Division Street

For all I know Abby Ottenhoff is an amazingly wonderful person in real life, but really, can you believe anything she says?

Ottenhoff is the latest spinmeister to leave the Blagojevich administration, and her exit interview with Bernard Schoenburg of the (Springfield) State Journal-Register leaves me wondering if she’s an idiot or just a liar. Let’s take a look.

“It’s really been an honor to be a part of this administration,” Ottenhoff said.

And for some, it’s also been a crime.

“The recent trial of gubernatorial fund-raiser Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko, she said, can be seen as good news for the governor because, while he was convicted of some corruption charges, Rezko was acquitted of ‘issues dealing with Public Official A,’ which was code in court documents for Blagojevich.”

Yes, the testimony of Ali Ata and Joe Cari was wonderful news for the governor! This is a neat bit of spin, but Blagojevich was hardly exonerated by the verdict.

“I think that the governor is in a good place,” Ottenhoff said.

Oh, is he out at Wrigley again?

(more…)

3 P.M.: It will be read at 3:45 p.m. today. Stay here for witty updates!

3:21 P.M.: Rod Blagojevich right now is . . .

A) Hiding under a desk in his home office.
B) Out for a jog.
C) In San Diego for the Cubs game.
D) Preparing two press releases that both say the same thing: We don’t do business that way.

3:29 P.M.: The magic surface scratch remover! (CLTV commercial)

3:31 P.M.: CLTV’s Carlos Hernandez Gomez reporting live over the phone from the Dirksen Federal Building: It’s a madhouse! (Not his words, but that’s what he means.)

3:35 P.M.: CLTV reports that Blagojevich will make a statement after the verdict is announced.

3:37 P.M.: Around the local dial: Judge Judy on Channel 2; Ellen on Channel 5; Jeopardy! on Channel 7; What I Like About You on Channel 9; Divorce Court on Fox.

3:41 P.M.: This Better Sex site is pretty good.

3:45 P.M.: They’re late.

3:46 P.M.: Apparently now it’s going to be closer to 4.

3:47 P.M.: Rezko has just arrived at the courthouse.

3:48 P.M.: Snor-Enz: The name says it all! (Sticking with CLTV)

3:53 P.M.: AP reports Rezko has been convicted on some counts; Judge Amy St. Eve is reading the verdict right now.

3:56 P.M.: Mixed verdict; still don’t know which counts. Guilty on half or more, according to Tribune political editor Jim Webb.

3:58 P.M.: CLTV crawl: AP reporting Rezko was found guilty on 16 of 24 counts.

4:03 P.M.: Yup. Guilty on 16 of 24 counts. News conferences to ensue.

Including:

* I think everyone’s missing the point about Mayor Richard M. Daley speaking at Northwestern’s commencement. Does NU president Henry Bienen believe that Daley is a good role model for ethical public service?

* Tony Rezko’s Las Vegas gambling debts.

* Children’s Museum parody songs.

Over at today’s Beachwood Reporter.

Please visit, and then return here for more political blogging throughout the weekend, after I duck out for some coffee that sadly won’t be from Dunkin’ Donuts.

“The U.S. Supreme Court rejected former Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s appeal of his federal racketeering and fraud conviction Tuesday, all but assuring the 74-year-old will serve out his 6½-year federal prison sentence,” AP reports.

To save time, the Court also rejected Rod Blagojevich’s future appeals.

“The corruption trial of Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko circled back to Gov. Rod Blagojevich once again Tuesday with a new allegation about a $25,000 bribe being pried out of a once high-ranking administration official to keep contractors from slapping a lien on the governor’s Ravenswood Manor home,” the Tribune reports this morning.

Whoa!

Maybe he couldn’t come to a budget agreement with Patti so he just kept borrowing.

(more…)

If you mess with the bull, you get the horns.

Especially if the bull is U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Carol Marin will lead a panel on today’s bombshell - and we’re still absorbing yesterday’s bombshell! - from the Tony Rezko trial on Chicago Tonight tonight.

Right now, he’s the governor’s worst nightmare.

Some quick background:

“Recently, Ali Ata, the former president of the Chicago Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and a close associate of Othman, also came under scrutiny, this time by Chicago’s other newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times,” Ray Hanania wrote in 2005.

“Ata was a major contributor to the candidacy of Blagojevich, who served as a congressman before becoming governor. Ata reportedly donated more than $60,000 to Blagojevich. Ata has been active in supporting Arab American causes and was instrumental in helping to make ADC active in Chicago.

“But Ata’s ties to the state date back to Edgar and Ryan. He and three partners received more than $3.2 million when they convinced the state to lease a building they owned at 3500 W. Grand Avenue on Chicago’s poverty-stricken West Side in the early 1990s.”

(more…)

A plea deal announced today by federal authorities involving the former director of the Illinois Finance Authority places Gov. Rod Blagojevich - otherwise known as Public Official A - right in the crosshairs.

Predicted response by the governor’s office: “It never happened. We don’t operate that way.”

But a lot of people are saying otherwise. And the odds of a Blagojevich indictment in 2008 just got better.

The more interesting question: Will Rezko ultimately flip? Because his goose looks cooked.

*

Rich Miller has the plea agreement.

Is Mayor Daley a target of the federal investigation that just got a boost from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals? It’s hard to imagine otherwise. Consider:

“Despite the existence of a federal consent decree and other measures that for decades have sought to bring more transparency and legitimacy to the City of Chicago’s civil service hiring, patronage appointments have continued to flourish,” the appeals court said on Tuesday. “These defendants were key players in a corrupt and far-reaching scheme, based out of the mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, that doled out thousands of city civil service jobs based on political patronage and nepotism.The government alleged that the defendants concealed what they were doing by falsely assuring city lawyers that their hires were legitimate, and then shredding evidence and hiding their involvement once a criminal investigation began.”

And the mayor knew nothing? Inconceivable.

(more…)

I don’t want to give anyone any ideas, but the former assistant commissioner of the city’s aviation department has filed a defamation lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court based on comments posted on the Chicago Reader’s Clout City blog.

And the target of the suit isn’t just the Reader - or primarly the Reader, really – but local political thorn Frank Coconate, a critic of the Daley administration who recently won $75,000 from Shakman monitor Noelle Brennan.

James Sachay alleges in court papers that Coconate posted blog comments under Sachay’s name, including one that said: “I am voting for Frank Coconate. I am sorry I challenged his petitions under false pretenses. I am sorry I stole money from Roman Pucinski. I am sorry I got illegal contracts for my son and acted criminally at O’Hare.”

At the time, Coconate was running against Ralph Capparelli for 41st Ward committeeman; Sachay worked for Capparelli. (Both lost to caterer Mary O’Connor, president of the Edison Park Chamber of Commerce)

In his lawsuit, Sachay denies the post was his; so does Coconate, who told me this morning that he uses his real name on “99.9 percent of my posts.”

Coconate also has his own site where he is currently portraying Sachay and Capparelli as crybabies.

The suit asks for $200,000 from both Coconate and the Reader.