The plea agreement and cooperation with federal authorities of Rod Blagojevich's former chief of staff is certainly bad news for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but is it also bad news for Mayor Richard M. Daley?
John Harris' knowledge about the alleged scheme to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat is just the tip of what Harris knows about the Blagojevich administration's shenanigans, but political insiders around town are more interested in just what Harris knows -- and might divulge -- about shenanigans in the Daley administration, particularly when it comes to lucrative airport contracts that may turn out to be a bit hinky.
Before joining up with Blagojevich, Harris served as Daley's budget director and deputy aviation commissioner.
Harris says he regrets taking a post with Blago; Daley could end up regretting it more.
Harris' attorney, Terry Ekl, was asked by reporters after his client's plea agreement was made official if he would talk to investigators about City Hall.
"I'll tell you this," Ekl said. "When John Harris began to cooperate with the government, he did not pick and choose the subject matters. He's been questioned about a variety of subjects. He's been truthful and honest about all of those, and I'm not going to have anything further to say about what he has talked about in terms of other investigations."
Message received!
"I could just imagine that as Ekl was talking, King Shortshanks and his coterie of advisers were gathered behind the thick walls of City Hall," John Kass writes. "There with him were both sides of his political brain, insiders Tim Degnan and Jeremiah Joyce, and his airport expansion czarina Rosie Andolino watching the television news.
"I pictured them leaning forward in their chairs, silently, as Ekl said Harris had been chatting amiably with federal prosecutors.
"In my mind, I saw them gritting their teeth and making rude gestures with their hands."
Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica tweeted that "Harris can open up the flood gates in the City Hall investigations. He know where ALL the bodies are burried. Harris is the missing link."
On the other hand, Daley critics have imagined missing links found and floodgates opened before. The mayor has skillfully buffered himself for 20 years from the scads of schemes pinned on those around him, perpetrated for his benefit, leaving him untouched.
Maybe it will take a bumbling Blagojevich to take him down.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
