Is the Thompson Center destined to dominate Randolph and LaSalle? Or become a vacant block in the city grid? Photograph by Gregory Tejeda |
Does one-time House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, currently serving time in a federal correctional center, really have the nerve to demand repayment of the money he allegedly paid out to keep certain people quiet about past indiscretions in his lifetime?
FOR
THAT MATTER, did former Gov. Rod Blagojevich really go down to the final
seconds of the Barack Obama presidency believing he had a chance to gain
clemency from the man he once jealously derided and believed stole his own
presidential aspirations?
Even
though, to be honest, it was only Blagojevich himself who ever thought he’d
wind up in the “crown jewel of the federal penal system” (to steal from Harry
S. Truman) rather than a cell at the Englewood Federal Correctional Institute
in Colorado.
Yes,
it’s true. One does not have to focus attention on the District of Columbia to
see silly and absurd behavior. President Donald J. Trump will have competition
for the category of political nonsense.
Take
the talk that Gov. Bruce Rauner is stirring up again about wanting to demolish
the Thompson Center state government building. He has pitched this idea before,
although with state government’s other problems it is quite a ways away from
becoming reality.
RAUNER: Will he be able to do anything w/ bldg.? |
SO TO LEARN that architect Helmut Jahn (who designed the structure back in the 1980s as the State of Illinois Center) is defending his structure and proposing an exorbitant renovation that would include a 110-story tower at the southwest corner is beyond belief.
Considering
that the current structure is only 16 stories, with Rauner’s office on the top
floor. Does Bruce think he’d get a new office complex on the new top floor –
allowing him to look down on the gardens that exist on the roof of City Hall
located across the street?
Or
maybe the governor thinks he can one-up the new president by having a Chicago
office that could compete in height with the Second City take on a Trump Tower.
Denny a long way from dignity of Speakership |
Would that inspire the prez to tell his sons who technically are now running the real estate company to figure out a way to one-up the governor – who has been incredibly quiet and refusing to say anything that could be interpreted as supporting or opposing the new reign of Trump that befell the nation on Friday.
BUT
THEN, THERE is the plight of Denny Hastert, who currently is serving a prison
term at a correctional facility in Minnesota, has filed a lawsuit claiming that
$1.7 million he paid out to one of his former students at Yorkville High School
should be returned.
Hastert
is in prison through August on convictions of charges that he violated federal
laws concerning the withdrawing of money from bank accounts. Large withdrawals
are supposed to be publicly recorded and acknowledged.
But
Hastert wanted to get at large sums of money because he was facing that amounts
to blackmail threats from the former student, who says he was sexually abused
as a teenager by Hastert.
As
it is, Hastert paid the money and technically was supposed to pay another $1.8
million in order to ensure that the now middle-aged man would keep his mouth
shut. That man has his own lawsuit pending saying that Denny still owes him
money from their agreement. The courts ultimately will have to decide which of
these people has a less-sleazy legal argument, and it could wind up that
attorneys fees wind up devouring the money all the way around!
THEN,
WE GO back to Blagojevich, whose name was not included in either of the final
rounds of acts of clemency granted by Obama on Wednesday or Thursday.
Rod a long way from days of youthful hair |
The Chicago Sun-Times gave us a particularly pathetic image of former first lady Patti saying that Rod hadn’t given up hope yet because there was always the chance of a last-second commutation Friday morning.
Maybe
she was just saying that and really knew better. Either that, or our state’s
former governor has gone goofy from incarceration. Anybody who remembers the
Blagojevich/Obama animosity and jealousy over which would be the promising
young pol to come out of Illinois would know there would be no reason for Obama
to want to do a thing – particularly since it would whack his own legacy if he
bothered.
Resulting
in Blagojevich having to serve until about May 2024 in prison – unless Trump
feels some justification for granting an act of clemency. Which may be the most
ridiculous political fantasy of all.
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