Customer Reviews

Pay to Play: How Rod Blagojevich Turned Political Corruption Into a National Sideshow

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I work for the State of Illinois and can vouch for the fact that the antics of Governor "Blago" were well known long before the FBI came knocking on his door. After reading this book I actually had a little more sympathy and understanding for him and where he came from -- along with an even stronger conviction that he should never have been elected governor even once, let alone twice. The rest of the country should be grateful he never realized his presidential ambitions!

Elizabeth Brackett took on quite an heroic task trying to put out a reasonably comprehensive "instant book" on Blagojevich in a short period of time. The book is a pretty quick read but you can tell it was rushed into print -- there are some errors here and there. For obvious reasons the story seems incomplete (since there is nothing in it about the indictments, the outcome of the perjury investigation against Roland Burris, etc.).

I hope Brackett will come back with a sequel or expanded version of this book after Blago's trial next year.

Having read this book unlike the person who gave just 1 Star, I can say this a great book on Illinois Politics and the Pay to Play System. Reading this book you will learn Blagojevich's background and than get a seance of what he does and why he does it. He reminds me a lot of Nixon personality wise.

They both kept lists of enemies, If you did something they didn't like, Blago and Nixon will get payback to you when they got power and wearily enough they were both avid runners and they both ran together in NYC after Nixon left office.

It's hard to imagine a recent officeholder with more hubris, moxy and chutzpah than former Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich. But he does exist, (still) in real time, and Elizabeth Brackett's fine new book, "Pay to Play" follows the rise and fall of America's most out of touch politician. This is as much about the substance of the charges that brought him down as it is about the style to which he had become accustomed. Ignoring reality, Rod Blagojevich sealed his own fate in stone. When one of your heroes is Richard Nixon, can impeachment be far behind?

Blagojevich grew up in a sturdily, conservative ethnic household and the first question a reader might ask after finishing the first few chapters is what his father would have made of his son's shenanigans. Indeed, Blagojevich didn't need his own nuclear family to get ahead...he married into one...and the damage kept on going. The governor loved campaigning, hated the act of actually governing, but always made sure he was surrounded by "money" people. His greed became part of his downfall, but Blagojevich's detachment from reality really puts the icing on the cake in "Pay to Play".

While the former governor's legal woes continue, we at least have a continuation of the drama...that of the newly-appointed Illinois senator, Roland Burris. This seems to be "the gift that keeps on giving". What was his role in getting the seat and how were other potential candidates involved? Stay tuned. I recommend "Pay to Play" and hope for a sequel!

The author writes that aides to Governor Rod Blagojevich sought to financially gain from people desiring Gubernatorial appointments. This became a norm that continued through an attempt to make a financial deal for a vacant U.S. Senate seat. These deals have led to the indictment of Rod Blagojevich.

Blagojevich is seen as someone who enjoyed the political game yet did not like holding office. He took a populist approach to politics where he reached out to voters. Yet he failed to make connections with other office holders that might have helped him advance a governing agenda. Thus he had few political allies when his troubles developed. The State Senate impeached him by 59 to 0.

There were allegations that Gubernatorial appointments improperly went to campaign contributors. The Governor's father in law was among those making the charges. The FBI wiretapped Blagojevich and overheard him declaring he wanted something in return for his U.S. Senate appointment. He was also recorded stating he wanted campaign contributions in return for state-awarded contracts and employment, which is known as "pay to play".

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzpatrick led an investigation into public corruption. Robert Grant of the FBI declared "if Illinois isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor." Illinois politics has historic roots in corruption. The previous Governor George Ryan was convicted of corruption. It was surprising to the author that the new Governor similarly acted in a corrupt manner, especially as numerous local officials were also convicted for improperly making political hires, and it was thought that should send a warning to others.

A single information claimed Blagojevich had been a bookie while also serving as a state's attorney. Blagojevich and the local bookie's street tax collector both denied this. That statute of limitations had passed and the matter was not pursued.

Blagojevich worked in office of his father in law, Alderman Richard Mell. The U.S. Attorney's office investigated whether employees such as Blagojevich were ghost employees. No charges resulted. Ethics charges were brought against Blagojevich for allegedly representing personal legal clients before the city government for which he worked. The Rules Committee, chaired by Alderman Mell, dismissed the charges.

Blagojevich was elected to the state legislature. He seemed disinterested in the work of a legislator as he often had to be requested to appear for critical votes and he seldom attended committee meetings. He was elected to Congress where he was little involved in the legislative process sponsoring just one bill that became law.

Blagojevich ran for Governor. Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, brother of Chicago Mayor Dick Daley, was a leading possible candidate. Dick Mell circulated an allegation that Daley had a conflict of interest difficulty. Daley did not run. Blagojevich ran as a reformer and was elected.

Blagojevich had Christopher Kelly, who owned a construction company that conducted business with the state, as a fundraiser. He raised large contributions from enterprises that also did business with the state. The word was spread that "pay to play", a process where contracts would be awarded to campaign contributors, would continue in Illinois. The FBI was investigating illegal contract deals.

Governor Blagojevich criticized House Speaker Mike Madigan for allocating $1.6 million for a private livestock exhibition. Blagojevich and Madigan did not get along from then on. Madigan was expert in the details of the legislative process while Blagojevich remained disinterested. The state budget faced a $5 billion deficit that led to much feuding between the Governor's office and the legislature.

Blagejovich seldom went to his office as Governor. He declined to move into the Governor's mansion. He left most of the operational control to aides.

Blagojevich severed his ties with his father in law. Some advisors thought the association with an old time politician could harm his future career. Blagojevich has state environmental regulators close a landfill that Mell worked for as a consultant. A further investigation found the landfill was operating properly and it was reopened.

Mell turned on Blagojevich and accused his administration of requesting $50,000 contributions in return for commission appointments. While Mell took back the allegations, they drew the attention of the U.S. Attorney and the state Attorney General.

The FBI tapes indicate Blagojevich was seeing what he could receive in return for nominating different people to a vacant U.S. Senate seat. It was discussed he could receive a position after serving as Governor paying $250,0000 if he nominated Valerie Jarrett. He would then work with Jarrett and this organization on health care issues. A key issue of his as Governor. Jarrett removed herself from consideration. Blagojevich wanted to know if U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. would raise a million dollars for Blagojevich's political funds. The FBI arrested Blagojevich at this point.

The FBI tapes also indicate a Blagojevich aide and Blagojevich's brother asked for a $50,000 donation to the Blagojevich campaign from a children's hospital executive in return for $8 million in state funds to be given to physicians. Other tapes indicated alleged shakedowns of campaign contributions from horseracing executives in return for almost $30 million in return for campaign contributors.

Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office.

Now that Governor Blagojevich has been convicted and headed to prison it should be pointed out that this book indicated he was headed in that direction and to that end the author can be proud of the research done for the report. Pay to Play is a great title and is an indictment of the corruption going on in Illinois. If the general public only knew about the shennanigans being pulled off by the Chicago Teachers Union and a state board (IELRB)more trials would come about. The book does not get into how high ranking state officials look the other way in order to avoid laws that would, if followed, have great effect on their re-elections. When FBI Special Agent in Charge in Chicago, Robert Grant said, "If Illinois isn't the most corrupt state in the country, it is one helluva competitor." Norman Jones, Ed. D. author of Growing Up in Indiana: The Culture & Hoosier Hysteria Revisited and Main St. vs. Wall St.: Wake-up Calls for America's Leaders.

Elizabeth Brackett is a great reporter and she's written a very good book. This is a good read that gives an easy to follow chronicle of the Blago debacle. I'm a Chicagoan who watched some of the Blagojovetch proceedings but wasn't 'tracking' it. This reminded me of what I knew, put it in the greater context and told me plenty of things I didn't know. It reads like an insider's story. This book didn't need the conclusion of the trial to be written, it's a great book to read before the next trial!

Well first off, I did not vote for Blago in either 2002 or 2006. I voted for Jim Ryan and Judy Barr Topinka. Blago did a number on Illinois, but as it relates in the book, both the Republicans and most Democrats were also corrupt. The only good politicians that come out of this fiasco were Emil Jones and Jesse White. The present governor Pat Quinn is also a refreshment to Blago and G. Ryan's regime. He is humble and hard working. Someone said that you get the government you vote for, and I think Illinois citizens have been poor choosers of politicians. How else can you relate all this corruption in one state.

I actually watch Brackett on PBS. I think she is a fine reporter of the Chicago scene. I think the conversational tone of this book did not help in my reading it. It has people saying "you know", in this book, and I feel this is a distraction. However, I think the book gives a summary view of why Blago ran a corrupt government. Blago may have been concerned with personal enrichment, but he did no favors for the citizens of Illinois.

I just completed Ms. Brackett's book about my native state. I am a news junky, and thought that it would be old news, on a subject that I have followed in the paper on a regular basis.

I was very pleasantly surprised that the book brought out a lot of facts and information I was not aware of. It is a well documented story about our State, probably the most corrupt in the USA at the moment. It is well researched, and would both be enjoyable and very frustrating for taxpayer's seeing our government in action.

Elizabeth Brackett is a well-respected journalist with PBS' "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" so when I saw this book, after having read Rod Blagojevish's own version of the facts in his "The Governor" book (more on that later), I eagerly picked this up to get the "real" story.

In "Pay To Play: How Rod Blagojevich Turned Political Corruption Into A National Sideshow" (260 pages), the author takes the first half of so of the book to look into the political ways of doing things in Chicago and Illinois, and also looks at how Blagojevish rose to power. The real meat of the book is of course in the second half, where the author looks into the "pay to play" allegations of the governor's attempts to sell the vacant US Senate seat, while also trying to get editorial journalists fired from the Chicago Tribune for writing critical editorials againt him, and other malfeasances. Regretfully, we do not get a deep account/investigation into what all took place, and I was really surprised and disappointed by that. It feels like a rush job (which surely it was, as this book was completed by March, 2009). The author makes reference to the "thousands of hours of secretly taped conversations" that moved US prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to arrest the governor in early December '08, but the book doesn't go deeper than that. It all feels like a rehashing of the facts we already know, without adding much or any new insight to it.

The reason that I rate this still 2 stars is that it does give a more objective view of what happened, in contrast to Rod Blagojevish's own book, which is drenched in self-delousional talk. But it's not saying much for this book. Very disappointing, and the "real" book about what all happened in the November-December '08 period with Blagojevich remains to be written.

This is an exploitation book, hastily commissioned, written and published to earn a few bucks - and take the attention away from the corrupt Illinois political culture and focus it on one man. Publisher Ivan Dee announced the book in February, 2009 - and it was published two months later in April.

Quoting an FBI agent, the author writes "If Illinois isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor". Not at all oddly or ironically for a Chicago insisder, Elizabeth Brackett goes on to express her shock at the apparent corruption of recently impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojecvich (bah-goyovich). A resident of Chicago's ultra-liberal Hyde Park neighborhood, home to left-wing heroes like Barack Obama and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers (her Facebook Friend), Brackett literally skims over the widely known, highly suspicious activities of mainstream Democrats to focus on punching bag of the moment Blagojevich. It is a stunning performance and one that should alert the informed reader that the author is not necessarily objective and perhaps not even truthful.

For example, Brackett airily dismisses Obama's involvement with now convicted Democrat money man Tony Rezko by saying Obama "had purchased a piece of land next door to his new house in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood - a lot owned by Tony Rezko's wife". Skipped over is not only Obama's long involvement with the felon Rezko, but the highly suspicious real estate transaction. As a local major newspaper reported:

"In June 2005, Obama and Rezko purchased adjoining parcels in Kenwood. The state's junior senator paid $1.65 million for a Georgian revival mansion, while Rezko paid $625,000 for the adjacent, undeveloped lot. Both closed on their properties on the same day.

Last January, aiming to increase the size of his sideyard, Obama paid Rezko $104,500 for a strip of his land.

The transaction occurred at a time when it was widely known Tony Rezko was under investigation by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and as other Illinois politicians befriended by Rezko distanced themselves from him."

In short, the eyebrows of a normal person would have lifted at knowledge of this, but Brackett merely winks, nods and moves on. It's the Chicago way.

Brackett also gives a clean bill of health to former Mayor Richard J. Daley as being untainted, despite the well known discoveries of hidden wealth in other people's names after his death, and apparently believes his son, the current Mayor Richard M. Daley to be simply an honest politician, regardless of the steady stream of his cronies who have been indicted, tried, convicted and packed off to jail. Also ignored is the ever growing list of innocent men being released from prison after having been convicted by Daley's office when he was State's Attorney. The case of a Chicago police captain accused of torturing to get confessions during Daley's tenure is still being litigated. Daley's office convicted many of the police torture victims. But no mention of that in Brackett's summary of corrupt Illinois politicians - or, more accurately stated, selected corrupt Illinois politicians.

But this is a book written by a Chicago insider, so the words of legendary Chicago columnist spell out the truth: "if somebody in City Hall saw a chance to make a fast bundle or two, [Richard J.] Daley wasn't given to preaching. His advice amounted to: Don't get caught" Blago got caught, so suddenly the insiders express their shock and immediately set the spin machine to its highest speed to distract the hoi polli from thinking that maybe there's more than one corrupt politician (at a time) in Illinois.

That appears to be how this book came to be. Cash in on a hot topic - and provide cover to other politicians.

Blagojevich was abruptly arrested for allegedly putting the barely used Senate seat of Barack Obama up for sale to the highest bidder. Why that would shock any real Illinoisan? Three of the last seven Illinois governors have gone to prison. This is Illinois: a state that grows corn and corrupt politicians. There was tremendous fear when Tony Rezko was under investigation that he would spill the beans to save himself. Fine man, that Rezko: he took only a few relatively small fry with him, but not the big shots, including his one-time protégé.

Blago doesn't appear to be any more or less corrupt than any other Illinois politician. You wanted a contract with the state? Well, you had to hire a "recommended" contractor, consultant, lawyer or other third-party who would collect a fee. In turn the lucky third-party would make a sizeable contribution to your campaign or perform some other service.

What Brackett has done here is simply tell the story of Blagojevich's life from beginning to a time after he was arrested and impeached, but before he was indicted. Blago did the unexpected: instead of retreating behind a shield of lawyers, he went on a aggressive publicity campaign appearing on David Letterman, hosting a local Chicago talk-radio show, yelping of unfair treatment to newspaper editors and journalists. In short, Blago scared the bosses. He might name names. He might rat. A few decades back, Blago would have disappeared like Jimmy Hoffa or be found in the trunk of an abandoned car as were many other Chicago crooks. But this is the 21st Century: now you spin an unwelcome personality, you borrow the techniques from Orwell and Saul Alinsky and slime him into nothingness.

That's what this book does. It is a compilation of newspaper stories about Blagojevich from birth to near present day. Ms. Brackett is hilariously condescending. Blago's father was a common laborer, typical for his day and not unlike millions of other Americans. To Brackett, the jobs Blago's father worked were "demeaning". Brackett also characterizes the Illinois State Fair as a place for corn on the cob and everything that can be fried and put on a stick. Curiously, she refers to her own Hyde Park neighborhood as one of the most integrated in Chicago, while depicting all the rest of Chicago as racist. She doesn't point out that the University of Chicago engaged in massive "urban removal" to rid its neighborhood of "undesirables".

There is nothing new here. Anyone who followed the news of Blagojevich's career and downfall has heard it all before. What is missing are the connections - the politicians who haven't been indicted yet are either missing or whitewashed.

The writing is that of classic journalism: it is written for the proverbial eighth-grader (who is probably on a par with today's college graduate). As character assassination, it is a bit on the bland side. But in one of the most hilarious parts of the book, Brackett uses a web definition to label Blagojevich as a narcissist - while ignoring some of the other people in her book.

On the whole, if you've never heard or read of Rod Blagojevich and want a recap of what the newspapers have written - and filter out the large quantity of spin - this book is informative. If you're looking for a true investigation of Cook County Illinois Democrat corruption, look elsewhere.

Jerry