Dan Rostenkowski - Changing Times

Changing Times

Rostenkowski did acknowledge breaking House rules regarding stationery-store purchases and employing individuals who did little or no work – practices that his critics as well as supporters agree were common on the Hill. “He took the hit for the whole House for practices that were there since time immemorial,” said Republican Congressman Bill Frenzel of Minnesota, who added, "I can’t believe he's venal or corrupt. He was inattentive and continued the old ways." (Cohen, 267)

Former President Gerald Ford, whose lone pardon letter in all his ex-White House years was on behalf of Rostenkowski, told a biographer, "Danny's problem was he played precisely under the rules of the city of Chicago. Now, those aren't the same rules that any other place in the country lives by, but in Chicago they were totally legal, and Danny got a screwing". (DeFrank, 138)

In his commentary titled: "The Rules Kept Changing; Dan Rostenkowski Didn’t", Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Mike Royko, a frequent Rostenkowski critic, wrote “Nobody should be taking pleasure from Rostenkowski’s misfortune. Not unless you have never, ever, broken even a minor law and gotten away with it, fudged a bit on your taxes or violated any of the Ten Commandments.’ “Only a few decades ago, none of this would have been happening. That’s because the rules changed. Most of the things he was nailed for would have been legal and common or, at worst, nickel-dime offenses when he began his career in Congress.” Royko also questioned the motives of federal prosecutors, “Rostenkowski was a big political fish-the kind of trophy that an ambitious federal prosecutor loves to stuff and hang on his wall…That’s what did Rostenkowski in – a federal prosecutor’s personal ambitions."

In a 1998 interview with John F. Kennedy, Jr. for George Magazine, Rostenkowski estimated the government spent over $20 million on his case. "Not many people in this country can counter resources like that, and I’m not one of them... I couldn’t finance the fight any longer.”

In the end, Rostenkowski once lamented to a friend, “I’m going to jail for sending a guy a rocking chair." (Ciccone, 35)

Rostenkowski's downfall in 1994 was portrayed by Republicans as emblematic of Democratic corruption. The scandal helped fuel the Republican victory in the House, led by Newt Gingrich and his Contract with America. "The rise and fall of Dan Rostenkowski tracks the rise and fall of Democrats in the House," concludes Richard E. Cohen in his book on Rostenkowski. "It is a story of power, accomplishments, and, ultimately, failure and humiliation." Rostenkowski was defeated by Republican attorney Michael Patrick Flanagan by a margin of eight points. Flanagan would be defeated two years later by Rod Blagojevich.