Blagojevich, Fitzgerald, and Real Political Corruption

For the moment, the abhorrent actions of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich are admittedly making almost as many waves among the media elite as Idaho Senator Larry Craig playing "footsie" with an undercover agent in a Minneapolis Airport restroom. But while Craig's behavior was reprehensible and reflective of serious personal moral flaws, Blagojevich is accused of attempting to offer governance of the American people to the highest bidder.

In terms of its effects on America's ability to function as a representative republic, this crime ranks right up there with the infusion of Chinese campaign "contributions" during the Clinton years, or the massive voter fraud perpetrated by Obama's "community organizer" accomplices at ACORN. It is an affront to every decent citizen of Illinois, as well as the entirety of the United States of America.

Unfortunately, if the reactions of voters to the avalanche of similar such dealings throughout the past year's campaign cycle are any indication, not many people will be alarmed by this toxic encroachment on the nation's authority structure. Any shred of objectivity among the political class or the "mainstream" (read: liberal) media evaporated during the succession of real scandals and corruption of the Clinton years. As a result, those individuals who get their information and political direction from such sources as the "evening news" have become numb to the dangers of a thoroughly corrupted political system.

In the present political climate, malfeasance is either ignored or deemed significant, based not on its own merits or the impact it might have on real America, but overwhelmingly on whose party might reap political gain or negative fallout from the light of public scrutiny. So seriously has this situation degenerated that in the present, thoroughly partisan and poisoned climate, no room for real justice exists.

Consider, as a sterling example, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the principal law enforcement official in the unfolding Blagojevich scandal. His last big moment in the national spotlight was in 2005, when he concluded a two-year investigation involving high-level members of the Bush Administration over the supposed "outing" of CIA employee Valerie Plame.

Plame had become involved in a ruse to secure a role for her husband, Joe Wilson in an investigation of Iraqi efforts to acquire nuclear material from Niger. Commenting on Wilson's actions, investigative pundit Robert Novak mentioned Plame's employment and relation to Wilson in a July 14, 2003 nationally syndicated column. Immediately, cries of "foul" were heard throughout the left-wing political realm, asserting that somebody high up in the Bush White House had deliberately revealed Plame's identity as retribution for Wilson's unsupportive assessment (depending on which "assessment" one might have read) of the Iraqi nuclear threat.

Conducting his absurdly lengthy investigation of anybody and everybody who had even the remotest link to the Plame situation, Prosecutor Fitzgerald finally handed down an indictment of perjury against Louis I. "Scooter" Libby, then Chief of Staff for Vice-President Dick Cheney. At worst, Libby did not correctly answer some questions of "he said/she said" from conversations that had occurred months earlier.

Amazingly, it was eventually revealed to the public that, three months prior to even commencing his inquisition, Fitzgerald had gained full knowledge of who perpetrated the non-crime of revealing Plame's CIA status. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had actually gone to Libby and confessed to the Plame leak. Yet the "investigation" proceeded anyway! And in the aftermath of this near "kangaroo court" Fitzgerald made fantastic claims of having saved America from grave threats to its very existence.

So, as honest Americans have been appalled at the degree of corruption, vice, and overt fraud permeating the Democrat political machine and Obama camp throughout the 2008 election cycle, do they dare hope that Fitzgerald, as U.S. Attorney of Illinois might muster a similar degree of thoroughness and curiosity in pursuing justice for Governor Blagojevich and his many political connections, including the President-Elect?

Those naive enough to seriously speculate on such things need not have even held their collective breaths. With a speed vastly exceeding even Armitage's confession of guilt, Fitzgerald has, without any two-year investigation of Blagojevich's every acquaintance going back to kindergarten, already pronounced Obama entirely innocent and clear of any suspicion. The ugly picture painted by this affair reveals the decline and likely extinction of "old justice" in which right and wrong played the supreme role, as compared to its "new law" substitute, in which the legal system has become the ultimate tool by which the state manages the people.

In truth, Obama's coterie of close political associates and mentors reads like a "Who's who" of highly suspicious Illinois personages. From terrorist/anarchist William Ayers to "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright and assistant hate-preacher Michael Pfleger to real-estate racketeer Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the procession of sordid characters leaves little doubt as to what kind of society Obama favors. And Blagojevich is right at home in such company.

This is the heart of Illinois politics, and indeed the murkiest realm of underhanded American politics in general. To accept the notion that Obama flourished and grew there, that his political career was launched and guided from there, that he was in complete collegiality with its chief operators, and made his stunning rise to national prominence from there, but was wholly unconnected with any of its shady dealings, is to believe the unbelievable.

A prosecutor whose chief concern was not his own career, but truly had the best interest of the nation as his primary motivation, would be turning over every rock, following every lead, and looking tirelessly into every detail in order to grasp the entire extent of the corruption.

But the political tides have changed since 2005. Those who once lauded this Federal Prosecutor for his relentless tenacity will now demand that he and his investigation avoid certain sacred turf, or face a firestorm of condemnation. Do not expect Patrick Fitzgerald, the supposed "Prosecutor's Prosecutor," to shed any real light on this situation.