Rezko was the man with a plan, and now he's got a story to tell

Rezko was the man with a plan, and now he's got a stor
October 12, 2006
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist

For a little more than a decade now, there was only one real question about Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko: What does he want?
Not what did he want in general, because anybody (except supposedly Rod Blagojevich) could see that, but what did he want in particular.

From the minute he emerged on the scene as a major donor to Cook County Board President John Stroger, Rezko was cozying up to politicians, spreading around money, ingratiating himself to the power elite, the usual game plan of somebody looking to use political influence to get rich.

At first, there were those who maintained that Rezko wasn't seeking payback, that he was just the odd bird, an independently wealthy guy who liked to rub shoulders with powerful people.

But bit by bit, it trickled out that Rezko had a food concession contract here and a lease there, that his housing business relied on government financing, that he was playing an angle to build a hotel on a piece of real estate next to the would-be Rosemont casino, that he'd taken Stroger's godson as a business partner and that he'd had dealings with Republican lobbyist extraordinaire Robert Kjellander.

Long before the disclosure that Rezko also had done business deals with Blagojevich's real estate broker wife, it had become apparent that Rezko wasn't just your ordinary political grifter but a man with a plan. The plan, some said, was to become the "new Bill Cellini" -- the Springfield kingmaker who turned his political ties into a large fortune.


He's gov's guy
Now that Rezko was indicted Wednesday in a shakedown scheme of impressive proportions, there's still just one question about him, but now the question is:
What can he give the feds?

Blagojevich, who should have figured out the answer to the first question long before coming face-to-face with the second, will have to wear the jacket for this -- politically, if not legally.

Rezko is his guy. Blagojevich used him as a top campaign fund-raiser and then brought him into the bosom of state government -- a recipe for disaster, especially given the warning signs.

After promising reform, the governor empowered Rezko to help pick his team, including top Cabinet members and board appointees who would be in position to advance Rezko's personal business agenda, stealing a page from Cellini's playbook.

How fitting, then, that Rezko's indictment would paint a bull's-eye on Cellini, singling him out, without actually naming him, as the unindicted "Individual A" who served as the middleman in one of the suspect deals.

This time, Blagojevich can't hide behind the fact, as he did a year ago, that Stuart Levine, the corrupt Highland Park businessman whose cooperation with federal investigators formed the basis for much of Wednesday's indictment, was a holdover from the long-running Republican regime and not truly a member of his team.


'A violation of my trust'
Nor can he double-talk, as he did then, about the allegations being "triple hearsay." While we have yet to be shown the evidence, it is now apparent that the new charges are based on information straight from the horses' mouths of the co-conspirators.
Unlike Levine, Rezko is the governor's responsibility.

Notably, Blagojevich didn't really accept responsibility in his initial statement Wednesday on the matter, observing instead that the allegations in the indictment, if proved, "are a violation of my trust," as if he'd been duped.

Then the governor added that "far more importantly," it also would be a "betrayal of the public's trust."

That struck me as funny because the public doesn't trust Blagojevich, nor for that matter his Republican opponent, former George Ryan cheerleader Judy Baar Topinka. One of the dilemmas for voters in Wednesday's indictment is that it indicates some of the Republicans who milked state government for a quter century before Blagojevich's arrival were using their relationship with Rezko to keep it up.

In a news conference later Wednesday, the governor said he was "surprised" and "disappointed" by the indictment because he had accepted Rezko's assurances over the last two years that rumors pointing blame at him were untrue. He also continued to deny that Rezko played an important role in his administration, which is patently absurd.

The governor says he put a lot of reliance on Rezko's assertions that he didn't do business with state government, failing to recognize that somebody with Rezko's track record would endeavor to remedy that situation.

What did Tony Rezko want?

A seat at the big table, and Blagojevich gave it to him.

What can Rezko give the feds?

Plenty.