The Chronicle

Kevin Miller
 Staff Writer

On the afternoon of Aug. 17 at the Dirksen Federal Building in downtown Chicago, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was convicted by federal prosecutors of one of 24 corruption charges he is faced with for lying to federal officials.

Shortly after the trial, Blagojevich proclaimed that the one charge he was convicted of was “a nebulous charge from five years ago.”

“I did not lie to the FBI.” Blagojevich said shortly after being convicted. Initial reactions were swift and protracted.

“This guy [U.S. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald] is a master at indicting people for noncriminal activity,” said Blagojevich attorney Sam Adams Sr. “This guy is nuts.”   

The retrial is expected to cost in excess of $25 million dollars.

“With all due respect to justice and all, how much more money are we going to waste on this?” Ron, a Chicago Tribune reader, said. “The prosecution screwed up their case and they lost. Would the world be a safer place if Blago(sic) was found guilty on all counts? This is all about saving political face, and it has now become a waste of taxpayer money.”

The reaction on CLC campus was also decidedly manifest
“My initial reaction was, ‘Well, at least he didn’t completely get away with being corrupt,’” CLC professor Lynn Harper said via Facebook.

However, not all agreed with such an indictment of the former governor’s character.

“I think they should have been found not guilty on all counts. The government should be ashamed,” Chicago Tribune reader Deloris said on ChicagoTribune.com.

Tamara, another Chicago Tribune reader, substantiates this opinion.

“Give it up, Patrick,” Tamara said. “You lost. At least one person on the jury recognized this as a witch hunt. Move on.”

The retrial, which has yet to be scheduled, would almost certainly cripple Blagojevich’s already ailing finances, which are currently in the red from the one and a half years spent on this trial.
Robert Blagojevich, Rod Blagojevich’s brother, will not be retried by prosecutors. He was charged with four of the 24 charges Rod was charged with. He was acquitted of all four counts.

Rod Blagojevich will be retried by prosecutors, though it’s unclear who will be representing him. Rod Blagojevich has hinted at a future return to politics and has not ruled out any options for additional revenue streams. By Illinois law, former governor Blagojevich is barred from participating in politics due to his impeachment in early 2009 by the Illinois General Assembly.

Illinois has a history of governors being impeached or convicted of corruption.

In 2006, former Governor George Ryan was convicted of corruption charges stemming from a trucking license scandal that reached its culmination during his governorship. During Ryan’s trial, it was revealed that trucking licenses given to unqualified recipients in return for money could be traced to several automobile fatalities across the country.

Ryan, who is currently serving time in a federal penitentiary in Indiana, is seeking clemency from President Obama due to his failing health. Ryan is 76-years-old.

Rod Blagojevich is not the only Democrat in the country is having issues with corruption. In Washington D.C., Democrats have corruption problems of their own.

New York representative Charles Rangel, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and former House Ways and Means chairman, is facing charges of corruption. Rangel is accused by a House ethics committee of receiving bribes to lower the tax rate for business partners. The House Ways and Means committee is a powerful Congressional tax writing committee. Rangel is also accused of failing to report income and certain offshore properties to the IRS, thus evading property and other taxes. Rangel was forced to step down from his chairmanship of the committee.

California representative Maxine Waters is accused of misappropriating funds. During the financial crisis of 2008, when Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was being created, Waters allegedly used her position of power to arrange a meeting between TARP officials and a minority owned bank that her husband was on the board of and had investiture in. Shortly after that meeting, Waters’ husband’s bank received a vital cash injection from TARP officials. The allegation against Waters, who was not present at the meeting, is that had she not arranged the meeting between TARP officials and the bank, that the likelihood that the bank would have received TARP funding, and to the extent that the bank received the funds, would’ve been minimal.

Neither Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson nor House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were present at the meeting..

Both Rangel and Waters are seeking reelection, and have vowed to fight the charges against them. President Obama said that Rangel should resign from Congress “with dignity.”

Kevin Miller
Staff Writer

Though a transition in the North Korean leadership seems imminent, this should not necessarily be viewed as a negative development. Current leader Kim Jong-il, who is severely ailing after a purported 2008 stroke, has rarely been seen in public since and has had his propaganda apparatus issue decrees on the imminence of a possible successor taking over, that successor being the 26-year-old son of the reclusive leader, Kim Jong-un.

The most recent evidence of Jong-un’s succession has been the much covered media harbinger: a visit by Jong-il and Jong-un to China while former American President Jimmy Carter traveled to North Korea and attempted to secure the release of an American hostage in North Korea.

The most obvious explanation that I can think of as to why the “Dear Leader” didn’t remain in North Korea, whereby he could usher in new found relations for his successor, is that by shirking Carter, successor Jong-un would have more latitude in his official foreign policy dealings with the outside world.

 The trip served a purpose of many fold, since it allowed for the North’s leadership to cultivate an understanding between them and the Chinese leadership that will serve them well, if possible reunification talks go forward for the peninsula as the incoming Jong-un sees fit. Though the “Dear Leader’s” son is young, his popularity in North and South Korea should not go unobserved. He is known for his intellect rather than his military exploits, and his proximity in age to the nascent intelligentsia in South Korea makes him a popular figure. In South Korea, the aging ruling class, who still harbor resentment toward the North over the Korean War, will still control the reins of power at the time of the North’s plenary session, which is rumored to be the official handing over of power to the younger Kim.

 However, this doesn’t mean that unification talks won’t take place while they’re still in power. It does mean it is unlikely there will be complete unification between the two countries until the South hands over the reins of power to the younger ruling class.

 The unpredictability of the North’s leadership will not be lessened by this change in leadership either. Some are certain that from Thanksgiving of 2006, when the North first detonated a nuclear device, to the present, that there has been a high stakes contest between certain elements within the North’s leadership to rule the country-- a contest which Jong-un by his elevation is assumed to have won. It also doesn’t help that this contest of wills may have also coincided with extremely provocative acts by the North such as the testing of a new longer range missile, the Taepodong-3, and the detonation of nuclear devices in underground laboratories.

It’s also worth noting that these provocative measures have ebbed and flowed according to the “Dear Leader’s” sporadic health scares. A destabilized Korean peninsula is in no one’s self-interest, and if six-way party talks are to resume, an emboldened, yet conciliatory, Jong-un may be the correct way to go.

The Koreans are currently suffering through one of the worst food shortages in their history. This should be taken as an opportunity of rapprochement with the North, and as a test of the revolutionary ideals and East Wind versus Western Bloc attitudes of the newly-installed leadership. By being gracious and forthcoming with food aid for the North, the U.S. ingratiates itself with the leadership. More importantly, the arrival of new stores of food, in time for the jubilee celebration of his ascendancy, will no doubt be a lesson to the younger Jong-un that if he hopes to do more than survive within the stringent international world order, he should take care to reciprocate quid pro quo with the U.S.

 If we take one thing away from the North Korean leadership’s recent harbinger in China, it should be that the North sees itself on par with the Chinese and hopes to project that stance throughout the world. We can facilitate that point of view only if they’re willing to compromise in the agreed nuclear framework. A policy that is heavy on carrots and light on sticks will serve us well in the opening salvos of the nascent government’s beginnings. A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.  

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