Can I make an observation that should be obvious to anyone who is not wearing partisan blinders? Patrick Fitzgerald is a headline grabbing screw-up with an out sized ego hiding modest accomplishments.
He has won such slobbering praise from the media that the articles read like love notes from besotted teen agers. He actually has a blog. At first I thought it was a clever spoof, but it’s not. It’s actually him breaking his arm patting himself on the back and admiring himself.
So let’s review the history of this Fearless Fosdick of the bar.
He prosecuted one of the leaders of the original plot to blow up the World Trade Center, Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman. Big whoop. As an encore he indicted Osama bin Laden and you can see how effective that was.
He managed to indict and convict an Illinois politician, Republican Governor George Ryan, of corruption. Finding a corrupt politician in Illinois is so simple even a caveman can do it. Corruption is part of the job description. But Republicans in Illinois are vulnerable in the state that the Daley machine runs.
He railroaded newspaper Baron Conrad Black to prison on fraud charges the same way that he ran his other prosecutions, a well run PR campaign against the accused supported with a smattering of evidence. In essence, the jury convicted Black of being wealthy and arrogant.
He was asked to determine who leaked Valerie Plame’s name to the press and to determine if that was a crime. He knew the culprit’s identity the first day he took the job but did he prosecute? No. In fact no one was ever convicted of leaking her identity and we still don’t know if that was a crime. He decided to try mounting a bigger head on his trophy wall, aimed for Dick Cheney and bagged “Scooter” Libby instead. In large part Libby was convicted of working in the Bush administration by a Washington DC jury.
So now we come to the non-indictment of Rod Blagojevich. Most stories about this case refer to Blago as “indicted.” He’s not. Instead we simply witnessed a press briefing and a "complaint" by Fearless Fosdick in which he revealed snippets of phone conversations and accusations.
William Buckley once famously remarked that a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. So where’s the Blago indictment? Instead we have Fearless Fosdick asking for a 90 day delay before he hands up an indictment.
He has won such slobbering praise from the media that the articles read like love notes from besotted teen agers. He actually has a blog. At first I thought it was a clever spoof, but it’s not. It’s actually him breaking his arm patting himself on the back and admiring himself.
So let’s review the history of this Fearless Fosdick of the bar.
He prosecuted one of the leaders of the original plot to blow up the World Trade Center, Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman. Big whoop. As an encore he indicted Osama bin Laden and you can see how effective that was.
He managed to indict and convict an Illinois politician, Republican Governor George Ryan, of corruption. Finding a corrupt politician in Illinois is so simple even a caveman can do it. Corruption is part of the job description. But Republicans in Illinois are vulnerable in the state that the Daley machine runs.
He railroaded newspaper Baron Conrad Black to prison on fraud charges the same way that he ran his other prosecutions, a well run PR campaign against the accused supported with a smattering of evidence. In essence, the jury convicted Black of being wealthy and arrogant.
He was asked to determine who leaked Valerie Plame’s name to the press and to determine if that was a crime. He knew the culprit’s identity the first day he took the job but did he prosecute? No. In fact no one was ever convicted of leaking her identity and we still don’t know if that was a crime. He decided to try mounting a bigger head on his trophy wall, aimed for Dick Cheney and bagged “Scooter” Libby instead. In large part Libby was convicted of working in the Bush administration by a Washington DC jury.
So now we come to the non-indictment of Rod Blagojevich. Most stories about this case refer to Blago as “indicted.” He’s not. Instead we simply witnessed a press briefing and a "complaint" by Fearless Fosdick in which he revealed snippets of phone conversations and accusations.
William Buckley once famously remarked that a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. So where’s the Blago indictment? Instead we have Fearless Fosdick asking for a 90 day delay before he hands up an indictment.
If the press were even remotely curious they would ask why would a prosecutor delay an indictment with the evidence he says he already has? Maybe Fearless figured that Blago would fold up like a cheap suitcase following the press briefing. Instead, Blago has thumbed his nose at Fearless, the press corps, and the Democrats in Illinois and Washington who want him gone. He’s in his office signing laws, appointing Senators and acting like he’s done nothing criminal. And the way Fearless is acting, it’s beginning to dawn on some people that he may not have. Because Fearless short stopped whole bribery process, he may have given Blago an escape hatch.
Why did he do it? I would like to know. Ineptitude or ....?
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