“A WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOIN’ ON”

7/9/09

In my post of 12/13/08, one of a rapid fire series of comments I made in the wake of former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s arrest, I made the following admonition:

Also...speaking of John Harris (Blagojevich’s chief of staff), keep an eye on him (not for the scandal as it relates to Emanuel but in its broader scope). He worked for Daley for years, most saliently in the Aviation Department, supposedly a nest of corruption. It has been reported (but remember that all reporting in this town is suspect) that he was angry when Ron Huberman got the chief of staff's job (for Daley) over him and went to work for Blago in a foul disposition toward Daley. The important people around here are too smart to share anything with Governor Fauntleroy, but they probably felt they could trust Harris. Also, by the nature of his job, Harris was in a position to know more than Blagojevich about the goings-on at City Hall. So when the feds squeeze Harris, and you know they are probably squeezing really hard as I write this, who knows what he could spill on lots of important people around here?

Yesterday, John Harris pled guilty to a series of federal charges relating to his scheming with Blagojevich to, among other things, sell influence and appointments and have a Tribune editorialist fired for committing the unpardonable sin of writing things the former Governor deemed unfavorable. As part of his legal arrangements, Mr. Harris agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s office in their prosecutorial efforts in and around Chicago. According to Mr. Harris’s lawyer, that cooperation will not be limited to matters involving Blagojevich but can reach back to Mr. Harris’s former employment at City Hall.

Score yet another one for the Insightful Pontificator.

John Kass is absolutely right when he mentions in today’s (i.e., Thursday, 7/7/09’s) Tribune column that Harris’s guilty plea was yesterday’s really important political story, trumping Lisa Madigan’s “surprise” announcement that she would be running for neither governor nor senator in 2010. (See the next, or last, depending on one’s perspective, post.) Ms. Madigan is a talented politician with a bright future, but Mr. Harris’s cooperation puts a lot of careers, reputations, and legal statuses in jeopardy.