The man who made Obama possible

This column by Phil Kadner is really about the man whom Obama replaced in the US Senate in 2005, Peter Fitzgerald. If you know nothing else about him, he brought in Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation) into his current postion as US Attorney having a role in prosecuting local mobsters as political corruption from the City of Chicago all the way up to the state government.

He even advocated for the south suburbs. He was an ally in the US Senate for a third airport out south and we know Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s position on the subject. He also though that the inequities of wealth between the north suburbs and the south suburbs weren't good for the state. At the same time he was ridiculed for opposing the expansion of O'Hare Airport with the belief that the airport had no room to expand and couldn't meet the demands of 21st Century air travel.

There are other things of note here, but here's the excerpt from this column that involves Obama even more:

Obama ran for Fitzgerald's vacant seat and won.

Although he's never done anything about corruption in Illinois, Obama is campaigning as the great reformer.

As for many of the the Illinois Republicans touting McCain's virtues today and denouncing Obama, they're the very folks who couldn't stand Fitzgerald because he was honest.

No one who rises to the top of the political system in this country is an "outsider."

Fitzgerald really fought for reform and actually was a change agent.

And that's exactly why he's gone.

It's an interesting read this morning.