Blogroll Me! How This Old Brit Sees It ...: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Patrick Fitzgerald - But Were Afraid To Ask ...

12 February 2006

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Patrick Fitzgerald - But Were Afraid To Ask ...



Every once in a while comes along someone exceedingly special, and seemingly such a man is US special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald.

Sometimes, something other than a living breathing person prompts similar proclamations of the same sort of super-star status. Something as simple as a Sunday magazine article for instance. Like this one put together by Paul Harris and published in this weekend's Observer Magazine, then heralded by the headers highlighted hereunder.

Saint Patrick's day

He is the relentless scourge of mobsters, terrorists, corrupt city bosses and even the White House.

Paul Harris profiles Patrick Fitzgerald, the tenacious workaholic special prosecutor, who gives George Bush sleepless nights, and who has now turned his sights on the former Telegraph tycoon Conrad Black

If that's interesting enough initially to imply it sounds like a story not be missed by any mind worthy of being equated with the word enquiring, then please bear with This Old Brit. Well at least for a little bit, and join him in a giant yet truly temporary leap from the opening paragraph to the closing one.

Okay? Then what are we waiting for? Let's go.

If so, he might want to consider a saying from the French essayist Charles Peguay: 'The honest man must be a perpetual renegade.'

Alright already, he hears you and he holds his hands up. It's a fair cop, guv. This Old Brit's just jumped the gun -- but justifiably he believes - even if for purely personal reasons. Y'see, This Old Brit likes to believe that when Peguay spoke as he did of honest men, he had people such as his old self and co-renegade Richard in his thoughts.

But let's get back to business. Cast your eyes across this cut & pasted chunk of compelling copy.

Few Chicagoans would recognise Patrick Fitzgerald on his jogs. The same cannot be said of some of the most powerful, the most violent and the most deadly people in the world. To them, he is clearly a dangerous man. For Fitzgerald has carved out a career in American law enforcement that has earned him the nickname 'The Untouchable', after the legendary Chicago lawman Eliot Ness.

It is a good comparison - like Ness, Fitzgerald is ruthless and unrelenting. But unlike Ness, who put Al Capone behind bars, Fitzgerald's enemies go far beyond Chicago gangsters.

They stretch from the caves of Afghanistan to the corridors of the White House. They include the Gambino mob family; the blind sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who masterminded the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993; Osama bin Laden, and a generation of Chicago politicians, bloated on a culture of corruption that Fitzgerald is seeking to eradicate.

Now, they also include the Bush administration .....

So as not to spoil things too much we're stopping short of selecting any more extracts -- since this most positively is a must read piece. Whether you know little or lots about Fitzgerald, we feel sure you'll finish up furnished with much more knowledge if you take the time & trouble to read the rest of this remarkable resume for yourself. And when you have, we wager you won't want to argue that it wasn't well worth your while.

For this certainly is a story to savour, and if ever there were genuinely cracking 'keepers' - then this is one of them.

Well, we honestly ask ya, would we two old codgers ever con ya ?

Here's the link -- you'll love it. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1707291,00.html

15 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's why we across the puddle cheer "Give 'em Hell, Patrick" ! Good post & link. Someday that man will run for higher political office & on that day I will move to whatever state he's going for just so I can my vote for the last honest man. D.K.

6:41 am  
Blogger enigma4ever said...

Ahhh I see DK is still up....Thanks for posting on this Rick...

Yes I love the Untouchable..he is my Atticus ( from To Kill A Mockingbird)
and you can give me posts on him all day , I will read anything and everything on him....
sigh ...he is our LAST hope at this point...

( I still have my plamegate timeline- just for him
http://plamegatetimeline.blogspot.com/, )

thanks for posting on Fitz....

8:44 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've nothing but admiration for this man -- but I worry about him. Accidents, suicides and other mishaps have a habit of befalling men like him in America.

One thing is for sure, he should not go hunting with the VP. Come to think of it, nor should anyone in their right mind.

6:17 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Even the Kennedys and Ronald Reagan found out they could only go so far ...................

The real power in the US was taken from the "official" leader in the 60s, in Dallas Texas. The "real" rulers have merely been refining their skills & methods ever since.

It's these "real" rulers who selected the figure heads and pay them to do what they're told. Very well and for a lifetime, when they perform well -- and very quickly with a 'one-off' severance payment of one kind or another when they don't.

Democracy? It's just another American dream. And I do mean dream. Only those sleeping aren't aware this is how things are meant to be in the US.

6:29 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice to read this piece on Fitzy - Vanity Fair ran a similar piece in their January issue. He comes across as a real straight arrow. I get a little tired of reading that he is the son of a doorman - or that he wears off the rack suits - gasp!. The Jesuits spotted his talents early on and paved out his future. However, the article failed to mention that People magazine named him on their list of sexy smart men or that Bob Woodward called him a junkyard dog. I have to admit it nice to see someone taking on the establishment - I sure hope he's going to 'get' Rove soon!

7:19 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This man already looks like a hero. What's known as 'the right stuff'. If he does this job he's taken on properly and sees it through sucessfully, then he may well become president himself in the future - and he'll have deserved it.

12:21 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Richard!

God, would I love to have a quiet drink with Fitz (you, too,for that matter) and just let the conversation flow ...

I am afraid I have to agree with the last "anonymous" -- and the fact is a man like Fitz will never be President, nor would he want to be.

3:56 am  
Blogger markfromireland said...

LOL I left a link to that on Firedoglake. Fitzgerald is an old-fashioned small "c2 conservative. Grania if you want the Vanity fair article redd at firedoglake put it up in its entirety with commentary. You might wat to look at it. Because fdl is such a busy site you'll have to look in the archives but it'll be well worth your time.

2:00 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does Fitzy have political ambitions? I'm not seeing any right now. Truth be told for him to run for office in the US he would first need to get married and have kids. (Justice Roberts had to adopt PDQ) He would also need to exude a lot more charisa - we're a shallow bunch! It's nice to see such positive comments

8:46 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

I'm glad to see everyone enjoyed this, and I'm glad [as usual] that so many of you continue to contribute with your [very welcome] constructive and interesting comments.

Keep 'em coming and we promise we'll keep on doing the same.

11:32 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

Oops.

enigma, gotham, graniab & mark, thanks for the links/heads up. I'll eventually get to them all - I promise.

And Rosemary, thanks for your kind offer. Who knows? One fine day we just may get that drink and chat together -- but remember -- none of the 'hard stuff' for us old T-totalers. Heh.

11:40 pm  
Blogger markfromireland said...

Richard I'm the proud and beaming possessor of a commsissioned work of art. If you go to my blog you'll see t - be prepared to go away smiling. Sometimes some light shines you know.

5:04 pm  
Blogger markfromireland said...

Sheeesh I mean if you go to my blog and follow the link you'll be smiling.

sorry 'bout that life is more than ordinarily hectic right now.

5:07 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

Heh. The original gentle giant, eh, Mark? Or would you prefer handsome brute.?

10:51 pm  
Blogger markfromireland said...

Now now Richard I only climb skyscrapers with shrieking beautiful blondes tucked under my arm and then use them to bat bi-planes out of the sky because it's traditional and my dates complain if I don't behave appropriately :-)

6:55 pm  

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