Fitzgerald is 2008's Elliot Ness

United States Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald is the new Elliot Ness, I'm sure of it.

In the world of Chicago politics, swathed in mob mentality (as in, organized crime), Fitzgerald has rooted out one of the most indecent politicians in recent memory, Gov. Blagojevich.

Just like Elliot Ness systematically shut down the mob in Chicago and Cleveland, who all but ran the cities throughout the 1930s, Fitzgerald has successfully unearthed evidence leading to the prosecution, and conviction, of Illinois Governor George Ryan and also assisted in the prosecution of Mafia figure John Gambino in 1993. His office led the charges against several aides to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in 2005.

Fitzgerald also served the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel, where he brought an indictment for 5 counts of false statements, perjury, and obstruction of justice against Dick Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby.

On the terrorism front, Fitzgerald led prosecution against Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and others charged in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Fitzgerald also served as chief counsel in prosecutions related to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania (these attacks were performed by al Qaeda).

Let's honor this principled man for doing his appointed job, with adherence to and respect of our laws.

Here's a great quote from Atty Fitzgerald, from a press conference following Scooter LIbby's indictment:

"Fitzgerald was asked about comments by Republicans such as Kay Bailey Hutchison, who said 'I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality...' Fitzgerald responded, 'That talking point won't fly... The truth is the engine of our judicial system. If you compromise the truth, the whole process is lost . . . if we were to walk away from this, we might as well hand in our jobs.'

(source for all: Wikipedia)