St. Louis Post Dispatch

Editorial: Governor should sign ethics bill

06/05/2008

The federal bribery conviction of Antoin “Tony” Rezko on Wednesday left a single question on the minds of Illinois politicians: Who’s next?
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be climbing the investigative ladder, nailing defendants one by one, then offering lighter sentences for testimony against the person on the next rung up. That’s common practice among prosecutors and the same one Mr. Fitzgerald used to put former Illinois Gov. George Ryan in federal prison
Rezko, 52, was convicted on 16 of 24 corruption counts. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he faces a maximum penalty of 300 years in prison and $4 million in fines. He could grow old in prison, to say nothing of broke, unless he cuts a deal. Will he talk, and, if so, about whom?
The obvious answer, if only because of his long association with Rezko, is Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The governor has not been charged with wrongdoing, but Rezko raised more than $1 million for the governor’s campaigns and was part of his unofficial kitchen cabinet.
Another Illinois politician with long ties to Rezko is Sen. Barack Obama, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Rezko has known Mr. Obama since the senator’s days at Harvard. Rezko raised campaign funds for Mr. Obama and helped Mr. Obama buy a strip of land adjacent to his home in Chicago. But there was no suggestion during the trial that Mr. Obama was part of Rezko’s influence-peddling schemes. It’s fair to question whether Mr. Obama looked closely enough into the dealings of a man he considered a friend, but there is no reason to question Mr. Obama’s integrity.
Rezko was charged with using his influence with the governor to pack state commissions with political cronies. Then Rezko used those cronies as leverage to extort bribes from those who wanted to do business with the state. Mr. Blagojevich was portrayed as a politician eager to reward those who fattened his campaign coffers.One witness, Ali Ata, said he laid a $25,000 check on the table before Mr. Blagojevich, and the governor soon began talking about hiring him for a state job. Mr. Ata ended up as the $127,000-a-year director of the Illinois Finance Authority.
A broader question is whether Mr. Fitzgerald finally will succeed in changing the sordid politics of Illinois. The prosecutor called the verdict an “antidote to the poison of corruption.” But that medicine has failed in the past. Since the 1970s, three Illinois governors have gone to prison, along with a rogue’s parade of lesser officials.
But the rule in Illinois remains “pay to play”: Want a state contract or a cushy job with an important title? Then it helps to cross a politician’s palm with a fat campaign contribution. Some, such as Ryan, took that further, trading favors for money.
Mr. Blagojevich rode into office on a promise to clean up Springfield after the Ryan disaster. Instead, he has taken the pay-to-play process to new depths, raking in literally millions of dollars in campaign contributions from state contractors.
That’s legal, so long as there isn’t a specific promise of a government favor in exchange for a contribution. None of the Rezko testimony indicated that Mr. Blagojevich crossed the line between bribery, which is illegal, and mere sleaze, which is tradition.
That’s the fundamental problem.
The Rezko trial produced one very good result: It finally shamed the Illinois legislature into passing a ban on contributions by state contractors to the officials who dispense the contracts.
Now Mr. Blagojevich is hinting that he may issue an amendatory veto, claiming that he wants to “improve” the bill. That should be seen for exactly what it is: an effort to kill a measure that would cook the governor’s golden goose.
The Rezko case has provided ample embarrassment for Mr. Blagojevich. He can’t afford to compound it any further. He should resist the temptation to play games with the bill and, instead, sign the legislation.