Pawnbroker slammed, power broker skates

Pawnbroker slammed, power broker skates
BY John Kass
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
February 7, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-met-kass-0207_2-20100205,0,1416482,full.column


While political Illinois lusts after every twist in the adventures of the Democratic Pawnbroker and the Hooker, a story surfaced about the Republican campaign for governor that is just as revealing.

Newsrooms across the state hungered for that mug shot of the fetching Mandi, the hooker who once lived with pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen, the surprise Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.

But now I'm lusting for a different story.

This one involves a federally indicted 75-year-old Springfield gazillionaire with a snappy Julius Caesar haircut.

William Cellini is the former longtime boss of the patronage-rich Sangamon County Republican organization. He was indicted on political corruption charges along with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the Operation Board Games investigation.

What's revealing is this: Cellini was involved in a recent strategy session that led to the Sangamon County GOP's key endorsement for gubernatorial candidate Kirk Dillard.

State Sen. Dillard, R-Hinsdale, is still neck-and-neck with state Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, for the Republican gubernatorial nomination as the remaining votes are counted from last week's election.

"I don't know whether Mr. Cellini was involved," Dillard said Friday. "I don't believe he was. I have no knowledge of his involvement in my endorsement in Sangamon County at all."

Republicans are all giggly over the Pawnbroker and the Hooker. It has weakened the re-election chances of the Pawnbroker's Democratic running mate, hapless Gov. Patrick Quinn.

So riddle me this:

If Blagojevich were found offering his political expertise at a Democratic meeting that led to the endorsement of a gubernatorial candidate, would it be a story?

You betcha.

Reporters would howl. Editorialists would scold. National politicians would slap their outrage on the table. And the candidate foolish enough to accept the endorsement of a group remotely connected with Blagojevich would feel the pain.

But the Cellini-Dillard thing isn't a big story. I guess the laws of political physics don't apply to true political giants like Big Bill Cellini.

He's the asphalt king of the prairie, but he doesn't wear sexy outfits. Instead of lacy nothings, Cellini wears suits.

He stays below the media radar, counting millions upon millions made through political deals, state casino licenses and development projects with Mayor Richard Daley's favorite developer, Michael Marchese.

Cellini's sister Janis was the patronage boss for former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, the fellow who rides his white reform horse for Dillard, his former chief of staff.

But Cellini was the real boss. All he had to do was whisper, and Govs. Jim Thompson, Edgar and Blagojevich would roll over. So would Democratic tough guys like state Sen. Jimmy DeLeo, D-How You Doin'?, who in a frenzy of bipartisanship lived at Janis Cellini's Springfield home for years.

Though Republicans use Blagojevich to bash the Democrats, they never mention Cellini. Oddly, neither do the Democrats, who tiptoe past the Cellini scandals like frightened church mice.

Cellini is accused of conspiring with convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko and Stuart Levine to extort an investment firm into making a $1.5 million contribution to the Blagojevich campaign.

And there's that alleged plot to use White House political contacts to oust U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as the investigation began.

That's what insiders must mean when they say Democrats and Republicans should work together for the good of the people. And who says there's no Combine?

So on Friday, as Dillard was talking about counting every vote and how Blagojevich's corruption trial would help the Republicans in the fall, we were on the phone to Springfield.

The call was about the Sangamon County GOP endorsement of Dillard. Just before the election, Dillard applauded the Sangamon group as "the brain trust" of the state Republican party.

The brain belongs to Cellini.

Bernard Schoenberg of the State Journal-Register reported Cellini's involvement last week. So we called Tony Libri, the chairman of the Sangamon Republicans, to confirm.

Libri said Cellini was asked for his input on the endorsement process, but not on Dillard, specifically.

"We had all these conflicting polls, and we asked him if he could help sort this thing out," Libri said of Cellini on Friday.

"He's been involved in many, many, elections," said Libri. "He's got a lot of experience, so we said, 'What do you think of this, this and this?'"

Libri insisted that Cellini never told them whom to endorse. It just happened that way.

Oh, sure. And I'm a Chippendale dancer.

Dillard of Hinsdale handily won Sangamon County over Downstater Brady, 6,540 votes to 4,471.

It might not seem like much. But Cellini's "this, this and this" might be the difference. Brady was ahead by only 420 votes as of late Friday.

Blagojevich's trial is scheduled for June, just as the November campaigns take shape. Cellini's trial is expected to begin after Election Day in November.

What an amazing advantage to those corruption-hating Illinois Republicans, who'll use Blago to beat the Democrats to death while playing "Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil" about Republican Big Bill.

"I guarantee you, Mr. Blagojevich's trial will take precedence in terms of the public, just because one was the governor and one was not," Dillard said. "But they're both factors."

Blagojevich is the one who really titillates the politicians and the media. But few get hot for Cellini.

I guess the old man just isn't sexy enough.

jskass@tribune.com