When the Game of Political Musical Chairs Stops

Phil Pagano reporting to the McHenry County Board in the fall of 2009.

In his Sunday column, columnist John Kass talks about what happens to politicos “after the music stops and there’s no safe place to sit.”

He is, of course, stimulated to write of it because of the Crystal Lake suicide of Metra Executive Director and Executive Director Phil Pagano after being under the corruption stoplight for nine days.

Besides Republican Phil Pagano, John Kass also writes about Democrats Michael Scott, Chris Kelly and Orlando Jones.

Kass ends his column writing of “that terrible clarity that arrives as the music stops.”

In Pagano’s case the music he listened as he lost his chair at the table of power brokers was the blaring horn of a Metra engine.

But before he left this world, the Northwest Herald reports that he talked to former McHenry County and Illinois Republican Party Chairman Al Jourdan.

The Chicago Sun-Times thought that significant enough to attribute to the NW Herald in its Saturday story:

“The Northwest Herald reported that Pagano spoke with his long-time friend Al Jourdan, former Republican Party state chairman, twice before his death, including Thursday night and Friday morning.”

Jourdan serves on the Regional Transportation Authority Board.

Crystal Lake had another Metra miscreant in Board member Don Udstuen.  Udstuen accepted a bribe from former State Rep. Roger Stanley to give Stanley’s firm Metra business.  The information Udstuen provided helped bring down former Governor George Ryan.


Comments

When the Game of Political Musical Chairs Stops — 2 Comments

  1. I just don’t understand why these folks are killing themselves over less than capital infractions….any clues?

  2. Maybe Pagano was trying to stop a much larger train wreck, Code of Silence!!! To Bad He Did this on Mother’s Day weekend. This does not honor his wife or daughters, or his Mother.

    I have been watching who pops their head up to praise this Man, to have their name in the newspaper. This was not about the traditional FAMILY.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *