Skinner skins Marin

Cal Skinner takes Carol Marin down several pegs in his McHenry County Blog.  He zeroes in on her Sun-Times column yesterday, in which she “explain[ed] why she wanted Mayor Richard Daley’s patronage chief Robert Sorich and his fellow defendants to be found not guilty,” namely “that they weren’t close enough to Daley.” 

Skinner has Marin demonstrating a tin ear for (a) prosecutorial strategy, for which see Kass here and previously, and, explicitly, (b) recent history of N. Ill. prosecuting — zilch under Clinton, gangbusters under Bush-Sen. Peter Fitzgerald-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald:

Nine years ago, President Bill Clinton’s then-U.S. Attorney and the Daley administration completely ignored the blatant violations of the anti-patronage Shakman Decree, not to mention the accompanying fraud that can’t have been very different from what was proved in the Sorich trial.

The man U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald’s picked for U.S. Attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, has not had blinders on.

That, Carol Marin, is the story.

Marin may not be as, ah, insensitive, as Skinner implies, but we may wonder about her self-absorption in recounting her mad dash to the court house to hear the Sorich trial results:

[F]our of us ran out of the newsroom, piled into a cab and flew to the Dirksen Federal Building.

This “Carol goes to work” stuff wears thin. 

And in her wondering if more “steely stares” await her from prosecutors.  If possible, she should discount such stuff as easily as Ozzie Guillen discounts questions from a sensitivity counselor.

She had questioned prosecutorial “conduct and proportionality” in the case.  No wonder they stared.  The last time my conduct and proportionality were questioned, I not only stared but grimaced — as threateningly as I could, unfortunately eliciting only grins from the questioners.  No matter.  The verdict was in, but Marin couldn’t let go her earlier arguments.

As for prosecutors, they got a “mixed verdict” and issued a “Mission Accomplished” statement at a p.c.  Oh, Carol knows how to hurt a prosecutor.  That M.A. stuff, we know where that comes from, a bumper sticker sold by moveon.org.  She couldn’t resist it.  Nor could she resist a closing tribute to herself:

I've spent a lot of years as a reporter doing my own small part to expose the corruption and cronyism that have had a chokehold on this city. I think it's shameful and have said so.  [Go girl!]

If Sorich and the others had been acquitted, I would not have been in a bar in Bridgeport toasting their victory.  [Go again!]

But when the government goes after corruption by squeezing the middle while affirming, even praising people closer to the top of the patronage pyramid, then I protest.

She would not pursue these prosecutors’ strategy, that is.  Oh.