Most IL Dems Mum As Biden Lets Chicago U.S. Attorney Keep Digging

CHICAGO — A hush fell over much of the Illinois Democratic Party after word leaked Tuesday that President Joe Biden had succumbed under mounting pressure calling for him to let Chicago's corruption-busting U.S. Attorney John Lausch keep his job a while longer.

[COMMENTARY]

We didn't hear a peep from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whom Lausch's office is investigating for allegedly removing toilets from one of his mansions as part of a "scheme to defraud" Cook County.

It could be Pritzker was just too busy.

After all, the billionaire had his hands full trying to muscle in his pick for Illinois' new Democratic Party boss from the moment House Speaker Michael Madigan — whom Lausch also is investigating — resigned the post Monday.

Over the last two months, Madigan was forced out as House speaker, resigned his seat in the state Legislature, appointed a controversial replacement only to ask him to resign and, of course, stepped down as the state Democratic Party leader. All of that came after Lausch implicated him (without filing charges) in ComEd's participation in a bribery scheme aimed at winning Madigan's legislative favor.

Madigan and his political associates, like Pritzker, didn't say a word about Biden's decision to keep Lausch around for six months or however long it takes to install his replacement.

There was no public pontificating from Democrats loyal to Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, whom Lausch indicted on accusations of trying to shake down a Burger King owner for a $10,000 contribution to Cook County Democratic Party boss Toni Preckwinkle.

Preckwinkle — who might've become Chicago's mayor if not for her name getting attached to Lausch's mid-campaign indictment of Burke — also didn't publicly comment on the U.S. attorney's continued employment.

Neither did Crestwood Mayor Lou Presta and former Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski. They're among a long list of Democratic public officials and lobbyists Lausch's office has indicted as part of an ongoing corruption investigation that has connected the dots on dirty public deeds from Springfield to the suburbs, Cook County government to Chicago's City Council and public school system — and beyond.

Every person, government and corporation touched by Lausch's massive political corruption probe has one thing in common: deep ties to the corrupt Democratic machine that still runs Illinois politics.

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The only Dems with something to say on the matter have been U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, who were first to beg Biden to reverse course on Lausch, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who said Tuesday removing the U.S. attorney would make "no sense."

It's worth noting that Durbin, Duckworth and Lightfoot neither are targets of Lausch's investigations nor have a vote in who takes over the state Democratic Party. They also aren't billionaires willing to part with personal wealth to leverage influence like our "toilet gate" governor, for instance.

And it's thanks in part to their public call for Biden to keep Lausch around that Chicago's U.S. attorney gets an extra six months, and maybe longer, to check the wiretaps for what the silent are saying when they think no one is listening.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

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