With increasing frequency,
critics are characterizing the Obama administration as a group of thugs with a
mobster mentality that use strong-arm tactics to promote their agenda. It’s
called “The Chicago Way.”
By attempting to blackball certain media outlets (Fox
News), intimidate opponents (the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), and ostracize doctors
and insurance companies that oppose their socialized health care legislation,
Rahm Emanuel and company are now being compared to Richard Nixon and his henchmen.
Or, due to their “enemies list,” the resemblance is more akin to gangsters in The
Untouchables movie.
When Sean Connery, playing a grizzled
police officer, growls, “They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of
yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue. That’s the Chicago Way,” he’s
reminiscent of Obama on the campaign trail. During a stop in Philadelphia on June 13, 2008, he warned
those at the rally what he’d do to opponents who engaged in negative attacks. “If
they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”
One woman who has directly confronted
this political machine is ex-socialite Maria George. She holds, the dubious distinction
of having, in her own words, “the largest libel judgment ($9.7 million plus
interest) in the history of the state of Illinois,
and most probably the entire U.S.”
Ms. George’s foray into this corrupt
world began during a high-profile divorce from investment banker Scott George.
In a Dec. 12, 2008 letter to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, she said her husband
“boasted that he was ‘protected’ by his ‘friends.’ These individuals included
the mayor [Richard Daley], the governor [Rod Blagojevich] (to whom he had made
sizable political contributions), Joseph Cari (recently indicted in the Rezko
fiasco, as well as Scott George’s former business partner), Ed Vrdolyak (indicted
in May 2007 on charges of bribery and mail fraud) and Connie Xinos (‘godfather’
of Scott George and a criminal defense attorney in Chicago who ‘guaranteed’ his
acquittal).”
She next explained how her husband “laughed
that the litigation was ‘fixed’ and that the judge assigned to the divorce
(Michele Lowrance) was none other than a Vrdolyak relative. He also proclaimed
that the court-appointed psychiatrist, an additional psychiatrist, the children’s
attorney and even her own attorneys all received cash payments.”
Ms. George lost everything to her
husband, including their 12,000-square-foot $3 million mansion in the prestigious
Kenilworth suburb on Chicago’s NorthShore.
One of Ms. George’s primary complaints
against her husband, at least in a professional sense, was what she described
as a series of “reverse discrimination” shakedown schemes involving a black
co-worker that he used as leverage against the management of both Morgan Stanley
and Bankers Trust. After alerting his newest employer—Ernst &Young—via a
60-page bill of particulars from their divorce, her troubles escalated. In an October
29 interview by this author, Ms. George described how her husband, “represented
by an attorney referred to as ‘the Fixer’ and a known Daley ‘insider,’ sued to
get an order of protection against” her.
Prior to this ruling, Ms. George—still
undaunted—dropped another bombshell by mailing a scathing three page letter in
November 2004 to over 3,000 members of the banking and investment community,
business leaders, elected officials, media sources, legal and family advocates and
acquaintances. This document served as a catalyst to completely unleash an
array of retaliatory forces within the “machine.”
A libel trial ensued in September 2006,
and again Ms. George detailed to Patrick Fitzgerald what took place. Her lawyer,
“Mr. Ducote presented to Judge Irwin Solganick (a longtime friend of the ‘godfather’)
Scott George’s own notes detailing his discussions with Bankers Trust,
admitting to receiving a ‘payoff’ that was structured to evade paying taxes,
and specifically noting that he was paid to ‘not file a reverse discrimination
lawsuit.’”
The judge refused to admit these notes,
or any other testimony pertaining to them, into the court proceedings. He also
redacted large portions of her “letter.” No tax returns or other financial
information substantiating Mr. George’s work history were allowed either. In
his opening statement for this case, Ducote paraphrased to the jurors what Mr.
George is said to have told his wife. “I
can bribe the judge. That’s what he used to tell her.” Again, despite being armed
with thousands of pages of court transcripts, internal company memos and
incriminating personal notes Ms. George lost her case. The verdict landed her
on the Chicago
Sun-Times front page (October 7, 2006). She now faces a $14 million debt
and impending bankruptcy.
VICTOR THORN
is a writer who lives in Pennsylvania. Find his books on the Clintons
and the Sept. 11 attacks by visiting AFP's Online Bookstore First
Amendment Books
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