More Nonsense from a Blago Talking Head

June 9th, 2008 at 03:06pm Aaron Chambers

Sheila Nix, a deputy governor to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is leaving her $135,000-a-year post to, ahem, spend time with “family.”

“In these positions, you have to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in order to be able to do your job,” Nix said. “Obviously, we spend a lot of time in Springfield and I’m away some. It was really more just a situation where I felt like after four years, it was the right time.”

The governor’s senior staff spend “a lot of time in Springfield”?

C’mon!

.

“Say What?”

Anyway, Nix’s exit neatly coincides with the conviction last week of Tony Rezko, a Blagojevich insider, on federal corruption charges. And it follows the recent departure of press secretary Rebecca Rausch, who called the governor’s office — the subject of multiple federal probes — “a great working environment.”

Nix dutifully trumpeted the governor as a guy determined to help people.

Nix said she does not believe Blagojevich has changed how he goes about his work because of the trial of Rezko, who was a top fund-raiser for the governor.

“The governor is focused on doing his job,” she said. “That’s what he’s doing, and that’s what he’ll continue to do.”

This is the same governor who enters and departs the Capitol using its lowest-profile door — the one in the rear of the building, next to a trash compacter — during his infrequent visits here. From that door, the governor accesses a basement tunnel, which he uses to get to and from his office.

Now, for the best part. Nix defended Blagojevich’s heavy reliance, early in his administration, on advice from now-convicted Tony Rezko.

“Tony was a successful businessman at that time,” Nix said. “I think the governor’s point of view is, ‘I want to bring new people into state government. I want to have people who understand business.’”

“If you turn back the clock … the idea of getting recommendations from a successful businessperson made some sense,” Nix said.

Yes, Rezko was a successful businessman in Chicago. He was a real estate developer who also owned pizza and Panda Express franchises.

But in political circles, Rezko was well known — even in 2003, when Blagojevich took office — as a prolific fundraiser. He raised gobs and gobs of money for pols like Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois. He understood how to get people with money into the same room, and how to get those people to hand their money over to the pol of his choice. In doing so, Rezko ingratiated himself to those pols.

Rezko raised an estimated $1.4 million for Blagojevich’s campaign fund, according to an FBI agent who testified at Rezko’s trial.

When Blagojevich took office as governor after campaigning on a promise to clean up state government in the wake of Gov. George Ryan’s scandal-tarred administration, he handed control over much of state government directly to Rezko, according to numerous witnesses who testified at Rezko’s trial.

The governor’s patronage chief had breakfast with Rezko on Monday mornings to talk about job openings that Rezko might wish to fill. The governor’s chief of staff reportedly cleared key decisions with Rezko. Rezko hand-picked some state agency directors. He attended the governor’s high-level meetings. He even sat in the room when Susan Lichtenstein interviewed to be the governor’s chief legal counsel.

The notion that Blagojevich yielded to Rezko because he was sincerely determined to include “new people” who “understand business” in the administration of state government — rather than because Rezko packed $1.4 million into his campaign fund — is nothing short of absurd.

Entry Filed under: Tony Rezko, Rod Blagojevich