Brown wants to be mayor; can she win 2019 election before being indicted?

It’s not unheard of for someone under criminal suspicion by federal investigators to run for government office. Heck, the taint of a possible indictment doesn’t even always scare voters off from casting a ballot in support of someone.

Is this for real?

Yet I suspect that Dorothy Brown, the Cook County Circuit Court clerk who now has visions of running for mayor come the 2019 election cycle, may well go into the political history books for an over-bloated sense of self-importance.

FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS HAVE long focused their attention on Brown’s behavior as a court clerk and political official, even though as of yet she has not been indicted for anything.

Yet the reports have been intense enough that her name always gets tossed about whenever political corruption is the topic of discussion.

So should Brown, who has been a part of the local government for nearly two decades, seriously be thinking of herself as a challenger to Mayor Rahm Emanuel when he seeks re-election come the Feb. 26 municipal elections?

My guess is she figures there’s so many other challengers (it could be as many as one dozen in the non-partisan election format) that she has as good a chance as anybody else in finishing in second place – which would put her up against Emanuel in an April 2 run-off election (provided that Rahm doesn’t get a clear majority in February).

Just a couple of past politicos who ran ...

BUT COULD BROWN, who some say solicited cash and gifts from her employees – in exchange for promotions, actually overcome the political stink of suspicion and win anything? For her part, Brown says people are lying to federal investigators about her. Or is this a way of bloating her ego in the months prior to the federal government handing down an indictment?

Would this ultimately be the “achievement” for which Brown will be remembered on political scene – the candidate who got indicted in mid-election cycle!

Of course, there have been many names in our political past who wound up having to deal with the suspicion of criminal allegations being floated against them.

... for office with taint of indictment

Rod Blagojevich, whose name cropped up in the news recently when the Supreme Court of the United States rejected a final attempt at appealing his conviction, had suspicion and the FBI against him when he sought re-election in 2006.

YET HE MANAGED to win a second term in office by dumping so much rhetorical crud (including some outright slander) against the reputation of Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka. It wasn’t until more than two years later that the U.S. Attorney’s office came down with the indictment (which actually was motivated by his actions in the days following the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama).

Blagojevich was in position to pick Obama’s replacement from Illinois in the U.S. Senate, and prosecutors claim he blatantly solicited payoffs from people interested in getting the appointment.

There are some who think that if Blagojevich hadn’t been so arrogant in his behavior while under investigation, federal investigators might not have been able to get anything on Rod – and the resulting years of criminal proceedings and his incarceration wouldn’t have occurred.

Is that what could happen with Brown? Her having the nerve to run for mayor while under suspicion will motivate prosecutorial-types to find something on her? I’m sure there are some who will fantasize about Brown being carted away in handcuffs by FBI agents just before she could take the mayoral oath of office.

THE OTHER “BIG name” politico who pops into my head is Dan Rostenkowski, the Northwest Side member of Congress who used to be the all-powerful House Ways & Means chairman before he got busted for what some considered a petty offense – purchasing some $22,000 in stamps from the House Post Office, then converting them to cash for his personal use.

EMANUEL: Trying to laugh off his challengers

This came up during his re-election bid of 1994, and the 36-year member of Congress ultimately lost to Republican Mike Flanagan, who lasted but one two-year term before being replaced by none-other-than Blagojevich in his days before becoming governor.

Can Brown be more successful than Rostenkowski was in overcoming suspicion in swaying voters to back her bid for higher office?

Or will her scheduled announcement Sunday that she’s running for mayor merely be the beginning of an absurd election cycle, one which Emanuel himself on Thursday described as a, “political improv show … audition(ing) more cast members.”

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Political "Pope" now free to be political elder statesman like Rosty, "Fast Eddie"

I kind of wish I had known about the release from prison of one-time political powerbroker William Cellini last week when it happened.

CELLINI: Planning for his future

For it seems that the Springfield resident who for decades has used his fundraising skills and political contacts to benefit political candidates of both major parties (even though he himself was a Republican) is no longer occupying space at the federal correctional center in Terre Haute, Ind.

IN FACT, CELLINI was released from the minimum-security work camp near the maximum-security prison last week on Halloween!

Just think, I could have celebrated the holiday by going as Cellini himself, perhaps wearing an ornate "Pope-like" ring so that other politicos could come and kiss it! Of course, there probably would have been a few confused people who would have wondered why an old fool like myself was going disguised as an even older person whom they probably never paid much attention to during his decades of service in and around government.

Cellini is now doing the halfway house portion of federal rehabilitation, where he theoretically will spend this month at a Salvation Army facility on the West Side – getting himself acclimated to life in proper society.

His 366-day prison sentence that he began serving in January won’t technically end until Dec. 5 – yes, Bill behaved himself in prison and qualified for 47 days off his sentence for good behavior.

FOR THE RECORD, the actions that finally got Cellini put away following a career being associated with government that dates back to the early 1970s involved now-incarcerated former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

VRDOLYAK: Cellini's urban counterpart?

Cellini used his contacts to raise money for the Blagojevich campaign (much of which wound up paying for the legal defense during his two trials), and it was claimed during Cellini’s trial that he approached an investment firm to solicit money with promises that the firm would get to handle state teacher pension funds.

Personally, I think the Blagojevich ties are a miniscule part of the Cellini career – which has mostly consisted of being the guy to whom the government officials turn when they want something done.

After all, he hasn’t held any electoral posts anywhere outside of Springfield – and those were in municipal government back in the 1960s. Within state government, he is a former director of Public Works and Buildings and served two years as the first-ever head of the Illinois Department of Transportation.

ROSTENKOWSKI: Elder statesman?

BUT THE ELECTION of Dan Walker (insert bad joke about Walker’s eventual criminal conviction here) in 1972 as governor brought that to an end.

Although he served as the treasurer of the Sangamon County Republican Party, he really became the corporate type who made himself some money while also indulging himself in politics as a hobby of sorts.

Which means what Cellini really became was the guy who worked with decades worth of government officials, seeing the way things worked. Some argue exposure to all that power throughout the years made him cross the line to criminal behavior.

To me, it makes me wonder if Cellini really ought to be compared to one-time House Ways and Means Chair Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., and former 10^th Ward Alderman and Cook County Democratic Chairman (who converted himself to Republicanism later in life) Ed Vrdolyak.

ROSTENKOWSKI LITERALLY SPENT the rest of his life after completing his prison time in the 1990s being the elder statesman of the Chicago “Machine.”

How many times did we see him pop up on an Election Day until his death in 2010 for instant analysis of what the voter tallies really meant? Or use his positions as a Northwestern University lecturer and Loyola University senior fellow to influence the way future generations of people perceived politics? Is Cellini destined for similar use at the University of Illinois' Springfield campus?

Vrdolyak these days crops up occasionally in a similar role. Is this the ultimate fate for Cellini? Are Vrdolyak/Cellini destined to become the colorfully-tainted political pundits from Chicago/downstate?

We’ll be waiting to see the outcome.

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Blagojevich sees himself as the next Rostenkowski. I doubt anybody else does

BLAGOJEVICH: Not Rosty?

It’s pretty obvious to me what delusion is running through the mind of Rod Blagojevich these days.

He’s one month away from having to endure a second criminal trial in U.S. District Court, and I think our state’s former governor has accepted the fact that prosecutors have it in for him enough that they’re going to get “guilty” verdicts on most (if not all) of those 20 counts that are pending against him.

I THINK MILOROD knows on some level, although he’ll never admit it, that he’s going to have to do some time in a federal correctional center (although the people who seriously rant and rage about 20-year prison terms are out-of-touch with reality to the point where perhaps they belong in a different type of institution).

What makes me think this is the way Blagojevich has been behaving in the months since he was found guilty on one lone count that, by itself, doesn’t amount to much.

Next month, he’s set to be a keynote speaker to the Junior State of America group, which is having its convention to encourage young people to get involved in civics and public policy on April 2 in suburban Oak Brook.

More than 500 teenagers will have the chance to feel motivated by Blagojevich’s words, or perhaps repulsed. I wonder how the experience will compare to that July 24, 1963 Boys Nation gathering at the White House, where photographers unknowingly (for nearly three decades) got a shot of a current  president greeting a future president.



MY POINT IN bringing this up is to say that Blagojevich thinks he’s going to be a political mentor. He thinks he has something significant to say, and that he can spin the fact that he did a bit of time in prison is just a part of what makes him a colorful character.

Just like Dan Rostenkowski, the long-time chairman of House Ways and Means who managed to accomplish many significant things during his time representing the Northwest Side of Chicago in Congress.

When Rostenkowski got out of prison for his own early 1990’s act of political corruption (for which now-former President Bill Clinton gave him a pardon), he became the wisened sage of Chicago politics – the man who understood both the ward organizations (locally, the only reason people paid attention to him was that he was also the Democratic committeeman) and the hallowed halls of Congress and the White House.

He lectured (at Northwestern University). He even managed to get a “senior fellow” title from Loyola University – which now has his papers as part of its Congressional Archives.

PERSONALLY, I ALWAYS got a kick out of watching Rostenkowski on Election Night, as he inevitably would be hired by one of the local television stations to be their “expert commentator” who puts the voter tallies into their proper perspective. I’ll confess that back when Rostenkowski was still alive, I would often pick which television station to watch for election results based on which one would have the one-time Daniel Rosten in their studio for the evening.

I can’t help but think that Blagojevich envisions himself as following in this same pattern, just like he followed Rostenkowski into the same seat in Congress – representing the same Northwest Side of Chicago (with only a two-year interruption by Michael P. Flanagan, the last Chicago Republican to date to serve in Congress) in Washington.

Not that I think anybody else sees the two as having anything in common. I can’t help but think of the film “Bull Durham,” where Kevin Costner’s “Crash Davis” character lectures teammate Tim Robbins’ “Nuke LaLoosh” about how once he wins 20 games in a season in the major leagues, then he can let the fungus grow on his shower shoes and people will think he’s colorful.

ROSTENKOWSKI: Where's the Blagojevich portrait?

“Until you win 20 in the show, it means you’re a slob,” Davis snaps at LaLoosh.

IF ONE SEES the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (which Rostenkowski himself always boasted significantly reduced the number of lower-income people who even had to pay federal taxes) as his “20 wins” in the show, he is colorful. While Blagojevich’s nondescript record as governor just makes him the slob.

Even though Blagojevich may be more ambitious than Rostenkowski. I don’t recall the congressman ever wanting to travel to England the way that Blagojevich wanted to travel out of the country to speak to the Oxford Union, a centuries-old speakers and debate society.

I can see where Blagojevich wants to erase the image of a guy who’s reduced to having his wife eat bugs on national television – which was the last time he asked for permission to leave the United States.

It’s almost too bad that he didn’t get the chance to travel (Blagojevich withdrew his travel request on Tuesday, although one suspects he only did so because he knew U.S. District Judge James Zagel would reject it).

BUT FRET NOT. For there is a real good chance that Blagojevich will get to see an “Oxford.”

The only thing is it will be the one in Wisconsin, the site of the minimum-security federal correctional center where many a Chicago politico has wound up serving his time, and adding the term “Oxford education” to the terminology in use at City Hall and its environs,.

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EXTRA: Rostenkowski evidence that not everything from political past was bad

Dan Rostenkowski,the one-time mighty chairman of Ways and Means whom some people were determined to think of as corrupt even before he got busted by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and served just over a year in prison, is gone - having died Wednesday at his residence in Lake Benedict, Wis.

Yet despite the amount of rhetoric we’re going to hear in coming days about corrupt politics and Rostenkowski’s role in it, I must admit my own memories of the Northwest Side politico are largely positive.

PERHAPS IT IS because Rostenkowski, although a loyal member of the Democratic Party, wasn’t an ideologue.

He was sent to Washington in the early 1960s (after having served a short stint in Springfield, Ill.) with instructions from Mayor Daley himself (Richard J., that is. M. was still a schoolboy back then) to look out for Chicago’s interests.

Which is what he largely did, ensuring that his home city got its fair share of federal funding for various projects. Extension of the Chicago Transit Authority’s “blue line” trains to O’Hare International Airport, construction of the Deep Tunnel that ensures sewage does not get into Lake Michigan, significant overhauls of Lake Shore Drive and the Kennedy Expressway are just a few of those projects.

Although the Rostenkowski I remember used to boast of his work on the Tax Reform Act in 1986, which he would say with a touch of pride, “took millions of (low-income) people off the tax rolls altogether.”

YET ROSTENKOWSKI WAS like the politicians of that past era who would play their political games by day, then get along at night. There was none of the personal hatred of the opposition that has tainted so much of modern-day electoral politics.

We’re talking about a man who regarded George Bush, the elder, as a personal friend even before he became the president who succeeded Ronald Reagan. That friendship even extended after Bush was an ex-president and Rostenkowski was serving his prison term.

I even remember the reaction of then-Gov. Jim Edgar when Rostenkowski was defeated in the 1994 elections by one-term Rep. Michael Flanagan, R-Chicago. By that point, Rostenkowski was an indicted politico. It would have been easy for political people with a future to write him off.

Yet Edgar called his defeat a loss for all of Illinois, even though Edgar’s own Republican Party wound up gaining that congressional seat (which likely will make Flanagan the answer to a trivia question for years to come – Who is the last Republican to represent Chicago in Congress?)

IF ANYTHING, THE fact that both Rostenkowski and Rod Blagojevich represented the same part of Chicago in Congress shows how much things have changed. Some will try to dismiss both of them as corrupt politicos (and link George Ryan’s name into the mix as well).

Yet the fact that people (except for the most hard-core ideologues) to this day can still remember positive things associated with Rostenkowski is something that will never happen with Blagojevich – who got impeached and removed from office because his own political allies couldn’t stand him any longer. Blagojevich couldn’t work with anybody.

It was that ability to put aside partisanship and work with all sides to get things done that earned Rostenkowski such praise, and why he should be remembered as more than a convicted mail frauder who served 17 months receiving an “Oxford education” (a sentence at the federal correctional center near Oxford, Wis.). It was also why Bill Clinton, toward the end of his time as president, gave Rostenkowski a presidential pardon.

Now I’m sure there are some people who will dismiss some sentiments. They will claim the things Rostenkowsi accomplished as a government official came at too high a price to taxpayers. They will say the federal funding Chicago received throughout the years were mere “crumbs” compared to what city taxpayers had to cough up.

BUT I CAN’T help but feel most of these people are mere ideologues who are determined to denigrate anything they can’t personally take credit for. They are the people who are willing to put partisanship ahead of getting things done – and I will always believe they are the problem with our current political set-up.

Which is why it may be perfectly ironic that Rostenkowski died on the day after Linda McMahon (whose claim to fame is being married to the guy who gave us World Wrestling Entertainment and such figures as The Rock, Triple-H and Chyna) managed to win a Republican nomination for a seat in the Senate from Connecticut.

She boasts that her political ignorance is her greatest advantage. Her victory comes as the man who reeked of political experience leaves us. The shift in attitude is one that saddens me, and is the reason why I will acknowledge the passing of Rostenkowski with a touch of respect. They don’t make ‘em like Rostenkowski anymore, and that is a fact for which we should express some regret.

It’s even the reason that I will forgive the man for the fact that when I, as a reporter-type person, occasionally dealt with him back in the early 1990s, he never could keep it straight in his head whether my name was “Greg” or “George.”

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Betty is back! Is Blagojevich watching?

Following the newscasts on Monday, I couldn’t help but wonder if Rod Blagojevich was watching as well. Because seeing the “return” of Betty Loren Maltese to the Chicago metropolitan area could have given him a clear vision of what his life could be like some day.

Maltese, the one-time president of the Town of Cicero, has suffered the fate that many people are eagerly hoping befalls the now-impeached and removed Illinois governor some day.

SHE WAS SENT to prison, which broke her mentally. She was hit with fines and demands for reimbursement so high ($8 million) that she seriously is in debt. Her employability these days is so limited that it is highly unlikely she will ever be out of debt no matter how long she lives.

She has no home, no income. In fact, she has no family around her – they all left the Cicero area after Betty was sent away to prison.

So bringing Maltese back to the Chicago area on Monday was really more about personal humiliation than anything else.

Maltese served more than six years in federal correctional centers outside of Illinois, but is now finishing her prison term living in half-way houses – which in theory are preparing her for re-entry into society. She had been staying in such facilities in the Las Vegas area (which is not far from her adopted daughter now living in Arizona).

BUT OFFICIALS GOT her shifted to Chicago to finish the four more months she still must stay in such a place, specifically at the Salvation Army facility on Ashland Avenue where many convicted corrupt pols wind up finishing their prison time.

Why do I think this was about personal humiliation?

I think it was all about subjecting her to that final “perp walk,” where she had to get out of a car and walk into the facility while television cameras preserved the moment for “eternity,” or at least the few seconds of airtime that it took to show the footage on the Monday night newscasts.

For the record, Betty had nothing to say. No last-minute confessions. No curses at a reporter whose microphone got a little too close to her face for comfort.

ALSO, FOR WHAT it’s worth, none of the overly made-up appearance that used to be the “trademark” of Maltese. She was downright subdued.

I expect she will keep her mouth shut for so long as she must be in the Chicago area, then will leave us for good once she no longer has the federal government watching her every move (she must do three years probation, once her prison term is officially complete).

If it reads like I’m giving you a lot of trivial details about Maltese’s return to Chicago, you’d be correct. Because there really isn’t much else to say or write about her.

She was found guilty back in the early part of the past decade of allegations that Cicero taxpayers were ripped off of $12 million-plus by an insurance company that overcharged for its services, with some of that excess money supposedly going to associates of “a certain Italian subculture” (which is how actor Vince Curatola’s Johnny “Sack” Sacramoni character once described organized crime in an episode of “The Sopranos”).

THERE’S NOTHING NEW here.

The thought that she has to repay this money (conditions of her probation is that she has to cough up at least 20 percent of every paycheck she receives in the future toward her restitution) also isn’t new.

In fact, about the only new aspect is the revelation that Maltese is NOT among the ranks of the 47 million uninsured U.S. residents. Cicero government must provide her with a health insurance policy for the rest of her life.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that current Cicero municipal officials are looking into altering the perk, but even they concede they can only change it for future officials – not Maltese.

SO AT LEAST Betty can afford to go to the doctor when she gets sick. That might very well be the highlight of her life, at this point.

I find it all interesting because, as I hinted earlier, I think Maltese is the prototype for what people want to happen to Blagojevich.

Perhaps it is because Maltese’ so-called crime involved elements of organized crime, but she gets to be the pariah of our local politics. Someday, she likely will be joined by Blagojevich.

Perhaps they will make a nice couple. They’d even be bipartisan examples of how government corruption can break someone (after all, Betty considered herself to be a good Republican).

NEITHER MALTESE NOR Blagojevich is going to get the Dan Rostenkowski treatment (guest lecturer at Northwestern Universtiy, senior fellow at Loyola U. of Chicago, Election Night commentator on local television newscasts), which – if he survives, he turns 76 on Feb. 24 – is the fate I ultimately expect to occur for former Illinois Gov. George H. Ryan.

I guess that’s the difference between being an “old school” pol like Rostenkowski or Ryan who can point to real accomplishments in their political careers that benefitted the public, and the younger pols who didn’t stick around long enough on the political scene to achieve something of lasting value.

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