Blago Dumps Dump, Mell Dumps On Blago

By vouchey in News on Jan 10, 2005 1:23PM

It was a heated weekend for Illinois' First Political Family. With little warning Gov. Rod Blagojevich excercised a seldom used power to close a Will County garbage dump that was allegedy operating illegally. Trouble is, the dump is owned by one of his wife's cousins. And oh yeah, his wife is the daughter of long-time Chicago Alderman Dick Mell. Mell didn't take this too kindly, and managed to make comments to a Chicago Tribune reporter while he was vacationing in Florida.

The best part of the Mell comments were kinda sad,

Mell's laundry list of complaints against Blagojevich goes beyond just his handling of the landfill issue and the friction that exists within his family.

Comparing himself to a spurned spouse replaced by a trophy wife, Mell said he has been displaced within Blagojevich's political circle by fund-raising chief Christopher Kelly, who Mell said "trades appointments to commissions for checks for $50,000" to the governor's political fund. Both Kelly and a Blagojevich spokesman denied that claim.

Ever the protective father, Mell regrets all the public fighting, but thinks one day his daughter Patti will realize that her husband's a creep.

"She's got blinders on. Patti will wake up one day," Mell said Friday, hinting she cannot see Blagojevich's penchant for doing anything for his own political gain, even at the expense of family and friends. "He uses people, and he used me. He uses everybody, and when there's no more use, he discards them. When he was running, we talked five or six times a day. After he became governor, we never talked. He wanted everyone to believe he got there on his own."

The Governor and his folks have been quiet for the most part, and now so is Ald. Mell, trying to rise above, Chicagoist supposes. But yesterday word came of the Governor closing another landfill. This one owned by a non-relative.