Illinois' New Eliot Ness Bags Another Scalp

With the arrest of Rod Blagojevich, federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald notched up his second indictment against an Illinois governor in five years. But it's just another scalp for the US attorney who's brought down everyone from World Trade Center bomber Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman to media mogul Conrad Black, not to mention Scooter Libby. "People see him as the only ally we have against political corruption," one activist told the New York Times.

Fitzgerald was born in Brooklyn and only moved to Chicago in 2001 when he was appointed federal prosecutor for northern Illinois—an area rich with targets for investigation. A longtime bachelor who often slept in his office, he married a local Head Start teacher earlier this year. And while Democrats have long coveted the possibility of appointing an attorney for Cook County, odds are that the Republican appointee will stay on.
(More Rod Blagojevich stories.)