Was Karl Rove For Corruption In Chicago?

John Kass reports:

The old man's eyes filled with tears as Peter Fitzgerald was telling a great political story.

The former senator explained to a downtown luncheon crowd on Thursday how he outfoxed White House guru Karl Rove and the Illinois Combine pressuring Rove to stop politically independent prosecutors from being brought to this state.

"Karl Rove called back and said if you will not appoint anyone [from] out of state, we'll let you pick anybody you want, as long as that person is from Chicago," he said, as laughter broke out at the lunch for the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Political operatives know the history. Fitzgerald went to the press first, to announce his choice of New Yorker Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation) as U.S. attorney in Chicago.

This angered then-Gov. George Ryan and House Speaker Denny Hastert, City Hall and the crowd that figured they owned the federal hammer in Chicago.

But the old man with the wet eyes wasn't laughing. He wasn't at lunch with Fitzgerald. Yet his tears certainly were a product of the former senator's gumption.

Donald Tomczak, 72, the corrupt ex-water department boss for Mayor Richard Daley, stood in federal court a few blocks away, his face and shoulders sagging, looking at 47 months in federal prison. And more time to be added if Tomczak doesn't testify in future City Hall corruption cases yet to be announced.

No word yet from Rahm Emanuel.