Scott Turow, Personally Chagrined

Former Wilmette resident Scott Turow opines in the NY Times, describes Patrick Fitzgerald as bare-knuckled, compares him to Machiavelli and suggests he ought to go:

Mr. Fitzgerald has held the job since October 2001, some may argue that a position with such extraordinary discretionary powers should not lay in the same hands for 12 years. Moreover, Mr. Fitzgerald’s bare-knuckle methods have rankled many in the Chicago bar.

This from someone who admits he served on Blago's "ethics" commission:

All of this news comes with personal chagrin for me because I was Governor Blagojevich’s first appointment to the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission, a body created his first year in office. (For the record, I have never made a campaign donation to him.)

He ends with this:

One can only hope that even in Illinois we are too ashamed now to tolerate business as usual.

Yes, one can only hope for more than selective and belated personal chagrin. How about starting now and demanding a commitment from Barack O to let Fitzgerald get on with the job of cleaning up Illinois--and letting the chips fall where they may, chagrined or not.

P.S. WSJ:

If convicted, Mr. Blagojevich would be the second consecutive Illinois Governor to be found guilty of a felony, and the fourth in 35 years. We'd ask if it's something in the water, but that would be unfair to the Chicago River. It is certainly something in the Chicago political culture, where money and government power seem especially fungible.

Among the remarkable facts of the recent Presidential election is that Barack Obama emerged from this political culture virtually untainted -- and with Chicago's political mores all but unexamined by the press. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said yesterday there is no evidence that Mr. Obama knew about the Governor's allegedly crooked ambitions. However, as a Chicago-area pol himself, Mr. Obama did help Mr. Blagojevich plot his first statehouse victory in 2002.

One more thing--recall in New York Patrick Fitzgerald took down a mobster and convicted terrorists. I think he's just the man for the job.