Golden (51 page)

“The cash was for Obama. Not for me,” Blagojevich said.

“Right.”

“You understand?” the governor asked.

When Blagojevich sometimes mentioned Obama having bigger Rezko issues than he did, it was often this story he was thinking of. His mentioning that much detail about the matter would continue to perk up the ears of the investigators listening to the call. Bruce Washington was interviewed, as was Rezko, but not enough detail was gathered to make much of it. Rezko had talked about giving money to a number of politicians, but often that kind of off-the-books cash was almost indistinguishable from what was called “walking around money” on the South Side of Chicago. In campaign season this money was used for extra little expenses, and on voting day it provided cabs for elderly voters and bought lunch for people in the neighborhood if that's what it took to get them to the polls. The Obama-Rezko story stemmed from the 2004 election. Still, Blagojevich was signaling he thought his convicted fundraiser, Rezko, had indirectly given $25,000 cash to the man who had just been elected president of the United States, and Blagojevich didn't think Obama ever disclosed it.

Before he met with Balanoff, Blagojevich spoke to both Harris and Greenlee again. He was dreaming big. What was more important, Commerce Secretary or ambassador to India? He was CEO of a $58 billion corporation—the state of Illinois; why couldn't he be ambassador to India?

“If he makes me secretary of state, do you think a pundit or two would say, ‘Man, he sure must have something on Obama when it comes to Rezko?'” Blagojevich said to Harris as both men laughed. “Holy shit.”

Maybe there was something in the private sector that Obama could influence. He could get Blagojevich on a good corporate board or two or make him head of something like Families USA, the Kaiser Foundation, or the Red Cross. Elizabeth Dole had that job. CEO positions would pay, so the men decided to patch Greenlee in to tell him to do the research.

With Greenlee on the phone, Harris outlined what he and the governor were just talking about. He should research organizations that were
heavily dependent on federal aid, making them more vulnerable to being influenced by Obama's wishes. Greenlee understood. There were all kinds of foundations out there that fit the bill and pushed a progressive agenda for the middle class.

“Something like that would be great,” Blagojevich said. “What does that pay?”

Could be between $300,000 and $500,000, Harris said. It was all interesting. Greenlee should consider them all, including the Red Cross. How about the Salvation Army? Greenlee tossed out.

“Oh, that would be huge,” Blagojevich said. “But do you have to wear a uniform? Forget that.”

Meanwhile, Balanoff had reached out to Scofield to pass a message to Blagojevich that it would take another day before he could meet with him, giving Blagojevich more hours to throw around scores of ideas of what he could ask for. It also gave him time to field a call from one of the men he looked up to in politics, Dennis Hastert, a former Speaker of the US House from the far western suburbs. Hastert was a longtime Republican, but it didn't matter. They had much in common. Blagojevich had voted for Reagan twice, he reminded Hastert. The men talked about the Senate seat and what Blagojevich should do. In Hastert's opinion, the best move was a “double swap.” Appoint someone like Lisa Madigan and get something for it, and then Blagojevich would have to appoint someone attorney general to replace her.

“So that is a two-fer,” Hastert said. He liked the idea of a deal with Madigan that let bygones be bygones. Lisa would go to the Senate, and her father would agree to get a group of things going in Illinois. “That has to be the quid pro quo.”

Blagojevich also spoke with his nephew, Alex, Robert's son. It was his twenty-sixth birthday. And that was too bad, Blagojevich joked. Just four years older and he could have made Alex a US senator for his birthday.

Doug Scofield was next. Blagojevich told him he was still getting used to the idea that Obama was president.

“It's a big deal. OK, it's Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson and, right?” Blagojevich said, before devolving into a slight depression. “That's a good thing. It's uh, eh, forget it, it is what it is and we've gotta deal with it.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it did mean Blagojevich was picking a new senator. Scofield was still acting as a back channel between the governor and the leaders of SEIU, including Balanoff, who was still coming in the next day. SEIU was the biggest funder of Families USA, an advocacy
group dealing with health care. OK, Blagojevich said, so Obama could move out whoever was there so Blagojevich could have it.

Blagojevich told Scofield he had done some television news shows the prior night after Obama's win. His least favorite had been with Chicago television journalist Carol Marin, who reminded him there had been presidential swirl around him in 2002, but the FBI had blown that up. It was a bitter pill for Blagojevich to swallow at that moment. “I hate her,” he said.

But back to the real subject at hand. Health and Human Services was a spot he really wanted. If that were offered, he'd jump at it, he told Scofield. UN ambassador, he would take that, too.

“You Russian motherfuckers,” Blagojevich imagined. “Can you see me?”

It was a lot to think about. Everything was in the air. “You know what I mean,” he said. Something in his head was messed up, he said later in the call, and he was afraid he could still wind up delivering pizzas somewhere. He needed something else to reach for.

“I mean, I, I've got this thing and it's fucking—
golden,”
Blagojevich said with a slight pause, as if he was fully relishing the opportunity he now had in front of him. “And I, I'm just not giving it up for fucking nothing.”

Blagojevich would spend most of the next two days trying to decipher the new lay of the land. He often described his meeting with Balanoff as “good.” It was a good meeting or a good discussion. His message had been received. “They know that I could do it for [Jarrett],” Blagojevich told Greenlee.

Not long before the meeting, there had been a new wrinkle, as Harris thought maybe Blagojevich could wind up leading Change to Win, a national labor organization affiliated with SEIU. That might make his ask even more direct and something Balanoff and Stern could presumably control. It might give Blagojevich the profile he needed to stay on the national stage for eight years and wait out Obama's presidency. The feds had captured Blagojevich and Patti talking about it, as Patti used the Internet to try to figure out how much a position like that might pay. Patti flipped through foundations and saw one tied to Tippi Hedren, the actress.

“Bird lover,” Blagojevich deadpanned.

But when Patti found Change to Win, there was a problem. Oops, she finally said, it didn't look from the website like anyone was being paid. That set Blagojevich off. Don't worry about it. He would negotiate an annual
salary of a million dollars, and Obama would just give the organization more money if it was a problem.

“All of this gets fuckin' created, you understand. It doesn't mean a fuckin' thing who gets paid or doesn't get paid over there. ‘Cause none of it is— fuckin', we're makin' it up.”

Blagojevich explained that the beauty of the situation was SEIU was the intermediary. They could easily be part of the arrangement. But Patti was put out.

“I tried to be helpful, and you jumped down my fuckin' throat,” she said.

Now, as Blagojevich told Greenlee and Harris how things had gone with Balanoff, he said the key was that the Obama people now knew a Jarrett pick was a real possibility if the governor of Illinois could be thrown a bone.

“They also know I want something,” Blagojevich told his deputy governor. He had stressed that the “Madigoon” play was an option but had also hinted enough to Balanoff that if something could be done for him, that favor would supersede any alternatives.

To Greenlee, the biggest obstacle was probably still the Rezko situation. The Obama camp was unnaturally afraid of it. For example, they hadn't even officially invited Blagojevich to the Grant Park rally.

“You honestly think they'd snub me? No way,” Blagojevich said, in disbelief. That was news to him.

The governor's staff had gone back and forth in e-mail to Obama's people without telling Blagojevich because they were scared of his reaction. In retrospect, it might have been a good thing for Blagojevich to know Obama's mind. He was all about severing all ties to Illinois.

Blagojevich thought that the height of Obama's ascendence should make Rezko meaningless but probably wouldn't. The thing he had asked for, a post in the administration, probably wouldn't happen, and Rezko was the reason. The governor said he mentioned the Bruce Washington story to Balanoff, just to let him know he knew it. At least the Obama people would know he was serious about things. He had done as well as he could that day, he said.

“It was a good, good discussion, executed well,” is how Blagojevich described it to Harris.

And it wouldn't take long to get a response. It would come the next morning, November 7, the Friday after Obama had been elected. Word came in the form of a call with Scofield, who said the message had been received, and word was the Obama people weren't sure what they could offer, but there could be more talking.

“They're not quite sure what to make of it,” Scofield said.

It seemed Blagojevich might have overplayed his Madigan problem, as part of the response was that maybe Lisa Madigan could be offered something in the new administration, getting her out of Springfield and maybe the Madigans out of Blagojevich's hair. Blagojevich wasn't exactly sure how that solved anything for him, but ever the optimist, Blagojevich said he thought that at least meant the other side was willing to deal.

It seemed whoever on the Obama side was fielding the information understood the Madigan problem, but something else had come back. The presidentelect wanted to be done with Illinois politics. Bringing Blagojevich to Washington to be in the cabinet was definitely contrary to that desire. Health and Human Services was a very big ask.

“I think they are surprised and don't quite know how to respond,” Scofield repeated.

Blagojevich turned around minutes later and let Harris know on a call what was happening.

“Doug called on behalf of Balanoff. He would like to see me again as soon as, you know, at my earliest convenience,” said Blagojevich. He had been told they didn't really know what to make of the request, but Obama wanted Jarrett and was going to resign his Senate seat within days. “Barack really wants to get away from Illinois politics,” he added, as both men laughed.

Blagojevich explained what Scofield had said about Lisa Madigan. The message had been received, but the response back had been the idea of moving Lisa Madigan to Washington, not as a senator but in the kind of post Blagojevich might want. That seemed to do nothing for Blagojevich on any front, they agreed.

“Tell them to put Mike Madigan in the cabinet,” Patti said in the background.

Anyway, things were in motion. There was no reason to rush, and in fact Blagojevich wanted to run some clock. Other potential emissaries were coming at him with the same Obama-Jarrett information. One of them was Obama friend Alexi Giannoulias, the Illinois treasurer. The governor decided he was going to dodge Giannoulias that day, and Balanoff, too, for that matter. He was going to let things cook. They hadn't known what to make of his request, but that was a natural reaction. They weren't just going to appear and say OK to making him HHS secretary immediately.

Eventually he would have another conversation with the union boss, and maybe someone would eventually deal more directly with Jarrett herself.

“She has also been told now that I would do it if I got this,” Blagojevich said. “So now she knows I can get this Senate seat if my friend would give him this.”

Obama wanted out of Chicago politics. That was just another term for Rezko, Blagojevich said. Harris said all in all, he was feeling a little better than neutral. Things seemed to be about where Blagojevich wanted them. The governor thought HHS was “an unlikely long shot,” but at least people on the Obama side were churning over his request. A short time later, he would go back over things with Scofield yet again. No one on the presidentelect's side had immediately said his ask was ludicrous. If Obama had a problem with Blagojevich's plan, the reason was Rezko.