Once again we're reminded that political corruption has a cost and that the Chicago Way is not some game or performance art by jesters. On Saturday, we were reminded by Christopher Kelly, friend to politicians."He's dead, Jim!"
"Thanks for the reminder, Bones!"
He was pronounced dead after taking an overdose of medication, just days after he pleaded guilty to more federal corruption charges. It happens every so often, that we're reminded. A few years ago, it was the deaths of six innocent children burned in a fiery crash that shocked us awake, that reminded us that our sleazy politics has a real cost.
But it is in our nature to forget, because the dead aren't active and our politicians are awfully busy.
| The dead still vote in Chicago, so they continue to fulfill their key function, now with no overhead cost. |
Kelly made things work and he was no innocent. He was a player, a big-time political fundraiser and a Vegas gambler. He knew guys who knew guys, from Mayor Richard Daley to indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He knew the Rush Street crowd and he knew the mayor's former top airport aide, John Harris, who is cooperating with the FBI. In fact, Kelly knew just about everybody who really counts in politics. By that I don't mean the taxpayers, as much as the guys who know guys. They count because they do the counting. We're the ones who do the paying.
Kelly made a fortune in city airport and school roofing deals. He knew much about the multimillion-dollar contracts at O'Hare International Airport now under investigation. He knew much about politicians he gambled with, and his friend Blagojevich. He was under intense pressure to tell what he knew to a federal grand jury.
Now the pressure's gone. Whether his death was a suicide or something else is not yet known. Either way, we should all take a few moments to pray for his eternal soul.
It's also not known if politicians are breathing sighs of relief now that Kelly's gone. They're not going to make speeches to tell us. But I've got a feeling that some people who know their way around Daley's Department of Aviation and the state capitol and city and state contracts are sure breathing a lot easier.
In the next few days, some mouthpiece, perhaps even a politician, will start spinning that if the feds hadn't pressured him to talk, Kelly would be alive. And when that happens, you should see it for what it is: a lie. It's the sound of corruption whispering in your ear, and you'll have to decide whether you should take some responsibility.
Not for Kelly's death. And certainly, not for the corrupt actions of political insiders. But we have to take responsibility for the way things are, for what this state has become. Because we live here, and raise our children here, and none of us would tolerate it if corruption was endemic on some neighborhood PTA.