Interesting Article on US Atty Fitzgerald -"Eccentric and Kooky"

[Laura PourMeADrink]

http://www.chicagomag.com/stories/0702fitz.htm#more

<snip>
He’s not exactly an international man of mystery, but Patrick J. Fitzgerald comes closer to that status than you might expect. He has such a low-key public persona that one political observer described him as “the most boring interesting guy in town.” At first glance, he appears to be a stiff. Resolute, but dull. A workaholic with a charisma deficit. Not much of a change, that is, from his predecessor, Scott Lassar.

People who have worked closely with Fitzgerald, however, say that he is more than just a priest of prosecution. They describe a quirky prankster whose sly sense of humor is cutting enough to have made him the speechwriter most in demand for roasts of departing prosecutors in New York City. This is a man who, inexplicably, keeps dirty socks in his desk drawers (“When you do a case with him, you don’t want to look for a pen,” a former colleague says). For eight years, he neglected to have the gas stove in his Brooklyn condo turned on. “Eccentric and kooky,” says a high-ranking staff member in the U.S. attorney’s office in New York City. “But he’s very lovable that way.”

Back East he’s known as “Fitzy.”

“I like to take the job seriously, but not myself,” Fitzgerald told me in a brief interview. He otherwise declined to comment.

Fitzgerald takes his job seriously enough that his best friend and former colleague, James Comey, now the U.S. attorney in New York City, suggests that thousands of people on the planet would like to put a bullet in Fitzy’s head. After all, Fitzgerald has prosecuted the most vengeful kinds of criminals: big-time mobsters and terrorists. With Comey, he put a couple of members of the notorious Gambino crime family behind bars. He was chasing associates of Osama bin Laden around the globe well before the Saudi terrorist mastermind became a household name in America. Within 48 hours of the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, Fitzgerald was in Nairobi personally taking the case’s key confession.

For security reasons, he does not get mail at home. He won’t say, even by neighborhood, where home in Chicago is.

<snip>

[ScamUSA.Com]

1. nice headline... he's just the man needed for this task

[TahitiNut]

2. Sounds like someone I'd love to work with.

:shrug: A sense of humor and idiosyncratic behavior is a sign of unleashed intelligence, imho.

Fuck conformance!

[Richard Steele]

3. Sounds like a hell of a guy!

[DemsUnited]

4. Thanks SO MUCH for finding & posting this!

We're all pinning a lot of our hopes for justice on this man, and it's great to read such an indepth piece on his character and accomplishments. Even better that the article was written BEFORE he was tapped to investigate Plame!!

[Toots]

5. Seems like a dedicated public servant but he voted for Bush*

I find it very difficult to trust a Republican about anything. It is quite possible I guess that there truly are some good Republicans. They are just so far and few between. I only hope and pray he is honest.

[warrens]

6. Interesting

He's pretty popular here in Chicago, unusual for a Republican in an all-Dem town. I've never heard a bad word about him.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. So he IS a repub? thought it said no one knew what he was....

[skip fox]

7. Nearly every word on him by professionals has been very positive,

esp. in terms of integrity, drive, and brains.

[seemslikeadream]

9. Wonder if his family is from County Wexford?

long memories inherited

[faithnotgreed]

10. no words for how fortunate this nation is to have mr fitzgerald

and those few like him in history

[SCDem]

11. Sounds like a cool guy

"Indeed, Fitzgerald’s extreme workaholic tendencies seem to keep him from attending to even the most basic domestic duties. To teach him a lesson about the dangers of leaving his cat alone while he hotfooted it around the globe chasing terrorists, Fitzgerald’s colleagues on an antiterrorism task force once kidnapped the cat and took snapshots to show Fitzgerald some possible endings for the poor creature: holding the cat off the Brooklyn Bridge, putting a gun to its head, and visiting a Chinese restaurant. “They said, ‘It can be whatever you want; pick whatever you want,’” Comey says. Ultimately, the cat ended up on a farm.

Pet or no, Fitzgerald was rarely at home. Once, when his Brooklyn condo was burglarized, a cop walked in and saw a stack of newspapers on top of the gas burners. “Whoa, buddy, that’s not a good idea,” the cop warned. Fitzgerald told him not to worry. In eight years in the condo, he had never called the gas company to turn the stove on.

Comey says Fitzgerald is working on getting out more here in Chicago. “He’s attended some cocktail parties. The thing he remembers is how many people were there—10, 13. . . .”