Posted on 09/08/2008 9:17:57 AM PDT by KeyLargo
The man who made Obama possible
September 7, 2008
Barack Obama probably would not be running as the agent of change if not for one of the most conservative Republican senators in Illinois history.
As this presidential campaign continues to focus on whether Republican John McCain or Democrat Obama would be most likely to reform the federal government, I can't help thinking about the political fate of former U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was a wealthy banker when he ran for the Senate against incumbent Democrat Carol Moseley Braun in 1999.
He bought the Republican nomination by spending $7 million of his own money. He spent another $7 million in the general election.
The fellow refused to submit to newspaper editorial board interviews. He was anti-abortion, anti-gay and pro-gun.
But after his election, Fitzgerald did something nobody expected. He turned on the Republican Party in Illinois.
When this state tried to get $50 million from the federal government to build the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Fitzgerald launched a filibuster on the Senate floor, just like in the movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
Federal spending guidelines had to be linked to the money, Fitzgerald said, because Republicans back in his home state couldn't be trusted.
George Ryan, the Republican governor at the time, was enraged. The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert (R-14th), claimed that the junior senator from Illinois was undermining one of the greatest projects in the state's history.
Fitzgerald said he wasn't surprised. He said forcing politicians in Illinois to adhere to ethical bidding procedures on a huge public works project was "like showing a crucifix to Dracula."
Fitzgerald lost that battle, but the national spotlight he threw on the Lincoln Library project forced the crooks in Springfield to keep their dirty paws off it.
For his next big battle, Fitzgerald picked on Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and the two biggest airlines in Illinois at the time, United and American.
Fitzgerald opposed spending $15 billion or more on the expansion of O'Hare International Airport. Again, he mentioned that handing that sort of money over to one of the most corrupt city governments in the country bordered on insanity. In addition, he pointed out that O'Hare really didn't have enough room to expand. It couldn't possibly meet the demands of 21st century air travel.
A new airport should be built in the south suburbs of Chicago, Fitzgerald said.
A northwest suburban resident, Fitzgerald expressed amazement about the lack of support for a third airport among politicians in the Southland. Other than U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-2nd) no one really seemed to be fighting for the project.
Fitzgerald noted the inequitable distribution of wealth between Chicago's north and south suburbs. He thought it was simply unfair and bad for the state.
The Chicago newspapers, while running stories about corruption in the Daley administration, trashed Fitzgerald for his opposition to O'Hare expansion. They portrayed him as an irresponsible screwball.
In the meantime, Fitzgerald was reforming the mutual fund industry.
With the growth of 401(k) retirement accounts for employees, no one had paid attention to how they were run. Fitzgerald proposed federal regulations to reduce hidden fees and conflicts of interest by fund managers.
He sided with environmentalists on many issues, further angering his conservative base, and opposed the bailout of the airline industry after Sept. 11, 2001, as a waste of tax dollars.
And then he launched the battle that really sealed his political fate.
He selected Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation) to be the U.S. attorney for the northern district of Illinois. Sen. Fitzgerald said he wanted a prosecutor with the cleanest reputation he could find - someone who couldn't be bribed or intimidated.
Hastert tried to block the presidential appointment. So did Ryan. They failed.
Well, Sen. Fitzgerald picked the right man. Patrick Fitzgerald has put many political crooks in prison. The names mentioned in federal indictments often are the same folks that Sen. Fitzgerald was screaming about on the U.S. Senate floor.
But Sen. Fitzgerald couldn't run for office again.
All of the corrupt forces in Illinois had lined up against him.
Officially, the senator said he decided not to seek re-election in 2005 so he could spend more time with his family.
Obama ran for Fitzgerald's vacant seat and won.
Although he's never done anything about corruption in Illinois, Obama is campaigning as the great reformer.
As for many of the the Illinois Republicans touting McCain's virtues today and denouncing Obama, they're the very folks who couldn't stand Fitzgerald because he was honest.
No one who rises to the top of the political system in this country is an "outsider."
Fitzgerald really fought for reform and actually was a change agent.
And that's exactly why he's gone.
Phil Kadner can be reached at pkadner@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-6787.
I hope Palin has a job for him
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
McCain-Palin should consider giving him a cabinet post.
http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/2
“{Emil} Jones had served in the Illinois Legislature for three decades. He represented a district on the Chicago South Side not far from Obama’s. He became Obama’s kingmaker.
Several months before Obama announced his U.S. Senate bid, Jones called his old friend Cliff Kelley, a former Chicago alderman who now hosts the city’s most popular black call-in radio program.
I called Kelley last week and he recollected the private conversation as follows:
“He said, ‘Cliff, I’m gonna make me a U.S. Senator.’”
“Oh, you are? Who might that be?”
“Barack Obama.””
Informative piece - thanks.
Former Senator Fitzgerald is an heir to the Harris Bank fortune and was able to basically self finance his win in 1998 against Incumbent Carol Mosley Braun.
He left Illinois and moved to Virginia and did more to clean up gutter Chicago Politics than anyone in Political History.
I agree. He was never afraid of Mayor Daley as many IL Republicans are.
When Daley would visit Washington trying to get Federal $$$ for various pork projects, The Mayor would get the brush off from Fitzgerald.
Just what we need. Now we have two - Sarah and him to clean up government dirt. Since honorable politicians are a rarity, I believe Sarah will need him.
Welcome to FreeRepublic!
The Obama hasn’t won an election yet that didn’t involve either disqualifying the opposition or forcing him out of the running.
Thank You.
People should not forget about Hillary. Her home state was Illinois, but she thought New York was a better road to the White House. She would have been and Illinois senator and totally overshadowed Obama. In retrospect, that is quite a political mistake. Also, don’t forget about the death of JFK, Jr. He may well have been the senator from New York, and the with would have then run from Illinois. Poor Hillary. It was all so well planned, but it blew up in her face.
That situation simply never happens.
Excellent Points. The IL Dems wanted Hillary to wait for Fitzgerald’s seat, but she was impatient.
If JFK Jr was not sadly killed, He would have been given a clear path for the Seat in NY and Clinton would have been tossed aside.
I know this is a reach, but my Idol Ronald Reagan was born in Dixon, Illinois. So Illinois has produced Greatness.
Ronaldus Magnust moved before he became a politician.
Well, there are two sides to the coin. Fitzgerald killed the corrupt Republican establishment in Illinois, but he never touched the corrupt Democrat establishment in Chicago.
As a result, the Democrats now have no competition in vote-packing and corruption.
And we saw what kind of “honest prosecutor” the other Fitzpatrick was in the Scooter Libby case. He was a leftist tool. He did a great job in Illinois putting corrupt Republicans in jail, but it turned out that he was working for the Democrats. That’s what happens when you “reach across the aisle,” unless you are VERY careful.
Same thing happened to the Nassau County Republican machine in New York. Sure, they were crooked, and eventually fell of their own weight. That was good, in a way. Only trouble was, the vacuum was seemingly permanently filled by corrupt Democrats, who now have very little competition to balance them.
I should have said one thing more. If you have reform, it needs to be evenhanded, as was the case with Sarah Palin, who won the governorship by crushing TWO corrupt candidates, one Republican and the other Democrat.
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