DATE: 11/6/2008

SPEAKERS: Blagojevich: Rod Blagojevich

Pritzker: J.B. Pritzker

1 Pritzker: So I'd love to, to talk you about...'cause I, I, I,

2 you know, I'm sure you've got a lot of, of people who

3 are throwing ideas, um, and I want to chat with you

4 about that too, but I have something else I'm calling

5 you about today which is I just heard this morning

6 that Alexi [Giannoulias, state treasurer] might get

7 appointed to something in Washington. Have you heard

8 that?

9 Blagojevich: Um. Yea, there's like a news report or something that

10 was kind of mentioned right?

11 Pritzker: Right.

12 Blagojevich: I find that very hard to believe.

13 Pritzker: Um...

14 Blagojevich: I hear that [House Speaker Michael] Madigan is pushing

15 labor, to try to push the Obama administration to put

16 him in somewhere so they can clear the field for Lisa

17 [Madigan].

18 Pritzker: Oh, is that interesting.

19 Blagojevich: And Madigan's dropping dimes on him because [Antoin

20 "Tony"] Rezko is connected to the Broadway Bank and

21 the feds are looking at his bank. This is all Madigan,

22 this is how he operates.

23 Pritzker: Oh wow.

24 Blagojevich: He's trying to, he's trying to get Lisa a clear

25 field.

26 Pritzker: I see. So let me just throw some odd ideas...

27 Blagojevich: Uh, huh.

28 Pritzker: If it were true what I heard...

 1 Blagojevich: Yeah.

2 Pritzker: They were real...

3 Blagojevich: It could be. I mean, I'm just thinking. I'm

4 giving you my read on it.

5 Pritzker: Well I heard, yeah. What I heard was somebody who's

6 close to um, Alexi...

7 Blagojevich: Hold on J.B. Hang on one second. Hang on.

8 (Call cuts)

9 (Call continues)

10 Blagojevich: Hey go ahead.

11 Pritzker: Um, I, I actually am calling you about...I think you

12 appoint his replacement, don't you?

13 Blagojevich: Ooh, interesting. Let's think about that. You

14 interested in that?

15 Pritzker: Yeah, that's the one I would want.

16 Blagojevich: Now here's...how about this scenario?

17 Pritzker: That makes a lot of sense.

18 Blagojevich: Listen, extremely open mind on that. But don't rule

19 yourself out completely on that Senate thing. That may

20 not be...Look, you ought to see this list. Huh?

21 Pritzker: I'm sure you got...yeah.

22 Blagojevich: I've got a lot of factors to consider. I have to

23 factor, you know what do I want to do? Where am I

24 going? You know?

25 Pritzker: Exactly.

26 Blagojevich: You know, at some point, I gotta support, you know,

27 provide for my family. In a perfect world, provide for

28 your family, do good, keep some sort of viability and

29 get back in the game at some point. If there is any

 1 opportunity but not at this level. You know what I'm

2 saying?

3 Pritzker: Right, right, right.

4 Blagojevich: Um, if the Senate thing ever happened for you, my

5 strong recommendation would be, you got to do it and

6 say you're running again. There'd be no...putting a

7 guy like you there for just two years, I don't know. I

8 mean...

9 Pritzker: I, I agree with you.

10 Blagojevich: Huh?

11 Pritzker: I was thinking about the political problem and, you

12 know, the only way to make the political problem go

13 away in that scenario would be, that I can think of,

14 is to say, 'he's not running for re-election,' which

15 doesn't do anybody any good so it's probably not a

16 good scenario.

17 Blagojevich: No.

18 Pritzker: The treasurer thing is a different thing.

19 Blagojevich: Yeah, oh, this is a good option. Keep going, talk

20 to me.

21 Pritzker: There its putting a business person in a business

22 person's job.

23 Blagojevich: Yep.

24 Pritzker: I think I would be able to get people like Bill

25 Brodksy at the CBOE and people like Terry Duffy, at

26 the, you know, at the Merc, to you know, to sort of

27 stand up independently and say, you know, 'We're

28 putting, you know, we're suggesting to the governor

29 that this is a good idea.' You know what I mean?

30 Blagojevich: Oh, yeah, listen, I think it's exciting.

 1 Pritzker: I haven't called either one of those guys to ask them

2 to do that. It's a brand new idea here. But I throw

3 that out at ya. And finally, look, even if none of

4 those things makes sense for you, I'd love to help you

5 in any way I can, you know, with any decision-making

6 you decide to, you know, that you're going to get

7 involved in. Um, you know, I, I for whatever it's

8 worth, you know, some of the players I know, um, and I

9 would be happy to act as a little bit as an

10 intermediary with the people that you don't want to

11 have it, or the people you do want to have it, or

12 whatever. So, I just offer myself and my service to

13 you.

14 [MISSING FROM CHICAGO TRIBUNE VIDEO]

15 Blagojevich: What do you do if you're me? OK. And you know I don't

16 give a fuck what these assholes in the media say. I

17 really believe we've done great things for people in

18 Illinois. This fucking Obama ran on my record, OK? He

19 said he brought health care to kids. You know what I'm

20 saying? He voted for it. You know he is talking about

21 a, you know, a capital bill and expanding health care

22 for working families, we've done, 700,000 people have

23 gotten it. He is talking about not raising taxes on...

24 Pritzker: The only reason to do it is if he'll appoint you to

25 something.

26 [MISSING FROM CHICAGO TRIBUNE VIDEO]

27 Blagojevich: Well, but listen. I guess that's a...yeah, you know,

28 but he and I were Tonied up. He'd probably like to

29 keep, you know...That's another fucking thing that's

30 so galling. Shit. [Phone beeps] [unintelligible...]

 1 loved Tony longer than me. Ok, so, but, what if, and

2 I'm telling ya this could happen, because I know how

3 Madigan is, he says 'I'll give ya health care, I'll

4 give ya a capital bill, OK. We'll work with you to

5 balance the budget the way you want to do it and I'll

6 raise taxes on people...and you make Lisa the senator,

7 OK?'

8 Pritzker: Hmm, hmm.

9 Blagojevich: That puts me in a moral dilemma...because of all of

10 the prospective candidates, what, dealing with her,

11 suing us to fucking support Bush kicking 35,000 poor

12 people off of health care...

13 Pritzker: Yeah, I know.

14 Blagojevich: You know, all that bullshit.

15 Pritzker: You know what? You should do it. You should do it. I'd

16 take that in a heartbeat.

17 Blagojevich: Morally repugnant. I probably have to do it.

18 Pritzker: Yeah, I'd do it. I'd do it.

19 Blagojevich: OK, and then there's an AG I can appoint, J.B.

20 Pritzker: You're doing the right thing for the people.

21 Blagojevich: Are you a lawyer?

22 Pritzker: Yeah.

23 Blagojevich: There's an AG that I appoint.

24 Pritzker: Oooh, that's interesting...

25 Blagojevich: You see what I'm saying?

26 Pritzker: Oh, there ya go.

27 Blagojevich: I mean, don't rule that one out.

28 Pritzker: OK.

29 Blagojevich: I mean, I'm not promising. I'm just saying these

30 are all scenarios.

 1 Pritzker: You have given me a lot of things to think about.

2 Let's continue the conversation another time because

3 I've got to run into this thing.

4 Blagojevich: All right.

5 Pritzker: But, but, but, Rod, I really, you know, look, I don't

6 want to seem like, you know, I'm out here looking for

7 a job. Honestly, I'd like to help ya and I also think

8 it's probably, you know something that I might be able

9 to do. But the treasurer thing actually seems totally

10 logical to me and not harmful to you.

11 Blagojevich: If he does that. If he does that, I'll call you right

12 away. If he ends up going there, I'll call you right

13 away and we'll talk about it seriously and get

14 focused.

15 Pritzker: All right, man.

16 Blagojevich: But there's other options. Don't rule them out. I

17 mean, I'm not promising anything, but you're, in my

18 mind, you're there somewhere.

19 Pritzker: Well, um, you're kind. All right.

20 Blagojevich: OK. I'll see you. All right, bye.

21 [FROM TRIBUNE VIDEO: "In the Nov. 6 phone conversation, they also

22 discussed the U.S. Senate seat for Pritzker.]

23 Pritzker: So, you know, one thing I wanted to say was there's

24 absolutely no reason for you to do this, um, and so

25 I'm not going to ask you to do it, only that as, you

26 know, you and I talked about it for five seconds, um,

27 that my interest in holding public office is, you

28 know, always large.

29 Blagojevich: Lay it on me man. Go ahead. I mean, I'm not going to

30 rule it out. Go ahead.

 1 Pritzker: No, no. But I, I, I, you know, I think there are

2 issues obviously that are problematic for you about

3 doing it.

4 Blagojevich: If I appointed you, I can't run again so consider

5 that.

6 Pritzker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

7 Blagojevich: OK? That's not necessarily...this is not an option I'm

8 going to preclude, though.

9 Pritzker: No, no, no. I got ya. I'll tell you why, uh, there's

10 only one reason that it could work and then I'm going

11 to drop it because I'm not really that interested in

12 it. (Laughs) The only reason I can think of that it

13 would work is if you appointed me to serve out the

14 term but not run for reelection. You know, in other

15 words, if the announcement was, you know, that you're

16 doing this because it's a good government move,

17 because this is going to be a terrible couple of

18 years, that you need somebody with financial

19 expertise, and someone who's above politics and not,

20 you know, not running for it and not beholden to

21 anybody and, you know, whose only interest is in

22 fixing the economy. And so that's the only argument.

23 So, I leave you with that. I agree with you, I think

24 it's problematic for the press and everybody else,

25 they'll look for something even if there's nothing

26 there.

27 Blagojevich: Right. Can I jump in here, though?

28 Pritzker: Yeah.

29 Blagojevich: Don't misread it. In my mind, you'd have a much better

30 chance than let's say [U.S. Rep.] Jan [Schakowsky],

 1 OK? And don't repeat that, OK? And this isn't as

2 farfetched as it might seem and no one's speculating

3 on you at all. And I've thought about this. I mean, I

4 tease you a little bit, but I thought about it a

5 little bit and, again, for me, it would be are you not

6 going to run again? And then, you know, how do I get

7 out there in a post-governor's environment and be

8 viable in some respects where I can get back on the

9 stage, not state (Phone beeps) Did I lose you J.B.?

10 (Call drops)

DATE: 11/14/2008
SPEAKERS: Blagojevich: Rod Blagojevich
Pritzker: J.B. Pritzker

11 Pritzker I have thought a lot about that since you and I

12 talked. I mean, I have to say I think it makes

13 political sense for both of us.

14 Blagojevich: Oh, no, look, I think this would be great. I have no

15 problem with that.

16 Pritzker: The pitch, you know, the pitch for you, I think is,

17 you know, is you're picking...

18 Blagojevich: Banking and financial experience and know-how and all

19 of that, right?

20 Pritzker: Yeah, I don't know about banking, right? You throw my

21 sister and Superior Bank in.

22 (Both laugh)

23 Blagojevich: What happened to her bank? Did it collapse or

24 something?

25 Pritzker: Yeah, she was chairman of a bank. And it, you know, it

26 had subprime loans, I mean bad stuff, you know?

27 Blagojevich: Superior bank turned out to be an inferior bank.

 1 Pritzker: Inferior. Exactly, exactly. Very good, I like that.

2 Inferior Bank. I haven't thought about that. That's a

3 good one. Anyway, but I was nothing to do with that so

4 that's not going to be my problem. But no, my problem

5 the only problem I can come up with, for you. I've got

6 a lot of reasons why it makes sense, the problem for

7 you, would be the same problem with the Senate really.

8 I've given you contributions.

9 Blagojevich: Noooo.

10 Pritzker: And, what's that?

11 Blagojevich: I'm sorry, I'm sorry to cut you off. Go ahead

12 J.B.

13 Pritzker: No, go ahead.

14 Blagojevich: Well, total non-issue. First of all, you give money to

15 everybody, like Lisa Madigan, OK?

16 Pritzker: Yeah, yeah, yeah...

17 Blagojevich: Which, incidentally, if you can do for me what you did

18 for her, before the end of the year. Can you think

19 about that?

20 Pritzker: I can't, I mean, not while everything's up in the air

21 but I hear ya. I hear ya and, and, and...but anyway...

22 Blagojevich: If we go in that direction, though, if that does

23 happen, I mean there's some other people that can help

24 us that you know.

25 Pritzker: Sure.

26 Blagojevich: If you feel skittish about that, which I believe you

27 shouldn't, but go ahead.

28 Pritzker: Yeah, I don't think we should even talk about it, but

29 I understand what you're saying.

30 Blagojevich: OK.
 1 [MISSING FROM CHICAGO TRIBUNE VIDEO]

2 Pritzker: You know, assuming no legal problems...

3 Blagojevich: Oh yeah.

4 Pritzker: That, your, you know, your, your pitch is going to be

5 - Look, I, I, you know, with all the other crap that

6 you could say here, you know, I've done real things.

7 Blagojevich: Right.

8 Pritzker: And, so, I think you've got a lot to run on. It's

9 just, you know, we've got to get the legal thing

10 behind you.

11 Blagojevich: Right.

12 Pritzker: You know, that's for sure.

13 Blagojevich: Right.

14 (Call continues)

15 Blagojevich: Yeah, but there's statutes of limitations and things,

16 and those dates are running. And those things will

17 come and go long before there's a re-election.

18 Pritzker: Oh, is that right?

19 Blagojevich: Yeah.

20 Pritzker: Soon?

21 Blagojevich: Yeah. And then...and then, it'll just fade away. And

22 then you can...you can say it.