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 "I felt it was necessary to bring a new sheriff into town," he said. "I didn't care if he was from Chicago or out of town but someone absolutely independent of the powers that be in Chicago."
He got what he bargained for -- by any yardstick.
During the last six years, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald -- no relation to the former senator
-- has sent to federal prison one former governor, Chicago's city clerk, corrupt lobbyists, political fundraisers, influence peddlers and precinct captains.
"Nobody walked away, nobody beat the rap," said Jay Stewart, executive director of Chicago's Better Government Association, which last fall named the fast-talking, 47-year-old Fitzgerald its man of the year.
Fitzgerald is the same federal prosecutor who led Washington's CIA leak investigation, which ensnared Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby only escaped going to the federal pen when President Bush commuted his 2 1/2-year sentence for perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI.
These days, Fitzgerald is back in his Chicago office, and some members of Illinois' political elite are feeling the heat.
A major trial due to get under way March 3 will focus on an alleged effort to shake down money from management firms seeking business from the $30 billion fund that pays the pensions of downstate and suburban teachers.
The trial could be explosive because the defendant -- real estate and fast food entrepreneur Antoin "Tony" Rezko
-- was a key contributor to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama.
When the curtain goes up, jurors won't see or hear from Fitzgerald.
More likely he'll be sitting quietly among the spectators, watching as prosecutors on his staff grill the witnesses and deliver the oratory.
"He brings a lot of passion and commitment to the job," said Zachary T. Fardon, a former federal prosecutor under Fitzgerald who was part of the team that won a conviction against former Gov. George Ryan.
Ryan, convicted of doling out leases and contracts to cronies and favorite lobbyists, is serving a 6 1/2-year racketeering sentence.
Fitzgerald, the son of a New York City doorman, worked his way through college and was once described as "Eliot Ness with a Harvard law degree."
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 As a young assistant U.S. attorney in New York, he worked long hours and got assigned to major terrorism and organized crime cases.
Fitzgerald is a secretive, career federal official who has shown no interest in capitalizing on his celebrity by running for office.
He declined to be interviewed, and his spokesman, Randall Samborn, said that since the CIA leak case he has granted an interview to only one publication
-- a magazine published by a school.
Which school? That is a secret, Samborn said.
Even so, Fitzgerald's passion for rooting out corruption is obvious. In a November speech to the Better Government Association, he said everyone must get involved.
"If people are not corrupt but they think they see corruption around them but don't want to know it, that's part of the problem, not part of the solution," he said. "That's part of the culture we have to change."
His office has won convictions in major trials against suspected fundraisers for the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the al-Qaida terrorist network, and against five organized crime members in one of the biggest mob trials in Chicago history.
And former newspaper tycoon Conrad M. Black is appealing a six-year sentence for swindling shareholders in his media empire.
Some people say Fitzgerald is a bit too tough.
Ronald Safer, a highly regarded former head of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney's office, once grumbled in an interview that Fitzgerald deserved a "D-minus in compassion." He now says he may have shot from the lip.
"I'm sure he strikes me as someone who is caring and compassionate," said Safer, who praised Fitzgerald for his "legendary work ethic."
"It's hard to loaf when your boss is working 80-hour weeks," he said.
[Associated
Press; By MIKE ROBINSON]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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