Few politicians have standards for corruption named after them.
Former Chicago Treasurer Miriam Santos not only bears the dubious distinction, she conjured the catch phrase herself: "The Santos standard."
There she was, moments after pleading guilty in federal court, in front of reporters, pontificating.
The woman snared by her own recorded words - barking at a potential contributor to "belly up"- still had plenty to say. She warned other politicians to study her case. They would have trouble living with "the Santos standard," she suggested.
Not the typical response from a politician twice disgraced before her city. But Miriam Santos never was the typical Chicago pol. "The Santos standard" was standard Santos.
What else can we expect from someone who a few weeks before her trial, and after weeks of keeping mum, held a news conference to promote a new program in her office, prompting cries of publicity stunt? Then pleaded guilty two days later, surprising most everyone? Or who earlier griped she was the only woman ever convicted for PMS-ing?
Or whose case presents more twists than a Law and Order episode?
Santos was convicted at trial in May 1999 and sentenced to 40 months in prison for shaking down brokers and bankers who did business with her office for political contributions and blackballing firms that refused to give. She lost her job, spent Christmas in prison away from her beloved family, and even read some Nietzsche behind bars. She was released a year ago January after an appellate court reversed her conviction and ordered a new trial, citing "a veritable avalanche of errors" in her first trial.
She had spent nearly four months in jail but won't have to return under the plea agreement approved last November. The scrapper who once clashed with her former mentor, Mayor Richard M. Daley, would fight no more, bowing to the demands of family and finances.
In the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Building, moments after her plea, Santos tried to explain what it all meant, but as soon as she came up with "the Santos standard," the meaning started slipping away.
Her admissions to the media subtly criticized the prosecution brought against her. Yes, she told reporters, she took their questions about her campaign for Illinois attorney general in 1998 on city time. She confessed to writing a thank you note to a campaign contributor at her City Hall office. And the self-described "street kid" from Gary defended her "belly up" phrase. "I've heard politicians say a hell of a lot worse than that," Santos said. Santos never said double standard, but the implication was clear. Her supporters have long suggested Santos was prosecuted for doing what politicians do every day.
Prosecutors, though, quickly stamped their own meaning on "the Santos standard" and her conviction. "If that set a line over which people won't walk, then we've accomplished a lot," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro said.
While Santos portrayed a few of her city workers as flirting with political tasks, prosecutors described a full-house dirty dance inside her City Hall office. Santos used virtually all of her staff to raise money, write speeches and plan events, all on city time, all out of the taxpayer's pocket, for her political campaign, prosecutors said.
Her own employees turned her in and testified against her at her trial.
Moreover, Santos had the misfortune of making her aggressive money calls to bankers on phone lines that were tape-recorded.
Now that the case is over, and as Santos fades from public view, "the Santos standard" could resonate.
Terrance Norton, the executive director of the Better Government Association in Chicago and veteran observer of political shenanigans, says it could make politicians pause when hitting up campaign contributors, at least those they don't know well. "It depends on whether they think they have to be wary at the time," Norton said. "I would hope that this would breed a greater conformity of the law. If not that, at least a greater sense of caution."
Steve Warmhir is the federal courts reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times.
