Will Killing Osama Reelect Obama?...How Lisa Madigan Can—and Should—Enter the Vanekco Probe.

      Q.  Barbara Walters says she’d hate to be a Republican presidential candidate running against Obama in 2012 now that he had the CIA and Navy Seals kill Osama bin Laden.   Also Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC.
    A. You’ve identified the nation’s two overage liberal news Harpies there.   But it’s all in their dreams. The best research that can be found has determined that when Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003, George W.  Bush got a brief 7-point spurt which died as domestic issues took to the fore.  Bush won but by the time the 2004 election was held Saddam’s capture was a minor item.   And of course George H.  W.  Bush bringing the first Iraq War to a successful conclusion added 40 points to his popularity….so much so that a number of Democratic aspirants bowed out….leaving Bill Clinton, regarded as a second-tier southern governor, who capitalized on the dreary economy.  The 40 points faded quickly.  That’s likely to be the case in 2012 with Obama unless job totals start picking up.
     Having said that, however, the smooth professionalism that characterizes Bill Daley’s aplomb as chief of staff was readily evident. I thought Obama’s speech was brilliantly written and carried out --from top to bottom with the reverential signoff “God bless America.” All those sentiments had been missing in Obama’s communications before Daley. 
       Q.  You’ve been asking for a long time why the RJ Vanecko case has been stalled—but the other night on the radio you said it is not impossible for a wary States Attorney Anita Alverez to get help in probing the Daley nephew from Attorney General Lisa Madigan, R. J. Vanecko, for responsibility in slugging a Mt. Prospect kid a number of years ago where the kid fell backwards, hitting his head and dying in agony twelve days later…while Vanecko ran away, the cops delayed the probe and when they did hold a lineup Vanecko showed up with a shaved head ostensibly to confuse people who would identify him as the assailant.  Lost records and mysterious jurisdictional transfers within the Police Department has led two major news organizations…the Sun-Times and NBC Channel 5…to see something fishy.  Carol Marin went to States Attorney Anita Alverez and got her weakly to admit that there should be a third-party investigation.   A city inspector general has the job but that’s pretty unimpressive given the seriousness of the matter.   Marin suggested others do the job—such as Patrick Fitzgerald the U. S. Attorney but as Alverez is an old feminist buddy of Marin’s there hasn’t been much apparent progress.
       A.  Yes—but the one who should be all odds do it is Lisa Madigan the Illinois Attorney General.  Alverez is swamped with conflict of interest.  She was a high level functionary when the slugging was committed—and working as a top assistant to States Attorney Dick Devine. Devine is a former law partner of Rich Daley and the “lost” records happened on Devine’s watch.  To make matters more uncomfortable for Alverez, Devine is the chairman of an advisory committee that recommends candidates for federal judgeships to the Obama administration and reportedly Alverez tops the list.
      All the while Poppa Madigan’s little dimpled darling Lisa is fooling around with easy stuff that gets her name in the paper and a mass following for a future run for governor.  Between the two of them they’ve contrived a beautiful safe harbor for Lisa—with the media not vouchsafing to criticize her as she cavorts being one of the most popular AGs in the country with safe cases…romancing the gun-control lobby by crusading to print owners’ names…and saving Cairo’s homes from flooding by assailing mean old Missouri for choosing to save farmlands from flooding rather than blow the dams.   Lisa and Pop make sure she doesn’t get skee-geed with the Dem powers that be.  All par for the course.
      Now, at least one expert on Illinois state government told me that under law it is not possible for Lisa to enter the case.  Sounded funny to me since my earlier experience had been as an assistant to a Minnesota governor where the Attorney General, Walter Mondale, was particularly active.   So I asked a good friend, a top legal researcher here, to give the issue a look-see.  Not exactly airtight. In People vs. Buffalo Confectionary Company 1980 and Skelton vs. Brown 2009  the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the AG does not have the authority to probe or prosecute on her own when the states attorney has jurisdiction, but can do so if so invited by the states attorney and the states attorney participates in the trial. 
       It appears Alverez’s and Lisa’s good journalistic friends are not going the limit in this matter—hence liberal interests are blocking the way.   Both liberal feminist icon pols have a problem…not irritating the Daleys who no matter whether they’re yesterday’s mashed potatoes or not can wreak vengeance to the third degree of kindred—Lisa because she and her Pop want her to cruise to the governorship without making waves in the party, and Anita because she wants someday to be a federal judge and Dick Devine who was States Attorney at the time doesn’t know for the life of him what happened to the records.
      Now expect a detailed answer to this by Madigan minions who will seemingly use every argument extant and some not so to justify that Lisa can’t move on this case even if she’s asked.   Want to hazard a guess where the answer will appear?  Hah! That’s easy.  Just think about it  for a second.