Unraveling the Magnitude of the Task of Confronting Illinois Corruption

Earlier this morning, I wrote about what needs to done to unravel the web of corruption that infects the politics of Chicago, Cook County and Springfield, Illinois. Essentially, what needs to happen is that each and every layer of bureaucracy must become transparent because it is the layers of bureaucracy that the corruptors use in order to influence the government. Today, I have realized the magnitude of this task. Here is a snippet from a Hot Air story.

It’s not just businessmen involved in this fundraising effort, either. One prominent Illinois official took part in this plan. Rajinder Bedi runs the Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity’s Office of Trade and Investment and serves as a close aide to Blagojevich, according to the Tribune. Another businessman, Harish Bhatt, supposedly wields great influence in state politics. A prominent pharmacist, he allegedly installed the state regulator for pharmacists through Blagojevich in order to
ensure a friendly ride, and who allegedly helped Bhatt fend off Medicaid fraud investigators.

The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is exactly the sort of government bureaucracy that a corrupt power broker can use to create influence and opportunity. This bureaucracy has two state offices and several offices outside the country. All of them operate in the shadows of the state government. This department gives out business licenses, small business loans, small business zoning, trade, among a plethora of commerce activity. Talk about an opportunity for a corrupt business man in Illinois, that opportunity is DCEO.

A watchdog would need to find out what is going on at each office in Illinois and at each office outside Illinois. The watchdog would need to run a background check on everyone in a position of power within the bureaucracy and then figure out how all of these folks relate to those in a position of power in the government. Every contract, loan, and license must then be examined in order to see if any are tainted with conflict of interest.

If you look at the bottom of the site, you find an icon for State of Illinois Business Portal. Going to this link, you find out that the task is even more monumental. On the side of this link, you find another link Find an Agency. This link then goes to a list of about 20 more government bureaucracies that all would need to be examined in the same close manner as the DCEO. One such bureaucracy that is fraught with potential corruption is the Illinois Liquor Commission. It's directors are Irving J. Koppel, Chairman,John M. Aguilar, Daniel J. Downes, Sam Esteban, James M. Hogan, Michael F. McMahon, Stephen B. Schnorf and each one would need to be vetted. Furthermore, the liquor commission meets regularly twice a month, once in Illinois and once in Springfield. Each meeting must be attended. All business at that meeting must be vetted, and then the Liquor Commission, and the Liquor Commission only, would be properly vetted and be properly transparent. Yet, I have identified more than twenty such bureaucracies with more than fifty offices just from the offshot of one such bureaucracy.

Everyone should not only understand the monumental nature of the task but exactly what has caused the governments to become so corrupt. It is clear that the sheer size of the government is the main culprit of corruption. It is one thing to keep track of everyone we elect, it is quite another to keep track of the tens of thousands of bureaucrats that aren't elected, operate in the shadows, in bureaucracies most people haven't heard of.

Bill Cellini, Jerry Levine, and Tony Rezko corrupted among many other bureaucracies the Teacher's Retirement System. The DCOE has likely also been compromised, but this only scratches the surface. In order for there to truly be clean government in Illinois each and every bureaucracy must be examined under the watchdog version of a microscope. The magnitude of such a task cannot be overstated. For this to happen, the state will need many, many activists all working together to finally bring it all out of the shadows.

The Indictment of William Cellini and Illinois' Shadow Government

Yesterday, the Federal Prosecutor for the Northern District of Illinois, Patrick Fitzgerald handed down several indictments for one William Cellini. Who is William Cellini? Even if you reside in Illinois Cellini is likely a name you weren't aware of until reading this piece. Yet, according to the indictment, Cellini, and other power brokers like Anton Rezko and Stuart Levine, made up a shadow government that really made the shots in the state government. These power brokers made decisions based on one motivation only...their own pocket books. It should also be noted that Cellini is a life long Republican. He got into bed with Democrats like Rezko and Levine to make up this shadow government that was really calling the shots behind the scenes of the Blagojevich administration.

How did all of this work? First, folks like Cellini and Rezko became top fundraisers for the likes of Governor Rod Blagojevich (and one former State Senator now on the cusp of being President). Once they became indispensable allies of the man in charge, they used that influence to influence most of the political apparatus of the state government.

For instance, one of the charges that Cellini is facing is influencing the Teachers' Retirement System. After raising millions for Governor Blagojevich, Stuart Levine, one of Cellini's associates, became a member of the board of the TRS. Then, Levine, Rezko and Cellini worked behind the scenes to put as many of their cronies on the board. Then, the TRS doled out contracts and other monies to Levine, Rezko, Cellini and their friends.

This was the modus operendi for Rezko, Levine, Cellini and other political insiders. They bought influence by becoming top fundraisers for politicians like Governor Blagojevich. Then, they used that influence to put themselves and their own cronies in as many influential places as possible throughout the State Government apparatus. Once in place, the shadow government was in a position to dole out as much State government money as possible to themselves and their friends. This Boston Globe report shows exactly how the likes of Tony Rezko used this same shadow government and its results.

The boon on this scheme for Rezko and his friends was about $200,000,000, and so was the tab to the Illinois tax payer. The result was low income housing that is no longer livable.

This shadow government even attempted starting in 2004 to remove Patrick Fitzgerald from his post. The indictment yesterday speaks for itself and should tell everyone why they were so gung ho to remove him. That's how this shadow government works. Put cronies in friends in a position of influence and power and remove all nuisance and opponents.

This sort of shadow government is not new to Cellini. Today's Chicago Tribune describes how Cellini used his influence in the Jim Edgar administration to give his own firm a sweetheart deal for a hotel/casino in Alton, Illinois. This was a deal that was a boon to his firm and wound up being wasted millions for the tax payers.

That's how it works. Get close to the top of political power in the state government by buying influence. Then, use that influence to infect as much of the government apparatus as possible with cronies and friends. Then, those cronies and friends dole out government money back to the same cronies and friends. It's like any other business. There is an investment and there is a return on investment. The investment is hundreds of thousands or even millions in campaign contributions. The return on investment is hundreds of millions, and so is the tab to the tax payers of Illinois.

Operation Link Obama and Ayers Day 3

If McCain really does have a master plan of making Obama's connection to Bill Ayers a part of the news cycle, then so far it has been implemented beautifully. Yesterday, we saw the story reach into new sub sets of the media that are crucial in order to make this a front burner issue. The most significant was that it wound up on the view.



The reason this is significant is not because McCain likely got many converts but because this moves the story into yet another sub set of the media, the morning talk show. The media today is so fragmented that in order to drive a story so that it is a part of the news cycle you really need to have it travel through each sub set. Now, it has moved from the print MSM, to the new media, to television, and now to the morning talk shows. Remember, the media doesn't move the story by what they say but rather what they cover. If a truly independent and undecided woman was watching The View, her mind was likely not moved by Liz Hasselback's argument or Whoopi Goldberg's argument. Rather, her curiousity was piqued because the topic was discussed. Now that it is out there, that woman will want to know more and our society will give her plenty of avenues to learn more.

The story continues to enjoy a great deal of success on the conservative blogs, however it has also reached out to cable news beyond Fox News. This CNN piece shows just how potentially devastating this story could be to Obama.


Since we are into day three, it is clear that McCain was effective in putting this story into the middle of the news cycle. That said, the debate is on tonight and of course, I still firmly continue to believe that it will be difficult to move the economy out of the picture.

As such, I think it is time to look at how McCain turn the media firestorm over the Obam/Ayers connection into an effective campaign strategy. First, it is not enough to throw a bunch of mud at this connection. That will only look like a smear and furthermore, up against the economic crisis, it is nothing. Second, it is not enough to roll out each and every wily character Obama has come into contact with. The way to do this is to build a narrative that ties Obama to radical characters, radical policies, and then effectively shows how those same radical economic policies will cause chaos if he is President.

Fortunately, McCain not only has time but all the ammunition necessary to do all of this. First, McCain will have a very tight rope in this debate. If he mentions Ayers too much it looks like he is desperately smearing. If he doesn't mention him at all, it will effectively move the story from the news cycle. As such, he must mention him but not too much.

By the end of the week, I would pivot away from Bill Ayers and have Palin begin to mention Obama's connection to Tony Rezko on the stump. This is especially timely since Rezko appears to be cooperating with the Feds. Rezko ties in nicely into a narrative that McCain will need to build that Barack Obama is 1) part of the D.C. politics as usual, and 2)part of the mortgage problem. That, I will talk about later. If I am the McCain campaign, I would leak again to the Washington Post or another paper of that sort, that I am planning on pivoting. While this appeared to be a foolish strategy, by telegraphing their move, the MSM tried to cut them off by running stories in advance down playing the connection. All this really did is expand the media coverage of the Ayers' story. Why reinvent the wheel? It worked once so keep it up.

I wouldn't spend more than five days trying to drive the media to talking about Rezko, when I would pivot again and simply tie Obama to the entire corrupt political establishment of Chicago, Cook County, and Springfield. Here, Sarah Palin would again be an effective attack dog. She could say something like this on the stump.

In Alaska, I fought the corrupt political establishment. You know, I thought there was no more corrupt political establishment in the country than Alaska. I was wrong. It turns out that in Chicago, Cook County and Springfield, the political home of Barack Obama, the corruption dwarfs even my own home state. Of course, unlike myself, who fought against that corruption, Barack Obama only embraced it. He calls Emil Jones his political god father. Jones is retiring this year and he is handing his seat to his son. Jones has been the only defender of Governor Rod Blagojevich in the entire Illinois political system. In 2006, Barack Obama endorsed Todd Stroger for Cook County Board President. Since then, Stroger has raised Cook County Sales taxes to the highest levels in the country while dozens of his friends receive six figure patronage jobs. This is the sort of enviroment that Barack Obama cut his political teeth in, only unlike me, he didn't battle against the corruption but embraced it.

Then, they ought to link Obama to the overall corrupt climate of Chicago and Illinois in general for about a week. He has to link Obama to all the corrupt practices patronage jobs, pay to play (which he essentially did wiht this scheme with Tony Rezko) Finally, bring up Obama's long term connection to ACORN and do this for about another week. He needs to tie Obama to their intimidation tactics, socialist ideals, and of course voter fraud.

If this is all done effectively, what McCain has done is laid the groundwork to tie Barack Obama to radicalism and corruption. This allows McCain to argue that Barack Obama comes from a culture that believes those that can't get for themselves should be given by the government. Furthermore, it is a culture that puts the powerful far too close to the politicians. The problem with D.C. is that the powerful are far too close to the politicians. While Barack Obama claims that he will clean this up, his history is the exact opposite. That's where McCain needs to pound his shady land deal, his sweetheart mortgage, and the massive contributions that Fannie/Freddie have given Obama.

This becomes a three pronged strategy. First, you muddy up Obama's character by throwing the kitchen sink of shady connections out. With eachportion of the narrative, McCain needs to have the media do enough to pique the public's interest but not so much that it gets saturated. The public isn't going to be swayed by anyone connection no matter how bad it is, but rather, they need to be swayed because there is a pattern of connections. Then, you show that those shady connections have created a sphere of radicalism and corruption. That radicalism and corruption leads to massive spending, bloated government, and not enough oversight of the powerful. Massive spending will lead to hyper inflation given the bailout in place. If we don't have a President that is willing to oversee the powerful, then we continue the same culture we have always had. There it is. It's easy on paper but it will be very hard to pull off. Watch to see how effectively McCain is able to do it.

Operation Link Obama and Ayers Day 2

Yesterday, I surmized that the MSM is the McCain campaign's unwitting accomplices in turning the Ayers' story into a front burner news story. That's because what we saw yesterday was an explosion of news stories, all either negative towards the McCain campaign or dismissive of the story itself, in relation to this story. The media drives the narrative by what they choose to cover not how they cover it. So, despite their negative slants, all the MSM really did was put the Obama/Ayers connection back into the news cycle. That's exactly where the McCain campaign wants and thus I believe they were the campaign's unwitting accomplices.

Analyzing hits to my own site today, I have seen a doubling of of links to these two stories. Both stories have the key words Obama and radicalism in them. As such, searches of those two words come to my site among many. The sudden explosion in the key word searches of Obama and radicalism tells me that the media's attention on the connection between Obama and Ayers has filtered down to the public. So far, it appears that both the MSM as well as the Obama campaign are playing right into the hands of the McCain campaign.

Now mind you, the McCain campaign has a very difficult and uphill battle. First, this strategy is filled with its own risks. It is quite likely that all of this attention will be seen as the McCain campaign smearing Obama. Still, if that happens what that will mean is that McCain will get crushed by more than he is already getting crushed. While this is no doubt a hail Mary, it has the potential for an upside and an aggressive play is what the McCain campaign needs right now.

Second, McCain still needs to fight off the head wind of the economic news. It appears almost impossible to me that they Ayers' story could ever knock the economy off the front page. Still, one thing is certain. Republicans need to stop complaining about media bias. That's because one thing this episode proves is that an adversarial media can be just as effective as a sympathetic one. The Republicans need to quit whining about media bias and simply use it to their advantage. Clearly, this episode along with the hey that the MSM showed toward the ads comparing Britney Spears to Obama show that Republicans can easily use the media to their advantage. They simply need to be more crafty.

The glimmer of hope for the McCain campaign is that this story is wraught with potential pitfalls for Obama. First, Obama appears to be countering the attacks on his relationship to Ayers by attacking McCain's role in the Keating 5. The problem here is that McCain's narrative in that story, his role in the S & L crisis, is much firmer. First, a Senate panel found that he should be totally exonerrated. Second, it was this episode that gave McCain the inspiration to become a force against Corruption in the legislature. It's unclear what Obama has learned from his relationship with Bill Ayers.

Second, the whole connection between Obama and Ayers is layered in mystery, confusion, and leads, in my opinion, to places the Obama campaign would rather not go. Of course, only Barack Obama knows the extent of his relationship to Ayers and why he would have a relationship at all with an unrepentent former terrorist. I believe, though, that he used Ayers, in whatever limited role, as an asset to climb through the political machine of Chicago and Springfield. Ayers was a player in Chicago politics and, in my opinion, Obama saw him as a necessary ally. I believe he dismissed Ayers past in favor of his own ambition. Of course, this is not an answer he can give and so the longer the story is out there the more problematic his answer will be.

Now, according to Little Green Footballs and Power Line, there is MSM full court press to minimize both Ayers' terrorism and the relationship the two had. I really haven't seen a full court press of anything in print today, however what I have seen is this story being carried from print yesterday into an active role on television today. Here is a sampling.



and...


There are two big problems here for the Obama campaign. First, you really have to have a wilfull suspension of disbelief, to borrow from Hillary Clinton, in order to believe what the Obama campaign is saying about this. Is it really possible for Obama not to have known that Ayers was a former terrorist when he agreed to allow him hold a fundraiser? Even if that is so, at what point did he realize this and why did he continue to relationship. Most people would have nothing to do with a former terrorist and yet Obama held a fundraiser at his home, served on two boards, and gave multiple speeches together. At some point, he had to have known and yet it didn't bother him. Second of all, Obama is playing defense.

From McCain's perspective, it really couldn't have been scripted any better. We saw this story take on a life of its own through the traditional print media when the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Associated Press each did separate stories about this. Then, it was immediately picked up by the new media through blogs and the likes of Politico. Now, it has filtered into television. This makes it a full blown front burner story. If I am advising the McCain campaign, I go directly for the jugular. I have Sarah Palin mention it everyday. That's because everytime she mentions it someone in the MSM takes the bait and publishes something about it, usually negative. So what? All that does is keep it in the news cycle for another day. That means another day of discussing it and another day for the common folk to search about it and wind up on sites like mine.

In order for this strategy to be effective though, the story must be moved so the McCain campaign will need to introduce new wily characters from time to time. By the end of the week, I would switch my focus to Tony Rezko. Certainly, if Governor Palin attacks Obama vis a vis Rezko, the MSM will take the bait and attack her back, and of course, by extension make the Rezko/Obama a part of the newscycle. At some point, I would end it with Obama's twenty year relationship with ACORN. There is definitely a media play here for the McCain campaign. It is tricky and full of pitfalls, however, so far, I believe they have played it beautifully.

The Media Becomes McCain's Unwitting Accomplices

Having a statcounter on my site allows me to do all sorts of analyses. It not only tells me how many people visit my site but it gives all sorts analytical information. For instance, in the last eighteen hours I have noticed a sudden spike in this story entitled O'Reilly Vs. Obama: Radical Associations. Now as interesting as both Bill O'Reilly and Barack Obama are, the spike in this particular story wasn't due to them. In fact, it was due the key words radical associations. In fact, most of the visitors to the story came through a search of key word combinations, Obama radical associations, or something like it.

This indicates a renewed interest in the public, at least on the internet, in Obama's radical associations. So, how did it come about that in the last day there is suddenly a renewed interest in Obama's radical associations. It all started with this attack by Sarah Palin.





In fact, as the Washington Post points out, attacking Obama's relationship to Ayers is all part of a new McCain strategy. (H/T to Hot Air)

Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama's character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat's judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain's team has decided that its emphasis on the senator's biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Arizonan's campaign is also eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.

...

Two other top Republicans said the new ads are likely to hammer the senator from Illinois on his connections to convicted Chicago developer Antoin "Tony" Rezko and former radical William Ayres, whom the McCain campaign regularly calls a domestic terrorist because of his acts of violence against the U.S. government in the 1960s.

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. appears to be off limits after McCain condemned the North Carolina Republican Party in April for an ad that linked Obama to his former pastor, saying, "Unfortunately, all I can do is, in as visible a way as possible, disassociate myself from that kind of campaigning."

McCain advisers said the new approach is in part a reaction to Obama, whose rhetoric on the stump and in commercials has also become far harsher and more aggressive.

They noted that Obama has run television commercials for months linking McCain to lobbyists and hinting at a lack of personal ethics -- an allegation that particularly rankles McCain, aides said.

The MSM wasn't done mentioning the connection between Obama and Ayers. At about the same time, this New York Times piece came out attempting to downplay the connection.

In fact, according to several people involved, Mr. Ayers played no role in Mr. Obama’s appointment. Instead, it was suggested by Deborah Leff, then president of the Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based group whose board Mr. Obama, a young lawyer, had joined the previous year.

At a lunch with two other foundation heads, Patricia A. Graham of the Spencer Foundation and Adele Simmons of the MacArthurFoundation, Ms. Leff suggested that Mr. Obama would make a good board chairman, she said in an interview. Mr. Ayers was not present and had not suggested Mr. Obama, she said....Archives of the Chicago Annenberg project, which funneled the money to networks of schools from 1995 to 2000, show both men attended six board meetings early in the project — Mr. Obama as chairman, Mr. Ayers to brief members on school issues.

Then, today, the Associated Press came out with this story attempting make Palin's attack into some sort of back door racist attack. (H/T to Little Green Footballs)

Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?

Her reference to Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers’ radical views and actions. ...

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers’ day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

Of course, it should surprise no one that the MSM is attempting to downplay, dismiss, or deflect this story. At this point, I think it's important that I share some words of wisdom from Dick Morris. He believes that the perspective that the MSM attempts to drive is ultimately irrelevant. They move the conversation by what they cover not the way in which they cover it. A great example of this is the media firestorm over McCain's ad in which he compared Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. The MSM skewered McCain for this, but what they ultimately did is draw attention to the ad. As such, Obama immediately lost several points in the polls and the ad was effective. It mattered not what their perspective was but it mattered a lot what they chose to cover.

The same thing is in play here. Suddenly, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, and Reverend Jeremiah Wright are all sharing the media stage with the faltering economy. If this election is a referendum on economic policy McCain almost certainly loses. If, on the other hand, it is a referendum on Obama's connections to a plethora of radicals, crooks, and liars well then McCain almost certainly wins. If the MSM insists on covering this recycled story as though it was brand new, that is exactly what is going to happen. If that happens, it will be difficult for Barack Obama to explain it all away.

Now, it is highly unlikely that the MSM will play into McCain's hands enough to actually turn this into enough of a story for it to overtake the economy. Still, if McCain wanted to roll out his attacks on Obama and his radical associations, it's unlikely he could have dreamed for a better media response. Already the attack from the AP has allowed the Palin campaign to respond.

The last four weeks of this election will be about whether the American people are willing to turn our economy and national security over to Barack Obama, a man with little record, questionable judgment, and ties to radical figures like unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers. Americans need to ask themselves if they’ve ever befriended an unrepentant terrorist, or had a convicted felon help them buy their house — because those aren’t smears, those are true facts about Barack Obama.” —Tucker Bounds, spokesman McCain-Palin 2008

Furthermore, the author of the New York Times piece clarified himself to the Politico as well.


As for Steve, he was great in outlining his theory -- that Obama and Ayers had a relationship going back many years, to the 1980s, and that Ayers therefore must have proposed Obama for the board. He looked at the same letters I'd seen showing Ayers (and one of the two co-organizers, Anne Hallett) had discussions early on with Annenberg folks about the need for a board. Unfortunately, his theory is wrong.

What Steve didn't do was talk to the people involved. As I report, Deborah Leff and Pat Graham give a credible account of how they chose Obama, and I have no reason to think they're lying. Moreover, if Obama only met Ayers when Obama joined the Annenberg project, it seems hardly likely that he would have pushed for Obama's appointment. On the other hand, since Obama already served on Leff's board, it makes perfect sense that she would propose him.

All of this back and forth only goes to further the story and give it more and more attention. It is almost impossible for a recycled story to take on front page status. I can't remember it happening before. Yet, it appears for at least a day, the MSM is determined to do just that. If they keep this up, the election may soon turn on Obama's radical associations.

Obama has tried to stay above the fray regarding these comments.

In Asheville, N.C., Obama noted his opponent's tactic and likened the McCain campaign's linkage of him to Ayers and others to "Swift boat" attacks of 2004.

In remarks to voters, Obama said the personal attacks against him from the GOP camp are "smears without substance. He declined to address his own campaign's latest gambit of calling McCain "erratic" and "dishonest."

Obama said the country faces many crises, but instead of focusing on them, McCain plans to "turn the page on the discussion about our economy and spend the final weeks of this campaign launching Swift boat-style attacks on me."

"Senator McCain and his operatives are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. They'd rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up. It's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time," Obama said. "We're not going to let John McCain distract us from what we need to do to move this country forward."

That's probably an astute political move, and if this stor dies out in a day or even a few, then Obama will be seen as the one showing class, and McCain will be seen as desperate. Still, if the MSM insists on making this an issue, then it won't be a one or two day story. Then, Obama will have to defend these associations and then he will behind the proverbial eight ball. Frankly, Obama shouldn't have to do any of this. All of this had its run, and should have been part of the past of the campaign. Yet, it appears the MSM is determined on making it front page news, and by doing so, they become McCain's unwitting accomplices.