Golden

Starred review from July 9, 2012
Chicago Tribune reporters Coen and Chase tell of the rise and fall of Rod Blagojevich—the “amiable” and “cocksure” former governor of Illinois who tried to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat in 2008. The FBI was on to his tricks beforehand, recording him secretly when “Blago” exclaimed on tape of his legal power to name a successor: “I’ve got this thing and it’s fucking golden,” adding, “I’m just not giving it up for fucking nothing.” Even FBI director Robert Mueller marveled to learn “the guy dropping the F-bombs” in the tapes was the governor. After a sensational trial, Blago was convicted of fraud and extortion, with a 14-year prison sentence. Coen and Chase’s authoritative account benefits from ample public records and court transcripts. Their detailed, surreal narrative features a cast that includes Barack Obama, David Durbin, Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett, Tony Rezko, and the entire Democratic establishment in Illinois and Washington, D.C. All those interested in the Blago drama or political intrigue in general can dive into this book with relish. There are heroes, too, as Coen and Chase make clear. The FBI investigation and federal prosecution demonstrated strong and reassuring internal checks against corruption inside government.

July 15, 2012
In-depth investigative report on the rise and fall of the embattled former governor of Illinois. Chicago Tribune staff writers Coen (Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob, 2010) and Chase team up in this account of Rod Blagojevich's attempt to sell the Senate seat once belonging to Barack Obama. Ultimately, this heavily detailed narrative serves as "a morality tale for the nation." Blagojevich's road to corruption began long before the 2008 election, and the authors meticulously track the future politician from his Chicago boyhood days all the way to the governor's mansion. Blagojevich hardly had time to settle into the mansion before the media began typecasting him as an inept, hair-obsessed, comic figure--though as time soon revealed, Blagojevich's lack of integrity was hardly the result of his hair, but rather, the big head beneath it. A man drunk on money and power--Coen and Chase report that "during his six years as governor, [he] and his wife spent $400,000 on clothes--more than they spent on their nanny," and "$4,000 for a single custom-fitted suit, of which he bought more than a dozen a year"--Blagojevich is depicted as an affable con artist who could hardly manage his own finances, let alone those of the state. More jester than tragic hero, Blagojevich's fall from grace confirmed what many constituents were beginning to see: He was a man so caught up in his act that he fooled even himself. An exhaustively detailed, definitive account of one of America's most morally reprehensible political-corruption sagas.

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Starred review from October 1, 2012
The story of the disgraced Illinois governor who sold the U.S. Senate seat of President Obama is well known, another fading chapter in the long history of corruption in the state. Chicago reporters Coen and Chase impart more inside knowledge than the national press has. They offer a nuanced context of political corruption overlaid with Blagojevich's extraordinarily flamboyant personality, from the profanity to the hair obsession and outsize ego. Drawing on interviews and trial transcripts, Coen and Chase provide a fast-paced and probing recollection of the rise and fall of Blagojevich and the behind-the-scene deal making that brought him down. The son of Serbian immigrants, he advanced on the strength of his charm and personality, aided by his marriage to the daughter of a powerful alderman. Colorful characters and political chicanery and manipulation add to the detailed drama of the pay to play scheme to sell Obama's seat to the highest bidder that entangled Blagojevich and other Illinois politicians, including Jesse Jackson Jr. The scheme was part of a long resume of scandalous behavior, including doling out state contracts in exchange for campaign contributions. The authors go beyond the disgrace of Blagojevich (sentenced to 14 years) to ask broader questions about how the system produces such people and why citizens elect them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)