John McCormick, proud native Iowan and father of two, is used to tangling with politicians, but he’s probably never had a governor try to get him fired before – at least not in an alleged extortion attempt captured on federal wiretaps.
McCormick is the Tribune’s deputy editorial page editor and the writer responsible for many of the paper’s editorials (rightly) critical of the governor.
Blagojevich is alleged to have sought from Tribune Company owner Sam Zell the firing of McCormick and others on the editorial board in exchange for his help with the sale of Wrigley Field – possibly to the state.
The Tribune Company released a statement saying that “the actions of the company, its executives and advisors working on the disposition of Wrigley Field have been appropriate at all times. No one working for the company or on its behalf has ever attempted to influence staffing decisions at the Chicago Tribune or any aspect of the newspaper’s editorial coverage as a result of conversations with officials in the governor’s administration. “
Zell will be interviewed on CNBC today at 2 p.m. CST *(check back here to hear what he has to say); Tribune editorial page editor Bruce Dold told CTLV that “If the governor did what was alleged, he ran into a brick wall.”
Still, as far-fetched as the plot may have sounded, Patrick Fitzgerald said he couldn’t sleep at night knowing that McCormick and others could lose their jobs – citing this along with “tainted” legislation on the governor’s desk and the allegedly corrupted process to appoint a replacement to Barack Obama’s Senate seat as the reason why authorities moved to arrest Blagojevich now, with “crimes in progress,” instead of waiting to complete the investigation and present evidence to a grand jury to gain an indictment.
The funny thing is that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. McCormick is one of the most gracious people you will find, and hardly a combatant by nature. I know this because I worked for McCormick when he was the Newsweek bureau chief here, but his reputation goes far beyond my experience.
Still, he was a frequent adversary for the late Cook County Board President John Stroger, and may have been who successor Todd Stroger had in mind last week when he said he had decided to stop buying the Tribune, which has perhaps been even more merciless toward Stroger than Blagojevich.
Yet, when an grievously ill John Stroger slipped into retirement two years ago amid political chaos, it was McCormick who wrote most gracefully about him:
“Even in his recent absence, the granite constancy of John Stroger has outclassed the shabby opportunism of the lesser pols who hovered like vultures over the final months of his career. They conspired among themselves and misled voters, scheming to embezzle his personal clout as his grasp on it slipped away.
“Now he departs, taking with him a possession that can't be begged, borrowed or bequeathed. What he wanted most in return for his work was people's respect.
“He has it. He always will.”
As generous as McCormick is, I doubt he’ll be writing similarly of Blagojevich when he finally leaves office.
