Mell-Blago Soap Opera Enlists Attorneys

By vouchey in News on Jan 18, 2005 9:12PM

CBS-2 reports that Alderman Dick "Mell said he's willing to admit he's 'said things I shouldn't have said' about [Gov. Rod Blagojevich's chief fundraiser] Chris Kelly." But for some reason, Mell isn't willing to settle with Kelly and his lawyers.

This whole thing got started when Gov. Blago closed down one of father-in-law Mell's distant nephew's garbage dumps, and then Mell made the explosive accusation that Kelly was trading Illinois state appointments in exchange for $50,000 campaign donations. Since then, Mell has apologized, said that he really didn't want to say what he said, and the dump looks like it might open again. But Kelly, understandably upset, believes his reputation has been besmirched (and is probably upset by federal investigators snooping around), and wants a public retraction from Mell. For some reason, Mell won't really give one.

There's lots of potential reasons: Mell likes being a thorn in his son-in-law's side; Mell feels a public retraction would be a humiliation too big to endure; or, Mell maybe believes his statements to be true. The last reason is of course the most disturbing, but not necessarily the most likely. You don't get to be a player in Chicago politics without ego, and many political decisions go to servicing pride.

Anyhoo, Kelly's lawyer, Bob Clifford has very helpfully posted the back-and-forth letters between him and Mell's attorney. Also, Clifford has posted pictures of his client, here (and if you want to crash your browser Mac Safari, look at a picture of Clifford, here). Awesome.