When it comes to death penalty (or lack thereof), some just want to complain

I don’t doubt there are some people who will be permanently peeved that Gov. Pat Quinn signed the bill that did away with the capital crimes statute in Illinois. Some probably will hold a grudge against Quinn, the man, for the remainder of their lives.

QUINN: 47 percent of Dems disapprove?



The question, however, is just how much attention should Quinn (whom a new poll says has only a 30.6 percent approval rating) pay to these people?

I’D ARGUE THAT the reason prosecutors are so intense for having a death penalty in this state is because they allowed these individuals to intimidate them. Because these death penalty proponents, particularly the ones who remain bitter over the loss of a loved one due to a violent crime, can be a forceful presence.

The issue, as I see it, is that a governor has to balance out all the sides on this particular issue before taking a stance. As much as I wonder why it took Quinn nearly two full months to do so before he finally signed the death penalty abolition bill into law, I do believe he listened to all the sides and tried to figure out the issue for himself.

Apparently, he didn’t listen to every single individual, since we have been getting reports in various publications, including the Chicago Sun-Times, from a Rolling Meadows woman whose daughter is dead, and the man convicted of murder for that crime had his death sentence converted to a prison term of life-without-parole.

The woman is going around saying she is so upset with the governor that she will actively campaign against him in 2014, and would be willing to make a heart-felt, soppy campaign ad for whomever tries to challenge the Mighty Quinn in the next gubernatorial election,.

SHE IS UPSET that her attempts to talk to the governor to convince him (if not intimidate him) to keep the death penalty got her nothing more than a chance to talk to a gubernatorial aide. Perhaps she really believes she could have persuaded Quinn to act differently.

I doubt it, since Quinn did include advocates for the families of victims of capital crimes among the types of people he talked to. The fact that he didn’t talk to this specific woman doesn’t move me in any way.

Now I know some prosecutorial types who argue that death penalty opponents do not adequately take into account these family members and their sentiments when we talk about the death penalty being improper.

As though the fact that the death penalty system has flaws that likely are never to be overcome because human beings are fallible by nature doesn’t matter. My guess is that some people would rather have the occasional wrongly-convicted person put to death, than have to do anything that might offend these particular people.

MY OWN FEELINGS about this particular aspect of the death penalty debate actually got cemented following state government hearings a decade ago in Chicago that then-Gov. George Ryan hoped would expose the flaws in the system and how close Illinois came during the 1990s to putting innocent people to death, in the name of Justice!

Instead, activist groups that back the death penalty managed to load up the agenda with testimony from so many family members who told their stories to such an intense degree that the mood of intimidation came down upon those hearings.

Any attempt to build support for a reformed death penalty procedure got crushed amidst gruesome stories. The General Assembly wound up passing nothing in the way of reform. I remain convinced that had the state Legislature given Ryan some bill to sign that he could have claimed was a procedural reform, he never would have taken the drastic action of his final days in office that brought a halt to actual executions and also commuted the death sentences of the 160-plus condemned inmates in Illinois.

If there is anyone I have sympathy for these days, it is not these family members. It is the people in the State Appellate Defender’s office, some 37 of whom are now learning that their jobs are being cut.

THE HERALD & Review newspaper of Decatur reported that the move is meant to save state government about $4.7 million. I have no problem with budget cuts, and realize that people are going to lose their jobs – regardless of how unpleasant that experience is.

But these particular individuals are losing their jobs because they were the attorneys provided to indigent “death row” inmates to help them with their legal appeals – which were mandatory. They had to be heard by the courts.

Which is why it is cheaper for the state to do without the death penalty. An inmate in the general population whose appeals can be dismissed by the courts as frivolous is much cheaper than a condemned inmate kept under much more intense security whose appeals must be heard through three rounds that must end at the Supreme Court of the United States.

So while I realize it is a “good” thing that the state budget can be cut, I still sympathize with those attorneys who now need to find new work. Of course, I suspect the family members probably think those attorneys ARE the problem for taking on these particular cases. But that is an issue to be debated on another day.

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Leaving Illinois? It’s Keats’ loss

KEATS: No longer one of us

I don’t doubt the sincerity of Roger Keats, who says he has sold his long-time North Shore home and has plans to move to Texas because he doesn’t like the direction he thinks Illinois is headed.

But I’m also not swayed by the argument made by the long-time state legislator who tried last year to make a comeback to electoral politics – becoming the Republican who ran a token campaign for Cook County Board president against Democrat Toni Preckwinkle.

KEATS, WHO SERVED 16 years in the Illinois Senate, sent out a letter to his friends and political allies that amounts to one last pot-shot at the Democratic political establishment before he leaves. It was meant to stir up the anger of Illinois’ conservative ideologues.

One of those ideologues in turn distributed that letter via e-mail to various other people to spread the word – including one such e-mail sent to this weblog.

As Keats wrote, “the leaders of Illinois refuse to see we can’t continue going in the direction we are and expect people who have options to stay here,” referring to increases in the state income tax and the bond rating of state government – which isn’t so hot these days.

He also came up with a convoluted bit of logic that tries to make it seem as though Illinois is withering away into irrelevance – instead of acknowledging the continued growth of the Chicago metropolitan area.

“I REMEMBER WHEN Illinois had 25 congressmen. In 2012, we will have 18,” Keats wrote. “Compared to the rest of the country, we have lost 1/4^th of our population.”

Actually, Illinois these days with its 12.83 million people is at an all-time high. It is the quirk of the way congressmen are distributed among the states that causes the smaller states whose population growths account for large percentages actually get the additions to their representation.

When Illinois has 25 members of the House of Representatives back in the 1950s, its population was only 8.71 million. So instead of losing 1/4^th of our population, we’ve actually gained 50 percent since those days.

My point being that his point misses the point.

BUT THEN AGAIN, it doesn’t surprise me to learn that Keats would be feisty in his rhetoric. He was still a state senator from the North Shore suburbs back when I was a beginning reporter-type person, and I still remember one time I interviewed him by telephone (I was with the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago back then) when he turned our interview into a lecture about the “realities” of partisan politics.

I remember he got disgusted with a question I asked that implied Senate Republican leader James “Pate” Philip was inclined to use his influence to pressure the Republican caucus into taking a certain stance on an issue (which escapes my memory).

He proceeded to tell me that the Republican caucus of the state Senate back then (early 1990s) was a group of naturally conservative officials who agreed on issues, and that it was THEY who would wind up telling Pate Philip what it was the caucus could do.

He then went on a diatribe against the leadership skills of Philip, whom I specifically remember used the word “baboon” to describe the long-time senator from DuPage.

IT WAS A moment I didn’t write up back then, but it was one I remembered repeatedly throughout the years as Philip and the state Senate used strong-arm tactics to try to keep Democrats and their urban interest in its place.

Any man willing to risk being quoted using such derogatory terms toward his legislative leader is someone who is more than willing to engage in outrageous talk at a moment’s notice. Which means I’m not the least bit surprised he would write a “drop dead” letter to Illinois now that it is blatantly apparent that the Democratic Party’s officials have gained a stronghold over the state’s government operations.

In short, it has taken the exact opposite direction from the days when Keats was relevant politically and the state government was supposedly the mechanism that tried to keep the city under control.

As Keats put it, “we live in the most corrupt big city, in the most corrupt big county in the most corrupt state in America.” That statement strikes me as rhetorical nonsense, perhaps even more outrageous than his personal thoughts about Pate Philip personally.

I CAN’T HELP but wonder what he will make of the political culture that exists in Austin. It’s not like the Texas Legislature has a history of good government ideals. Or will he be willing to forgive such behavior, provided that it is being done by people who share the same “R” after their names that he used to have.

I also wonder what Keats is going to think of Texas, which is experiencing population growth big enough to gain two more members of Congress primarily because of a significant Latino population that threatens to overturn the Republican establishment that currently controls that state’s government. The Lone Star State’s GOP status quo isn’t going to last forever.

Will he someday see a changed situation there, and will be writing a letter to the Texas political establishment, telling them how their state has declined and how he’s leaving? Where will he go? Eventually, he’s going to run out of places to live.

Then, maybe he’ll want to come back to Illinois, which in its variety offers a unique lifestyle that ought to appeal to everyone. That even includes our weather. He’s going to learn how hot Texas can be in summertime, particularly for someone who writes, “I love four seasons.”

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Why are we still arguing about another area airport all these decades later?

It seems that former Rep. (and state legislator) Debbie Halvorson of Crete (in the suburbs, not in Greece) is going to have a political fight on her hands if officials persist with plans to make her the new head of the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Is this sign as improbable as a Cubs' World Series title?



Current Transportation boss Gary Hannig wants to retire, although he has agreed to stay on until the end of the Legislature’s session (May 31) so as to give Gov. Pat Quinn some time to pick a replacement.

THE REPORTS ARE indicating that Halvorson – who was among the Democratic congressmen who got dumped by rural-oriented Republicans in last year’s off-beat election cycle – is a favorite to get the new position, which is one of the more prominent posts in Illinois state government.

Yet just as soon as the reports started indicating that Halvorson could get the job, and that Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., is among her backers, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that she has an outspoken opponent.

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., doesn’t want her anywhere near the post. Unlike many political people who let their opinions become known in the most veiled of ways, Jackson came right out and trashed her, saying in a statement that she is, “not qualified to be the secretary” and is, “no transportation expert.”

What this fight is about is the prospects of building a new airport for the Chicago area on farmland the state has been buying in recent years just north of Peotone. Jackson is one of the few Chicago-based political people who actually cares about this issue, which he sees solely as a creator of jobs – many of which would wind up being filled by the people who live in his Far South Side and surrounding suburbs congressional district.

JACKSON: Holding a grudge?

HALVORSON, WHEN SHE was the member of Congress whose district actually included the proposed airport site, didn’t do anything to advance Jackson’s desires for the project. Now, he wants to dump on her for it.

On a certain level, this is a boring political fight. It is way too predictable, and the petty jealousies involved just some across too clearly.

Yet what amazes me about this issue is that it is one we still are arguing as we enter the second decade of the 21^st Century.

Whether or not Peotone should ever be a full-fledged airport for the Chicago metropolitan area (complimenting the existing O’Hare International and Midway airports) is an argument that should have been resolved so long ago.

THE FACT THAT it hasn’t been is more of an embarrassment for Chicago political types than anything else.

I take this attitude because it was back in the early-to-mid 1980s that Federal Aviation Administration officials came to the realization that O’Hare International Airport was not capable of handling the aviation needs of Chicago, and could not be significantly expanded unless officials were prepared to start wiping suburban towns off the map to turn them into additional runways.

That might well be what the airlines would like to see, but it is not going to happen.

It was by the late 1980s that a process for picking a new airport site had worked its way down to a few possible locations – including Peotone. Then, the political hacks got involved, and probably permanently derailed any chance this issue ever had to turn into a real, brick-and-mortar airport.

I’M OLD ENOUGH to remember when Mayor Richard M. Daley wanted to pave over the Hegewisch neighborhood to create an airport site near Lake Calumet on the city’s far southeastern corner. Of course, that was so long ago that I wonder if anyone currently at City Hall has any recollection of what it was that Daley once proposed?

In recent years, it has turned into a political fight concerning who would control a prospective Peotone site, since Will County officials seem to think it should be regarded as their local airstrip under their control – rather than a part of the Chicago-area’s airport system as a whole.

That is why we have land being purchased, and occasional statements being made by local officials about how the project is inching its way toward completion. Yet I don’t know many people who seriously expect to ever catch a flight out-of-town at the proposed Lincoln Airport (as in Honest Abe).

Personally, I have two thoughts about the airport issue (which I wrote about in detail in the late 1980s when I was a reporter-type person for the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago). One is that the only real problem with the idea of expanding the Gary/Chicago International Airport into a facility that would be worthy of its name is that the idea makes too much sense for political people to comprehend.

I STILL REMEMBER then-Lieutenant Gov. George Ryan saying he could not, in good conscience, vote for anything that supported putting an airport outside of Illinois’ boundaries, which is a small-minded attitude that makes him worthy of derision more than anything the conservative ideologues think he did wrong, connected to capital punishment.

HALVORSON: Will she be back?

The other thought is that I recall the talk from the late 1980s that explained just how long-range a project airport construction is. The idea was that if a site was picked back then, it would probably be sometime in the early 2000s that the first flight would land there at a small facility that would continue to be expanded. Completion of the overall airport would be sometime later in the decade.

Which means by now, had the personal politics not interfered, we’d have the airport, which is still essential if the Chicago metropolitan area is to retain its role as a transportation hub for the nation.

And the idea of making Halvorson – who during her time as a state senator worked her way up to the post of majority leader – into a prominent state agency head would be seen as the no-brainer decision that it truly is.

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EXTRA: “Aw, nuts!”

I'm now rooting to be "Number 3." Graphic provided by Illinois Wesleyan University.

World War II-era General Tony McAuliffe expressed my sentiments exactly as I watched the Illinois Wesleyan University Titans’ women’s basketball team get beat Friday 87-77 by St. Louis-based Washington University.



I know, I know. The University of Illinois men’s basketball program is our state’s lone representative in the Division I NCAA tourney, taking on the University of Nevada-Las Vegas at a game being played Friday in Tulsa, Okla.

HERE IN CHICAGO, the Division I tourney staged a few games at the United Center – with Notre Dame managing to win their Friday game by a 69-56 score over the University of Akron and Purdue University whomping on St. Peter’s 65-43.

But for my college basketball fix, I was following the Titans (who back when I was a student in Bloomington, Ill., still referred to their women’s athletic teams as the “Lady Titans”), using what turned out to be a very reliable internet connection to watch the game at www.ncaa.com.

It’s my alma mater (I don't "get" people who follow college sports without a personal connection, unless they're degenerate gamblers), and I felt the curiosity to see if Illinois Wesleyan could pull off a national title, albeit one at the Division III level. It certainly wasn’t going to happen by the men’s program, who qualified for the men’s tourney and managed to win one game, before being knocked out of play a couple of weeks ago.

This is the element that catches my attention the most. The Division I tourney (the alleged “March Madness,” even though anyone with sense knows that phrase originated with high school basketball in Illinois) is just now beginning, and will drag out into the early days of April, because of officials who want to milk it for all the television money they can get.

THERE IS NO such money at the Division III level, although some of the programs at that level are as competitive and fierce-spirited as anything one sees at Division I – particularly the lesser programs at that level. No one is going to convince me that the basketball at a place like Eastern Illinois or Chicago State universities is any more interesting than the elite Division III programs.

The end result is that, not only did I watch my game Friday night on my laptop computer, that tourney is on the verge of being over. Illinois Wesleyan made it to the Final Four – and Washington’s victory puts them in line to defend their national title from 2010 when they play Amhurst University.

And as for the Titans? I’m not sure if I have the temperament to watch Saturday’s consolation game against Christopher Newport without swearing at my computer screen.

Perhaps I’ll watch something lower-key and less significant. Perhaps Morehead State versus Richmond?

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Someone far more knowledgeable than I offers a decent explanation of the difference between college basketball at the Division I and Division III levels – aside from the school enrollments.

The “Things” that wouldn’t leave!

They seem to be the duo that just won’t leave, and that some people don’t want to depart.

PFLEGER: Entering his fourth decade



I’m referring to Rev. Michael Pfleger of the Gresham neighborhood’s St. Sabina Catholic Church, and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald – the federal prosecutor who locally can claim two gubernatorial notches on his professional belt.

BOTH MEN HOLD positions that have a certain protocol behind them that says there is a certain time limit to the job, after which they’re supposed to move on to other professional challenges.

In the case of Pfleger, the Catholic Archdiocese usually assigns priests to a parish for six years, and allows for the occasional extension to 12 years in a single church. For Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney is supposed to serve four years, then move on to another prosecutorial post.

That is, if they don’t decide to run for electoral office, or shift to some other city.

Pfleger has far exceeded his time limit. He has been at the church on 79^th Street for three full decades, while Fitzgerald will hit the one-decade mark come October.

WHICH IS WHY it is ironic that speculation popped up this week that both men might finally be moving on to another position.

In the case of Fitzgerald, he supposedly is in line to be the head of the FBI. The man whom many would like to think of as a 21^st Century version of Eliot Ness could become the modern-day equivalent of J. Edgar Hoover.

FITZGERALD: He should have been two AGs ago



For Pfleger, he had a sit-down with Cardinal Francis George recently to talk about his professional future. The outcry from various segments of Chicago caused the Archdiocese to feel the need to issue a statement Thursday saying he’s not going anywhere else anytime soon, because his departure would harm the St. Sabina parish.

The sad thing is that such a statement likely is true.

THE PARISH IN a one-time Irish neighborhood that long ago became majority African-American in character likely would have died off years ago had it not been for Pfleger – who throughout his years as a priest has shown a willingness to adapt himself.

He may be one of the few Catholic priests in Chicago who has any real feel or understanding for the African-American population in this city (which may be shrinking, but still accounts for one-third of Chicago).

If anything, St. Sabina is more about the Pfleger personality rather than traditional Catholic teachings, which is a fact that bothers some Catholics who would rather think it is the place of other people to adapt their views to that of the church’s establishment.

Which means that if Pfleger were to move on (the Chicago Tribune reported that church officials considered putting him in charge of Leo High School, before deciding to leave him in place for part of a fourth decade), it probably would turn off the people who regularly attend that parish’s services.

IT ALSO IS likely that Fitzgerald will remain in place for awhile longer.

He supposedly is on the short list to become FBI director. But various reports indicate he’s not necessarily the favorite.

And if he did try to leave for the Washington-based position, there would be people who would be convinced that Chicago was headed down the drain – just as much as there are some people who are convinced that Pfleger is an essential part of his parish and its surrounding neighborhood.

Fitzgerald is the guy who during his time as Chicago’s top federal prosecutor oversaw the staffs that prosecuted George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, along with one-time Chicago Sun-Times executive Conrad Black, several city officials in the Hired Truck Program, and one-time Chicago Police commander Jon Burge – who started serving his prison stint this week.

THAT IS ON top of his D.C.-based work in prosecuting former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for perjury.

There are those people who are convinced that no other person would have used the U.S. attorney position to prosecute so many people so indiscriminately.

It has gotten to the point where the political establishment that ultimately decides who gets to be the U.S. attorney is afraid to think of moving him elsewhere. Fitzgerald most likely would have to receive such a high-ranking title as “FBI director” in order to justify to his local fans that he wasn’t somehow being screwed over in being removed from the Chicago prosecutorial post.

Which is sad.

PERSONALLY, I HAVE watched Pfleger and Fitzgerald during my two-plus decades as a reporter-type person. Watching Fitzgerald assume the mantel of prosecuting political corruption and expecting government officials to actually uphold the ideals of good government sounds noble, as are many of Pfleger’s most-outspoken moments meant to eliminate the scourges of drugs and alcohol from inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago.

The problem is that keeping one official too long causes us to rely too heavily upon them. Officials start to forget that everyone eventually must move on.

The Archdiocese, in saying this week that Pfleger will remain at St. Sabina, said in part, “we believe that removing him at this time would be devastating to both our parish and the Auburn/Gresham community.”

I can’t help but think that the U.S. attorney’s office will someday have to issue a nearly identical statement that says Fitzgerald will remain in town for awhile longer.

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EXTRA: China trip another Daley “last”

DALEY: His final mayoral sojourn

Richard M. Daley has managed to work in potentially his last foreign trip as Chicago mayor. He’s headed for China.

Daley will be leading a delegation to Beijing to try to promote stronger business ties between the two cities, which actually strengthens business ties between the two countries as well.

THIS TRIP WILL be Daley’s fifth to China during his 21-plus years as Chicago mayor. It also brings a sense of payback, since China President Hu Jintao included our city in his own visit earlier this year to the United States.

Which keeps alive the idea that we’re going to be giving much attention in coming weeks to all the “lasts” that will take place during the Daley administration – which runs through early May, at which time Rahm Emanuel officially becomes our city’s mayor.

Daley did his last St. Patrick’s Day parade as mayor last Saturday (five days before the actual holiday), then announced his last foreign trip on Thursday.

Now I’m really wondering what Daley’s last baseball Opening Day will be like, and trying to figure whether he will stick with the Sox on April 7, or take advantage of the Cubs’ season opener on April Fool’s Day.

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“Blacker” than Obama. Hit by “tsunami.” What will Rod Blagojevich say next?

BLAGOJEVICH: Now, he's Japanese?

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if it is Rod Blagojevich himself who is peddling the theory that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is on the verge of becoming the head of the FBI.

It’s not that I don’t doubt Fitzgerald’s straight-arrow aggressiveness or his own ambitions. It’s just that I wonder if our state’s former governor is delusional enough that he would believe the departure from Chicago of Fitzgerald MIGHT give him a chance to get out of a second trial.

A PART OF me wonders if it is the stress of having a second trial coming up in U.S. District Court that is causing Blagojevich to make outrageous comments.

Such as his latest comment comparing his impeachment and removal from office by the General Assembly to the tsunami that took out Japan and caused damage to nuclear power plants so extensive that the implications will be global in nature.

Yeah, sure. Blagojevich’s removal from office and broken financial status so bad that he can’t work is really comparable to the Japanese devastation.

The fact that Blagojevich was able to use the same radio frequency that turned Larry Lujack into a broadcast immortal to spew this particular theory convinces me of how far down WLS-AM has sunk in recent decades.

“A TSUNAMI THAT happened to me,” is how Blagojevich described his legal predicament. In one sense, I can see what he is getting at. The legal process has totally overwhelmed his life, destroying any semblance that he was a person of political significance.

Of course, the difference is that the tsunami that hit Japan devastated a nation. The legal process didn’t devastate anybody but Blagojevich. In fact, it may have saved our society in Illinois as a whole.

FITZGERALD: Leaving Chicago?



Not because I think the idea that Blagojevich wanted to know what he would get in return for giving some public official an appointment to the U.S. Senate is the most outrageous offense that can be conceived.

It is because Blagojevich continues to rant about the state officials (“cynical scoundrels,” he calls Gov. Pat Quinn and the Legislature’s leaders) over the income tax increase that got passed to help raise money to start closing the ridiculously absurd gap that exists in the Illinois budgetary situation.

“A FEEDING FRENZY.” “Lunching up on your money.” “A deal with the devil.” That was just some of Blagojevich’s over-the-top rhetoric.

Now I wasn’t enthused about the income tax increase, particularly since as a free-lance writer, no one is withholding any money for my taxes and I have to calculate and pay them myself. I am fully aware of how much of my piddling income will be going to the state of Illinois.

Yet I realize the essentialness of the increase because of how large the budget gap had become. The idea that a significant increase of some type wasn’t going to be part of the solution is ridiculous.

Yet that is the impression Blagojevich would like to create. Which as far as I’m concerned makes him a significant part of the state’s financial problem.

PERHAPS SOME SERIOUS action back when he was governor would have helped prevent the budget gap from ever getting so big! Perhaps Blagojevich could have averted the problem.

Instead, he enhanced it by being more obsessed with engaging in rhetoric as governor that was meant more to show those legislative leaders that HE was the boss. He was obsessed with putting them in their place. If anything, I can’t help but think that Blagojevich is still overly concerned with putting political people in their place – rather than worrying about his own legal defense.

If Blagojevich does wind up doing some serious prison time (in all honesty, the people who talk about the former governor doing a decade or more in prison are being ridiculous), he’s not going to have much of anyone to blame but himself.

His personality has ticked off so many people that it seems the world is now gunning for him. Fitzgerald can go to Washington to be the modern-day J. Edgar Hoover. His successor will be just as eager to put Blagojevich away. Perhaps that is the real tsunami that is waiting to hit Blagojevich once his trial (scheduled to begin April 20) concludes.

AS FOR BLAGOJEVICH and his reference to the tsunami, it is tasteless. But I suppose we really shouldn’t be shocked.

This is, after all, the man who once described himself as being, “blacker than Barack Obama” (remember Esquire?). So after thinking of himself as a (sort-of) African-American, now he wants to be Japanese?

In his mind, Blagojevich thinks he’s all of us. All I can say is if he ever gets any delusion to try to claim solidarity with Latinos, this is one person with ethnic origins in Latin America who is willing to say right now, “No, thanks.” We don’t want him.

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