has missed recent court appearances. Officials admit there was actually a 10-day time period in which they couldn’t account for where Mel was physically.

THAT LED TO an arrest warrant being issued by a federal judge demanding Reynolds’ arrest. That warrant was served on Monday.

For it seems that Reynolds was out of the country. In South Africa, to be exact. It seems one of his daughters is ill and undergoing medical treatment there. He says that’s why he wasn’t in court in Chicago.

As it turns out, upon arriving back in the United States at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, he was picked out of the returning masses at the airport, and placed under arrest.

He had to appear before a federal magistrate in Atlanta, who ultimately decided to accept the fact he was back in the U.S. of A. and not impose any additional penalties.

IN THEORY, REYNOLDS could have been ordered held in federal custody between now and May 5 – the date upon which his trial is scheduled to begin. Or he could have been ordered to post a significant bond to provide further incentive for Mel to show up in court for his trial.

I don’t know what to think of Reynolds’ latest predicament – other than to say it shows further evidence of a man who, despite his Ivy League education and Rhodes Scholar credentials is one of those kinds of people who is just a screw-up in life.

And that it adds to the list of laughable moments we have of the man we once thought was the significant step up from political people such as one-time Congressman Gus Savage.

Just think of the lotto or peach panties. You’re either smirking at the memory of Reynolds, or else you’re a snot-nosed punk kid who’s too young to remember what happened between the congressman and his one-time teenaged admirer.

ALTHOUGH THE FACT is that it is the latter round of criminal charges that came up in federal court in Chicago (bank fraud and deceiving FEC investigators for improper use of campaign funds) are the ones that are the more serious blot on Reynolds’ legacy.

Not being able to file tax returns for several years only adds to the impression of a man whose lengthy political career (he was only a member of Congress for 2 ½ years) we, the people, were seriously spared.

Just think what could have been accomplished if he had been a government official for a significant length of time.

Certainly more than a horror story of how the federal government really will go after you if you think it isn’t worth your while to file that tax return – which this year won’t be due until Monday instead of Friday.

  -30-

Will one-time speaker Hastert survive long enough to be sentenced in fed ct?

Remember the scene from the two-decade-old film “Casino” where, when the organized crime leaders wind up in legal trouble and have to appear in court, they wind up showing up with assorted canes and wheelchairs – and one even came with an oxygen tank so he could allegedly breathe.

HASTERT: Proceedings continue

The implication being that these men came up with ailments so as to appeal to the sympathy of the court that could theoretically have sent them way to prison for lengthy stints.

NOW I’M SURE some people are going to be grossly offended at my bringing this up upon learning that one-time House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert’s attorneys are now saying he nearly died from assorted ailments back in November.

It was that claim, and the need to have Hastert’s cooperation in preparing his defense, that got his attorneys to ask for a delay in his sentencing.

For the record, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin on Thursday rescheduled the sentencing hearing for Hastert to April 8. Although news accounts of Thursday’s court hearing indicate federal prosecutors are concerned the sentencing may be delayed too long.

Now I don’t know first-hand the extent to how ill the 74-year-old Hastert was back in November, or is now. But you just know that for every person now offended with me for bringing this up, there probably are two or three who are having the same exact thought.

IS THE HASTERT case going to drag out into a legal circus far worse than the mere facts of the case usually would warrant – just because of whom Denny is or what it is he is alleged to have really done?

Considering that Hastert supposedly is facing the prospect of up to six months in a federal corrections facility if he ultimately pleads guilty, could this case have long been settled if not for maneuvering that is dragging it out longer and longer than it ought to be?

This desire for a delay only adds to the circus atmosphere, and the expense to the judicial system brought about by the U.S. attorney’s desire to “put away” one of the few Illinois politicos ever to reach the rank of speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

This is a case that already has many people upset, particularly because the perception is out there that Hastert will someday be able to plead guilty to financial infractions whereas many people want “the dirt” about whether he did something sexual with a teenage boy back when Denny was a high school wrestling coach!

PROSECUTORS SAY THAT Hastert made significant payoffs of his own money to one of his former students decades after the two were involved in each others lives. In short, after Hastert wasn’t a political person and actually had significant money to spend as part of his post-political, lobbyist life.

Because some of those payments involved withdrawals from bank accounts in large amounts – violating federal laws requiring such withdrawals to be reported immediately to the government – Hastert is alleged to have committed a crime.

But that’s all he’s facing. Prosecutors say the allegations about Hastert and the boy are too old to investigate, and aren’t really relevant to the financial crime that intrigues them.

I’ve written previously that the people who are interested in this case solely as a sex crime are going to be frustrated. They’re not going to get the titillation they desire.

BUT THE LONGER that the Hastert camp drags this out, the more outrage there ultimately will be felt by whatever outcome this court case brings about.

I almost wish Hastert would just enter his “guilty” plea and serve his sentence, so that we can all move on.

Besides, then he could do his time and try to go the Dan Rostenkowski route of a political elder statesman with a touch of taint to his story – and could wind up getting a presidential pardon someday down the road if the GOP actually manages to regain the White House come November.

And was more fortunate than that one character from "Casino," the one who died of a heart attack on-the-spot upon being told by FBI agents he faced federal indictment and that it was his own records that would provide significant evidence against he and his crime colleagues.

  -30-

Good cop/bad cop. How much does it really matter to know this for sure?

I’m not in the mood these days to demonize the reputation of Charles J. Gliniewicz – the late suburban Fox Lake police officer who it now seems died as part of an effort to cover up the fact that he was engaged in illegal financial activity.

GLINIEWICZ: Good, bad or in-between

Gliniewicz was the police officer whose death two months ago was the cause of a massive investigation. A police officer killed in the line of duty; probably by someone who had an irrational hatred of the police.

IT WAS SUPPOSED to find out that some sick, sadistic criminal-type was singling out police – the protectors of our society – for vicious abuse.

Instead, investigators said this week that their “homicide” investigation wound up producing a “suicide” ruling – as in Gliniewicz took actions to take his own life because he thought he was going to get caught for his activities that could have resulted in criminal charges.

What was that old “Baretta” theme song line – “Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.” It seems that the thought of having his reputation trashed from being a stellar cop to a crooked one was just too much for him to take.

The 52-year-old lieutenant who also had a record of military service decided that death was preferable to being the focus of an eventual criminal investigation.

NOW I’M NOT about to tag “crooked cop” all over Gliniewicz’s name. Personally, I think anybody who is obsessed with doing so is missing the point. They’re definitely wasting their time.

Although I do find some contempt for those people who got all bent out of shape by those who initially challenged the image of a “heroic cop” for Gliniewicz. Those were the people so eager to constantly deify police officers that they can’t accept the reality I came to a long time ago when it came to my dealings as a reporter-type person with law enforcement officials.

They’re human beings! Just like everybody else.

I’ll be the first to admit that police officers take on a more difficult job than many of us do – one in which if they screw up, somebody could be severely hurt – if not killed.

THE MASSES OF them do the best they can, and are worthy of the praise when they do right.

But some of those human beings are just as capable of making slip-ups as anybody else when put into certain circumstances.

That probably is the case with Gliniewicz – who included among his duties with the Fox Lake Police Department oversight of the Explorers program. It is one that works with young people and tries to teach them ways of being responsible adults – usually within the context of law enforcement itself.

Investigators who came up with the “suicide” ruling said that Gliniewicz appeared to have taken money meant for the program and used it for personal expenses. The Chicago Tribune reported the “theft” to be in the tens of thousands of dollars – which really is petty cash depending on how many years it is spread out over.

YET IT ALSO won’t surprise me to learn that many of the people in the Explorers program are going to grow up to be responsible adults – and at least a few of them will wind up praising Gliniewicz’ memory for making them what they ultimately become.

Does this mean they’re absolutely wrong? Or just totally delusional? Nonsense!

Everybody has the good and bad in them, and it really does depend on circumstance and environment what one is able to do with their own life.

So my own opinion of law enforcement isn’t really swayed by anything happening here. Meaning the real problem may be those individuals who are quick to make knee-jerk reactions about anyone – perhaps even those on the other side of such incidents.

  -30-

EXTRA: Six months?

It would appear that could become the prison term that one-time House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert may receive when he faces sentencing come Feb. 29.

Hastert, as expected, showed up at the federal courthouse Wednesday and entered a plea of “guilty” to one charge of evading bank reporting requirements. Because he didn’t fight and was regarded as being cooperative, the other charge of lying to FBI agents was dropped.

BUT AS ALSO expected, we didn’t get any titillating details about why Hastert needed to come up with so much cash that he had to go around laws regarding bank withdrawals and how much one can get at one point of time without having to report the transaction to the federal government.

We got the hints early on that Hastert needed the money to pay someone off to keep their mouth shut about allegations of sexual indiscretions back when Hastert was a high school teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School.

But that’s it. Hastert, by being willing to accept a minimal prison term come Leap Day, may well have made his indiscretions the question to which we’ll never know the answer.

At least not until the National Enquirer pays someone to tell a tale that may be about as accurate as the stories the supermarket tabloids have come up with about President Barack Obama’s alleged infidelities.

  -30-

Smith, Jackson add to list of local pols who do incarceration routine

By the time you read this Friday, Derrick Smith will likely be en route to a federal correctional center where he will serve the next few months as punishment for the label he’ll have to bear for the rest of his life – a corrupt Chicago politician.

SMITH: Countdown begins Friday

Smith was the Illinois House member from the West Side whom the Legislature tried to kick out of its ranks – only to have the voters send him back to the Statehouse scene until said time that the U.S. Attorney’s office got around to indicting him.

HE EVENTUALLY WAS found guilty, sentenced to five months in prison, then engaged in a series of maneuvers meant to delay having to serve the sentence.

Those maneuvers extended into this week, when U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman rejected them on the grounds she had no faith that his legal appeal of his conviction would succeed.

Meaning he now has to begin serving his time within the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. If he doesn’t report by Friday, he becomes a federal fugitive – which might sound like an enticing story to write.

Although I suspect that if Smith were to become a political fugitive, he’d become even more nondescript than he was as an elected official.

SMITH WAS LITERALLY a legislator for so short a period of time and accomplished so little that the only reason he will be remembered is for the story of how he regained his political post even after he was kicked out of office.

Nobody is going to take up the cause of Derrick Smith and claim that he should do anything other than serve his five months of prison time – which really is a short stint.

He could literally be free (having paid his debt to society, to use the tacky old cliché) some time around St. Patrick’s Day.

JACKSON: 362 more days to go

Although he will get the experience of serving a Thanksgiving Day, Christmas holiday and Valentines’ Day within the prison environment. Which isn’t something I would want to see anyone have to endure. Even if it is just a minimum-security environment.

SMITH GETS TO be just another among the list of our local political people who managed to cross over the line and wind up with a criminal record. While speculating if that $7,000 he took from what turned out to be an undercover FBI agent was worth the ordeal he’ll now have to go through.

As it turns out, the same day that Coleman rejected Smith’s request to stay out of prison was the same day that former 7^th Ward alderman Sandi Jackson reported to the minimum-security facility for women in West Virginia to begin serving her one-year sentence.

Her offense? She signed the tax returns that one-time Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., used to try to justify the legality of the campaign contribution spending he did for personal items.

Which federal prosecutors said made her an accomplice to the Congressman’s actions – which amounted to using those funds to buy tacky items such as Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves and personal items that once belonged to singer Michael Jackson.

THESE AREN’T EXACTLY Public Enemies Number One. But the congressman served his prison time and is now back with the kids, raising them while their mother serves her prison time. Which in a court quirk will not include any time off for good behavior.

She’ll do a full year of time, meaning she’ll get to return to Chicago just before Halloween of 2016.

Sandi Jackson will do her time at Alderson, which as one of the few federal facilities for women has quite an “alumni” list – Martha Stewart did her prison time there when federal officials went after her business operations.

HOLIDAY: Prison instead of treatment

And if you go back a few decades, singer Billie Holiday also was an inmate back when her heroin addiction (and most likely her race) caused authorities to treat her as a criminal rather than someone who needed treatment – and the lady really did sing the blues for a stretch!

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EXTRA: That was quick! Or was it?

Former Chicago Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett got herself into the local political lore with that e-mail she sent, the one about having “tuition to pay and casinos to visit.”

BYRD-BENNETT: Trying to put issue to rest

An attitude that now has her in a position where she faces the possibility of a few years in a federal correctional institution, now that she has pleaded guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges alleging she directed contracts to an educational consulting firm that promised her assorted financial perks.

I’M SURE THEY weren’t presented to her as bribes, but that is the way they are being viewed by the U.S. attorney’s office – which last week said she was indicted on assorted charges.

Just as former 7^th Ward Alderman Sandi Jackson’s only real action for which she’s now on her way to prison was signing income tax returns for herself and former Congressman husband Jesse Jr. It was the federal government that determined those returns were not fully accurate, and therefore worthy of incarceration for the couple.

But because Byrd-Bennett isn’t putting up anything of a fight, she was permitted on Tuesday to enter a plea to one count of wire fraud. The other dozen or so charges she faced last week have withered away into nothingness.

Not bad, particularly since federal prosecutors have said they will seek less than the 14 years in prison she could have got if she had been found guilty of all the charges she originally faced.

JACKSON: Prison for signing a tax form

BUT BYRD-BENNETT CAN’T say this ordeal is behind her.

Because the judge in question (Edmond Chong) isn’t about to sentence her until legal proceedings are done against a pair of co-defendants.

It seems that Byrd-Bennett is expected to cooperate with prosecutors against those defendants, and won’t know how long her own prison time will be until after things have settled. I’d hate to think her time waiting to be sentenced will be longer than the actual time she has to serve.

JACKSON: His actions got her too

Perhaps it seems I’m not taking all of this too seriously, or that I’m not appropriately outraged at the notion that Byrd-Bennett gave no-bid contracts to a company that used to employ her.

THE FACT IS that Byrd-Bennett resigned her post and we already have moved on to the new leadership of Forrest Claypool – who already is the butt of jokes for people determined to point out the public schools system’s every flaw.

BEAVERS: Also a gambling habit

Byrd-Bennett is already ancient history. Who probably wouldn’t be remembered anymore if not for her remark about needing money to feed her casino habit?

Which does little more than put her in a category with political people such as former alderman and Cook County commissioner William Beavers – who wound up doing his own short stint in prison because prosecutors objected to the idea of him using money from his campaign funds to help entertain himself at those casinos out on the fringe of the Chicago area.

Just think how many more politicos we’ll have facing criminal charges if our officials ever are able to get their acts together and approve construction of a casino within the city limits?

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