Where have you gone, Lisa Madigan?

Where have you gone, Lisa Madigan?


Attorney general needn't worry about scary sauna guys when there's the political class to look at

John Kass
December 12, 2011


It was great to see our heroic Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan — the state's top law enforcement officer and daughter of the undisputed Democratic machine boss — finally hold a corrupt politician accountable.

She smacked former Illinois Gov. Rod "New Fish" Blagojevich right in the wallet last week, after New Fish was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on corruption charges. She issued a legal opinion saying those who commit corrupt acts through public office should not be rewarded with a $65,000-a-year state pension.

How true.

"Blagojevich refused to govern responsibly and, instead, put Illinois up for sale," she said. "He tarnished the state's reputation nationally and internationally, and he destroyed the public's trust in government. May today's sentence put an end to corruption in the Illinois' governor's office."

But Lisa, what about elsewhere in Illinois? Not just in the governor's office, but outside the governor's office, too. It's the kind of thing that makes all of us Illinois chumbolones want to sing:

Where have you gone, Lisa Madigan? / Our crooked state turns its lonely eyes to you / Woo-woo-woo.

And she can begin at the Sunday dinner table, just after she asks, "Daddy, would you please pass the sliced apples?"

It's not that our Heroic Lisa isn't already working to right wrongs. A quick Google check shows she's going after an auto parts company for allegedly defrauding customers, and she's fighting those darn robocalls to cellphones. Also, she's battling a sauna company that allegedly left some Illinois families absolutely sauna-less.

Yet every day, our crooked Illinois political tree brings forth more rotten fruit. A Republican governor in prison. A Democratic governor on the way, and on all levels of government you can find influence peddlers, schemers, manipulators.

I figure that no one has told Lisa this, but some of these creatures may even draw state political maps, and use their awesome powers to control the legislature, raising and lowering taxes, and installing toadies in key offices. These same creatures might even run side legal businesses reducing real estate taxes for the wealthy and well-connected.

That's why we must persuade Lisa Madigan to stop worrying about those terrifying robocalls and the scary sauna guys and start looking at the political class. They could teach her so many things.

So I'm inviting her to a special party on Dec. 28 at 9 a.m. in Room 4017 of the DuPage County courthouse.

That's where Carmen W. Iacullo, 58, a top boss in the Illinois Department of Transportation, is scheduled to appear on drunken driving charges. He was arrested shortly after midnight on Nov. 20 in Wood Dale. In the past, he's represented IDOT at events promoting driver safety.

Earlier, a few miles away in nearby Addison, the Italian American Executives of Transportation had held an annual dinner dance. Theirs is a philanthropic group that provides scholarships and honors prominent and worthy members.

Iacullo himself was the group's Man of the Year in 2010. At this year's dinner, an Iacullo friend, former state Sen. James A. DeLeo, D-How You Doin?, received the "Special Recognition Award."

But the Man of the Year of 2011 was the legendary Liberato "Al" Naimoli, boss of the Cement Workers Local 76. And what a man.

Naimoli was recently a star in a Chicago Tribune investigative series of state and city pension abuses. Now his special talents — and those of others profiled in the series — have drawn the attention of a federal grand jury.

Naimoli receives a $158,000-a-year city laborer's pension, from a $15,000-a-year city job as a cement mixer, a job he hadn't worked in more than 25 years. Naimoli also makes $292,000 in union salary.

Iacullo didn't return our calls asking if he attended the event before that Wood Dale incident. IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell said in an e-mail that "any IDOT employees who were there attended on their own time and were not representing the agency. IDOT did not buy tickets to attend the event or purchase any advertising this year or previous years."

If only Lisa could show up and visit Carmen, he might get emotional and thank her. As Man of the Year for 2010, he just might introduce her to Naimoli, this year's man. Naimoli might just tell her who helped the unions get those wacky pension rules through the state legislature in the first place.

And then she can offer both boys some apple slices and a tart smile.

Lisa might also pick up copies of a Crain's Chicago Business investigation last month that said her daddy cost Illinois taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by stopping five bills to restructure McCormick Place bonds from 2005 to 2010, a time of falling interest rates.

The investigation alleged that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan blocked the legislation as punishment after the McCormick Place CEO fired his ally, and that the delay also bought time for two developer clients of Madigan's law firm to push through a land swap and hotel deal.

But a Madigan spokesman told Crain's that Speaker Madigan held up the refinancing to prevent the Blagojevich administration from committing corruption on bond contracts.

It's just what Illinois needs: Lisa and Daddy, a father-and-daughter crime-fighting team like The Incredibles, shoulder to shoulder, stopping the abuse of power, outside the governor's office.

Please read complete  article at link below:


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1211-20111212,0,1203697.column

Editor's note: John, don't be to quick to judge A.G. Madigan. This shark is warmed by the entrance of one of  A.G. Madigan's agents into Judge Kawamoto's courtroom in the Estate of Alice R. Gore, a deceased 99 year old disabled ward of the court.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

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