I was watching Walter Jacobson...

I was watching WTTW's Friday Night Show with John Calloway and he was interviewing the Walter Jacobson. It was an interesting interview with Mr. Jacobson talking about engaging in other projects since he's no longer busy at WFLD-TV. He wants to do documentaries, write a book, and even write newspaper columns. He talked about his early life as well.

Eventually Calloway and Jacobson talked politics. They talked about the patronage and how politicians who were either set on reform or otherwise got used to the system as it existed in it's various forms. Calloway even suggested why not be upfront about the patronage and set a side say 5000 jobs for the purposes of political hiring. Jacobson would say that this would be hard to justify.

So then they turned to the political players in the state. Calloway has a thesis that Mayor Richard M. Daley is more powerful than his father Mayor Richard J. Daley. The second Mayor Daley doesn't seem as interested in being as powerful as mayor having his hand into the Cook County Democratic Organization. Jacobson would disagree saying that Daley's power came from the education establishment and also from his connections with the business community.

Then they talked about Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Jacobson seemed to be positive on the governor believing he's made some positive decisions. However Jacobson does say that Blagojevich is in trouble because his promise of reforms hasn't materialized. He even preferaced all this by saying that Blagojevich "is no Einstein". That is he's not brilliant.

Finally what about that Patrick Fitzgerald character. The US attorney was said to have pushed aside his Washington business to focus on Chicago. And Jacobson said he could be the most powerful of all if he can prove Daley knew about the illegalities in city hall. I suppose on that we shall have to see.