From the Tribune:

John Kass
Tale of 2 Fitzgeralds: A gloves-off story

Published November 10, 2006

The old man's eyes filled with tears as Peter Fitzgerald was telling a
great political story.

The former senator explained to a downtown luncheon crowd on Thursday
how he outfoxed White House guru Karl Rove and the Illinois Combine
pressuring Rove to stop politically independent prosecutors from being
brought to this state.

"Karl Rove called back and said if you will not appoint anyone [from]
out of state, we'll let you pick anybody you want, as long as that
person is from Chicago," he said, as laughter broke out at the lunch
for the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Political operatives know the history. Fitzgerald went to the press
first, to announce his choice of New Yorker Patrick Fitzgerald (no
relation) as U.S. attorney in Chicago.

This angered then-Gov. George Ryan and House Speaker Denny Hastert,
City Hall and the crowd that figured they owned the federal hammer in
Chicago.

But the old man with the wet eyes wasn't laughing. He wasn't at lunch
with Fitzgerald. Yet his tears certainly were a product of the former
senator's gumption.

Donald Tomczak, 72, the corrupt ex-water department boss for Mayor
Richard Daley, stood in federal court a few blocks away, his face and
shoulders sagging, looking at 47 months in federal prison. And more
time to be added if Tomczak doesn't testify in future City Hall
corruption cases yet to be announced.

Tomczak lawyer Patrick Cotter said his client was merely a product of
the old Chicago Democratic machine.

Tomczak's Republican son, former Will County State's Atty. Jeff
Tomczak, was there. Republican Jeff was also a product of that
Democratic machine because his dad brought hordes of Democratic
precinct captains to Will County to elect his son Republican
prosecutor a few years ago.

"Now you have got your pound of flesh from him," Jeff Tomczak scolded
reporters, asking that they leave his dad alone.

I'm not interested in Don Tomczak's flesh. But the feds are interested
in what's in Tomczak's head.

Before Daley became mayor, he vowed to throw Tomczak out the window of
City Hall because Tomczak muscled Daley's precinct captains. But once
he became king of Chicago, the mayor protected Tomczak, who was the
creation of mayoral political brain Tim Degnan.

Tomczak ran trucks on water projects, took at least $400,000 in bribes
and commanded armies of political patronage workers hired in violation
of federal court decree.

"Clearly, some of Mr. Tomczak's crimes were condoned, they were
facilitated and I believe in some respects they were honored by
high-ranking portions of the City of Chicago," Assistant U.S. Atty.
Patrick Collins said.

I wonder what he means by that. It's just the kind of federal
wisecrack that can bring on some bad mayoral indigestion, especially
after Daley feasted the night before on $1,000 plates of corned beef
at his Manny's Restaurant fundraiser.

He feasted yet again on the news that potential mayoral challengers
U.S. Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Luis Gutierrez would not challenge
his reign.

Don Tomczak shook hands with prosecutors and agents in court, and,
judging by the mayor's reaction, City Hall must have heard about this
ominous pressing of flesh.

"He disgraced his family," Daley said of Tomczak. "Basically, he
destroyed himself."

When Daley's guys do federal time with their mouths shut, the mayor
praises them, or sends their sons $40 million in city contracts.

Still, the mayor said he never had any intention of firing Tomczak
years ago, despite those boasts about that fifth-floor window.

"I didn't care what allegiance they had as long as they were doing the
job," Daley said. "... My father [the late Mayor Richard J. Daley]
taught me that, and my church beliefs taught me that--never be
vindictive against people."

The swarm of political ghosts that haunt City Hall, those with
"Mayoral Fall Guy" tattooed on their foreheads, would quibble, but
they're dead, politically.

For his part, former senator Fitzgerald also reached back to old
Chicago in telling his story.

He said he decided on an outsider for U.S. attorney here, someone
untouchable by the Combine, after reading a biography of the late
Tribune Publisher Col. Robert R. McCormick, who asked the White House
to send untouchables to Chicago to hunt gangster Al Capone.

Rove, Fitzgerald said, was merely responding to pressure from Illinois
Republicans, and the former senator thanked President Bush for
nominating Patrick Fitzgerald.

Once the New York fed was introduced to journalists here on Mother's
Day of 2001, it would have been difficult for the Combine to stop the
appointment, Peter Fitzgerald said.

"I intended to appoint someone who was not a political hack but
independent of both political parties," he said. "And I said they're
going to be screaming like a stuck pig when I do this."

They squealed back then. And others have more squealing to do.

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For the Illinois page:

From the Tribune:

Push to pick prosecutor told
Ryan, Rove both had idea, ex-senator says

By Matt O'Connor
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 10, 2006

Former U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald suggested Thursday that then-Gov.
George Ryan tried to influence the selection of the U.S attorney in
Chicago at about the same time prosecutors had questioned him about
wrongdoing while he was secretary of state.

In a speech, Fitzgerald said Edward McNally, an attorney who was
helping represent Ryan amid the growing scandal, was among those who
applied for the powerful U.S. attorney's post.

"There was an effort that I perceived [that] they were trying to
influence the selection actually with one of George Ryan's legal
defense team members," Fitzgerald said in remarks to the Illinois
Campaign for Political Reform. "But I worked very hard to make sure
that wouldn't happen."

Ryan was indicted on corruption charges after leaving office and
convicted in a historic trial this year. He was recently sentenced to
6 1/2 years in prison.

During Ryan's trial, McNally, then interim U.S. attorney for southern
Illinois, became a lightning rod for criticism by prosecutors after he
questioned their tactics during a 2001 interview of Ryan. McNally then
represented the governor.

In his most extensive remarks on the appointment, Fitzgerald also said
Thursday he picked New Yorker Patrick Fitzgerald as U.S. attorney for
Chicago in 2001 despite a warning by Karl Rove, President George
Bush's top political strategist, not to go outside Illinois for a
candidate.

Fitzgerald said that prior to that warning, he had expressed concern
to Rove that House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Ryan might try to
undercut what he considered to be among his most important
responsibilities.

Despite the warning by Rove, Fitzgerald said he chose from outside
Illinois because he contended at the time that he couldn't find any
qualified Chicago attorneys without political connections.

"I think [the administration] would have been happy with just about
anybody who applied from Chicago, because if you went through the
qualifications of these people, there are many good attorneys, but
they all had a lot of connections in Chicago and would all be people
that could easily have pressure applied to them," Fitzgerald told
reporters following the speech in the Union League Club.

Many in the Chicago legal community took offense to Fitzgerald's claim
of a lack of independence at the time he made his choice and pointed
to the national reputation of the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago
for fighting public corruption for more than three decades.

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