“WE’RE GOING TO CALL A WITNESS WHO HAD DIRECT ACCESS TO VITO CORLEONE, WITH NO BUFFERS…”

4/30/10

So Judge Zagel ruled this afternoon that Rod Blagojevich couldn’t call President Obama as a defense witness in the former governor’s upcoming federal corruption trial, at least not yet. When one of Blago’s lawyers was asked whether the Judge’s denial would hurt the RodMan’s case, the lawyer replied that, no, Obama’s absence would not hurt Blagojevich’s defense.

The logical question becomes as follows: if Obama’s testimony would have so little impact on the case, why did the defense attempt to subpoena the President in the first case? I’m no lawyer, and I know that plenty of gamesmanship goes on at trials and in life in general. I also know that Blago’s defense team isn’t known for its quiet, work-a-day approach to the law; they are basically a pack of grandstanders, so therein probably lies the answer. But, still, was there something more to it?

John Kass of the Chicago Tribune came up with an interesting theory last week. He said that the RodMan’s attempt to call Obama as a witness was a signal to the White House, indicating that Blago knows plenty about what goes on in Chicago politics and is ready to spill the beans. Given Obama’s involvement, limited though it might be, in Chicago politics, some things might come out that the President might not like. Therefore, if Obama wants to avoid trouble, he’d be advised to do something to get Rod out of his predicament.

As I said, Kass’s theory is interesting, but it is not very convincing for two reasons, the first perhaps itself questionable but the second rock solid. First, even though Blago was governor, I’m not convinced he knew all that much about the inner workings of politics in Chicago. The guys who really matter don’t trust people easily, and they all knew, probably long before he became governor, that Blago was a flighty, self-serving lightweight, a man not to be trusted. His double-crossing his father-in-law and patron, 33rd Ward Alderman Dick Mell, soon after becoming governor confirmed what the smart people already knew about this young popinjay. Further, even though the right wing reaches of the media, who know next to nothing about how politics works in this town, like to paint Obama as some kind of Machine hack, he was far from a major player in Chicago politics. Yes, he had a powerful, and some might say shady, patron in my former State Senator Emil Jones, and, yes, either out of necessity or all consuming ambition, Obama played ball with the power structure in Chicago, but he was never on the inside. So one wonders how much mud there is in Blago’s skull to smear the President.

Second, even if we assume that Blago knows everything that goes, or went, on in Chicago politics and that Obama was up to his elbows in the kind of backroom dealing and inside baseball that characterizes this town (See the brilliant and often scathing The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics, by the ever insightful Mark M. Quinn, available at bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.), what could Obama possibly do to extricate Blagojevich from his legal predicament? Does Kass think for a moment that Obama would consider pardoning national joke Rod Blagojevich and risk ridicule and the ever predictable “A Chicago hack pardoning a Chicago hack” baying and mewing? Can’t you just hear Jay Leno and David Letterman making silly jokes about the contrasting heads of hair of these two estimables? It isn’t going to happen.

So why did our former governor’s defense team attempt to call the President as a witness? I suspect that they’re just grandstanding, but it makes for interesting speculation.