I wonder if Ald. Ed Burke (14th) will claim he was victimized by the culture of corruption at Chicago’s City Hall.
When former governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich were facing criminal charges in federal court, they told juries they were victims of a culture of corruption in Springfield.
Their attorneys said that elected officials understood that in order to make the government function, you had to make deals. Trade jobs for campaign cash. Sell a U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. And if you didn’t have a Senate seat to sell, you could have your chief of staff sell coveted license plate numbers (common during Ryan’s term as Illinois secretary of state).
OPINION
Now the feds have charged Burke, 75, with attempted extortion. After 50 years in office, the federal prosecutor’s office contends they had a wiretap on his cell phone when he encouraged local Burger King executives to attend a fund-raising event for a politician not named in the federal complaint. The restaurant building owners were trying unsuccessfully to get permits for remodeling work, and were told they had failed to do things the Chicago Way.
That’s when they contacted Burke, the local alderman.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was not named in the federal complaint. But it has been widely reported she…
