Patty's Friends

First lady Patty Blagojevich, whose mutual friends at Mutual Bank are in the spotlight due to the Obama-Rezko house deal, gets some press today herself. Tribune:

Illinois First Lady Patricia Blagojevich walked away from her successful career as a real estate agent earlier this year amid scrutiny from federal agents probing whether clients hired her to win favor from her husband's administration.

With her commissions plummeting and her most famous client, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, in prison on a corruption conviction, her once-lucrative career all but came to an end.

We still don't know how much she made from Rezko, but she earned $700,000 in commissions from other sources, much of it politically connected. Then there was her brief stint as an investment banker, I kid you not:

...she had a brief job as an investment banker after touting her ability to land state business, according to the head of North Star Investment Management.

"I'm not going to lie to you, it would have been great for us to get one of the state pension funds," said Peter Contos, a North Star executive listed as the contact on her federal license application.

"But after three months she brought in no business," Contos said. "Obviously, her connections weren't as strong as advertised."

Currently Ms. Blagojevich is a private fundraiser. If Patty's husband Governor Home Run goes jogging off to jail she'll continue to need a little help from her friends. But not at our expense, please.

UPDATE: Sun Times:

A Chicago developer and donor to Gov. Blagojevich steered more than $100,000 in commissions to first lady Patti Blagojevich's real estate firm before a business owned by the developer's parents saw dramatic increases in state payments.

Virgil Tiran's real estate ties to the governor's wife are coming to light as federal investigators scrutinize her relationships with real estate clients, including recently convicted former gubernatorial fund-raiser Tony Rezko.