Birkett stuff
Upgraded from the comments section because one of Joe Birkett's flaks continues to question my integrity. Here's a Capitol Fax story I wrote in October of 2002. All of the research was my own and completely self-directed. I spent a considerable sum on Lexis and, now that I think of it, the Tribune archives:
Joe Birkett, then and now.
Chicago Tribune, August 21, 1994: "Last week he formally was named the lead prosecutor in the upcoming third trial of Rolando Cruz."
Daily Southtown – June 6, 2002: "Birkett says his bosses, not he, led the Cruz trials."
Chicago Tribune, August 21, 1994: "'I feel very comfortable taking on this case,'" said Birkett, who will prosecute the case with DuPage Assistant State's Atty. Barbara Preiner and one other attorney, who has yet to be named."
Chicago Tribune – October 1, 2002: “I inherited, obviously, a nightmare."
Chicago Tribune, August 21, 1994: "I've had difficult cases in the past. This one has just gotten more media attention."
Daily Herald – October 2, 2002: "Birkett said Madigan is distorting his involvement, which amounted to arguing some pre-trial matters before the third trial.”
Chicago Tribune, August 21, 1994: "In its latest ruling, the court said jurors in Cruz's second trial should have been permitted to hear more evidence about the criminal history of Brian Dugan, an Aurora man who said that he alone killed Jeanine. Birkett said he is still reviewing voluminous files on the case, but he contended that the Supreme Court ruling did not gut the state's case against Cruz. 'We have a pretty good idea where we're going,' he said."
Aurora Beacon-News, September 24, 2002: “I did have a limited role in that case. I have always acknowledged that.”
Chicago Tribune, August 21, 1994: "Now, Birkett has transferred most of his cases to other prosecutors so he can concentrate on Cruz."
Galesburg Register-Mail, September 22, 2002: “I don’t have any regrets – I did the right thing and I would do it again.
(Emphasis added.)
Birkett's spokesman in 2002 was relentless in arguing that Birkett played only a small role in the Cruz case. I expect no less from his current spokesman. But if he wants to continue his line of attack in comments, then he can expect this sort of response.
posted by Rich Miller @ 6/03/2005 09:23:00 PM
28 comments
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What a hoot. I'm blessed I got to watch it live.
Mr. Curry is not a bad egg--just enthusiastic about his client, I guess.
And you, Mr. Jameson, are quick on the draw, fast on the trigger and must have a file in your computer entitled "stuff for when they really piss me off."
I like Dan. Known him for years. He is, I agree, not a bad egg. But if he wants to make personal attacks he can expect a vigorous response every time.
Rich, with all due respect, that string of quotes is total garbage. Pulling out a quote when he was appointed lead prosecutor and then not telling your readers he was taken off the case a couple of weeks later is a gross distortion.
Here are the facts:
1. He was appointed lead prosecutor for a couple of weeks, then transferred. He never did much of anything on the case.
2. He never supervised the prosecution.
3. He never made the decision to retry Cruz or Hernandez.
Yet I continually read statements to the contrary.
He is perfectly willing to answer for his actions on cases he handled or supervised or those since he's been SA. But he wasn't SA until after Cruz was exonerated. He wasn't the prosecutor on any of the cases for more than two or three weeks and he never supervised the prosecutions.
So to continually perpetuate an almost total distortion is not fair.
This is fun! CAn I jump in?
Zorn:
One of the things I promised readers when I started this blog was to keep track of the number of days DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett has failed to charge or indict Brian Dugan since his office announced he had conclusive DNA proof that Dugan raped 10-year-old murder victim Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville in 1983.
So here:
Indicting and trying Dugan will likely dredge up embarrassments for DuPage County authorities, men who long zealously pursued other suspects in the case and pooh-poohed Dugan's self-incriminating statements.
"Every time you call me, we're a little closer," Birkett said when I last checked in with him 456 days ago (2/25/04) to ask what was taking so darn long. He characterized the investigation as "aggressive."
OK. Today marks 923 days since Nov. 15, 2002 , when Birkett's office announced that Dugan's DNA matched DNA evidence at the crime scene to a scientific certainty.
We are slowly creeping up on August 11, 2005, the 1,000 day mark of this “investigation.”
Reposted on this string, just so no one misses anything.
CAPITOL FAX
October 2, 2002
THE REST OF THE STORY I'm starting to wonder whether Joe Birkett is capable of telling the truth.
During yesterday's attorney general candidates' debate with Lisa Madigan (ably moderated by Paul Green), Birkett's statements were often at odds with what he's been telling some interest groups.
For instance, Birkett said repeatedly that he was pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
But when he filled out his Illinois Federation for Right to Life survey, he said he would support a law to outlaw all abortions except those that would prevent the death of the mother. He also said he would support a law to prevent the use of state facilities to "perform abortions not necessary to prevent the death of the mother."
By the way, Birkett also told the Illinois Federation of Right to Life that he would "defend the First Amendment rights of issue-oriented groups to continue to conduct 'independent expenditure' campaigns that support or oppose candidates for office." But Birkett also told the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform that he would support "limits on the total amount of money that an individual and/or group can contribute to a campaign committee in each election cycle." He also backed public funding of campaigns on his ICPR questionnaire and opposed them on his IFRL questionnaire.
Birkett said yesterday that he did not necessarily oppose expansion of O'Hare Airport. But a survey he filled out for the Suburban O'Hare Commission indicated that he opposed Mayor Daley's expansion plan, even without the new southern or northern runways. Birkett said yesterday he wants the SOC to retract the survey and a comment they attribute to him, which, to be fair, does look a bit out of context. SOC officials did not return a call seeking comment. Even so, Birkett re-appointed Joe Karaganis as a special deputy DuPage County State's Attorney to sue Chicago over O'Hare. Karaganis is absolutely hated by expansion supporters.
Birkett also claimed yesterday he opposes legislation to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons. But an e-mail from Concealed Carry, Inc. president John Birch to several gun-owner rights activists last year claimed Joe Birkett called Birch and said he "supports concealed carry."
Birch said yesterday that the e-mail was written in the heat of the moment and was overstated. "He's open to it," Birch said about Birkett's views on concealed carry, "but he doesn't feel the evidence is in." Birch acknowledged, however, that his organization is supporting Birkett in the AG's race.
And, finally, Birkett repeated for the umpteenth time yesterday that he had "ordered" the DNA test which eventually exonerated Rolando Cruz for the abduction, rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. But it was Cruz's lawyers who asked for the test and Birkett had no choice but to agree to it. And then after the DNA test showed that Cruz wasn't involved, Birkett refused to admit the obvious and pressed ahead with a third trial.
Every politician stretches the truth a little. (Lisa Madigan insisted yesterday, for instance, that she's running her own campaign. Wrong.) But Birkett seemed to prevaricate or even outright lie on way too many topics during yesterday's debate. There's something wrong with this guy.
And here was my response on that other board:
"And then after the DNA test showed that Cruz wasn't involved, Birkett refused to admit the obvious and pressed ahead with a third trial."
This is a perfect example. Birkett was not the SA at the time and it was not his decision to "press ahead" with a third trial. The SA was Anthony Pecarelli.
I wasn't on his campaign and can't speak to those other examples, but anyone who spends five minutes around Joe Birkett knows he's an honest person.
I have tremendous respect for your entrepreneurship in creating Capitol Fax. However, when it comes to Joe Birkett, I have to say it appears what you've written has been heavily colored by his opponents and with little or no input from his side.
Hey, if we are going to judge Joe Birkett on the mistakes made in the Jeanine Nicarico case we should also do the same for Mayor Daley, he was States Attorney when people were railroaded for crimes they did not comitt
"In their first stint in office in 1980-83, then-States Attorney Daley, and his number 2 man, Dick Devine, used torture "confessions" to prosecute 27 of these men. In private practice after that, Devine’s law firm collected over $1 million in taxpayer money to defend Burge against attempts to fire him and ax his pension. Nervous about the mood in the country following the Rodney King riots seven months earlier, the city finally did fire Burge, for torture, in February 1993."
http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=425&type=M
Birkett is nowhere near as culpable for the Cruz thing as Jim Ryan and Co. Joe was the lead prosecutor for a brief time, as the record shows, and so I imagine he would have argued some pretrial motions, as that one story/quote indicated. And Birkett did ask for the DNA test that ultimately cleared Cruz, as Birkett is usually very quick to point out. One suspects that Birkett bailed from the Cruz case when he saw it was unraveling like mad and could cost him his political career. As you'll recall, 1994 was the year Jim Ryan ran and won the AG's race. That meant a vacancy in the DuPage Co. State's Attorney's job, which was filled temporarily by some guy on the condition he not run for it. Birkett ran and beat Cronin in the GOP primary. Although being tarred with Cruz in DuPage County has never been an electorable liability (I mean, just look at the election results), it would have been statewide.
Eric Zorn has been all over Cruz for years and years and years. The poster about Dugan nailed it: Birkett's culpability in the Cruz case is waaaaay more that he STILL hasn't charged Dugan than in any small participation in railroading Cruz. If Zorn, who knows all this stuff inside and out, thought Birkett bore a lot of responsibility for Cruz, he would have beat the drum non-stop in 2002. And Zorn did not.
I think it was Rich Miller who once wrote that Birkett will never be able to get over the hump until he indicts Dugan.
The decision to indict Dugan and the timing is on Birkett's watch and fair game. Not the smoke and mirrors argument Lisa Madigan, Rich Miller and others were peddling trying to attach him to earlier decisions he had nothing to do with. JB has said publicly he expects to move forward on the Dugan case in the very near future.
I appreciate, Rich, the forum. You've never been particularly fond of the people I worked for, but enjoy following your work nonetheless. And I'm going to bed happy because the Cards won and the Cubs are losing.
Dissing the Cubs, Ok, now, I don't like Curry...
Oh, wait, I don't like Rich on this subject either...
Don't know who to be angry with--I'll settle for Cubs Management
dan curry
You can attack Rich all you like, but the problem for you is that Rich is not the only journalist who thinks your client is not-likeable, dishonest and has performed at a less than satisfactory level.
In fact, I think that most people who covered the AG race probably have a negative opinion of the guy. That hate-filled "concession" speech he gave was one of the worst and meanest televised speeches I've ever seen. I would not be surprised if his personal likeability ratings are still very low as a result of that speech and his general demeanor.
Maybe likeability isn't important when you're a prosecutor, but it's pretty darn important when you're running for elected office statewide. If you don't believe me, ask the ice cream man.
I hope your work for him doesn't diminish the amount of respect and credibility that you have earned for yourself. Good luck, you're going to need it.
Signed,
A guy who thinks you're okay, but JB is not okay at all.
Ditto.
Curry,
Way to kick the crap out of the "straw man." I don't know what JB's paying you, but you're worth every cent.
No one said Joe Birkett was dishonest, although it was clever of you to defend him on that point.
Rather, he's simply too clever by half, too clever a politician, too good at dodging the buck.
Back in 1994, when it was popular, he was all over Rolando Cruz. The kind of case that some prosecutors get jealous over: a career-making slam-dunk.
Only one problem: Cruz didn't do it.
Years later, when everyone's finally figured that out, old JB's singing a different tune publicly, but he still needs to have the support of local law enforcement. So what does he do? According to Scott Turow,
'In the past, Birkett had celebrated the acquittal of his colleagues on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice and had attacked the special prosecutor who'd brought the charges. He continues to make public statements suggesting that Cruz and Hernandez might be guilty. An ultimately unsuccessful attempt was made to demote the judge who acquitted Cruz, and last year, when the judge resigned from the bench, he had to pay for his own going-away party. In the meantime, the prosecutor who tried to incriminate Alex Hernandez with the print from a woman's shoe is now Chief Judge in DuPage County.'
And by the way Danny, I find it very condescending to remark "I appreciate, Rich, the forum. You've never been particularly fond of the people I worked for, but enjoy following your work nonetheless" the graph after you accuse him of peddling BS.
First, this isn't work, it's journalism, so don't degrade it. Secondly, it's not his, it's all of ours, so don't try to isolate him. Third, where do wingnuts get the idea that "balanced reporting" means reporting the truth and your version of the truth?
Maybe I missed something, but wouldn't it be better if Birkett just said "That case was one of the worst mistakes I've ever made in my life, and I'm going to do everything I can to make it right, starting with prosecuting Mr. Dugan"?
Has Birkett admitted doing anything wrong in the case?
Has Birkett criticized any of the police or prosecutors who did work on the case?
Birkett's defenders should at least acknowledge that he is trying to have it both ways.
The difference between Daley and Birkett is at least partially that Birkett and the DuPage prosecutors used the Nicarico case to bolster their political careers. Daley didn't make the problematic prosecutions his signature.
Has Birkett ever come clean on the Nicarico case? What did he say? Or is Birkett just claiming ignorance?
BTW, why are so many Republicans so enthusiastic about Birkett?
Is it because his sour and angry disposition resonates?
Good Morning
Curry-Binder, Binder-Curry
They all look and sound the same.
They all have that same, shameless, Alfred E. Nueman "What Me Worry" approach when defending BrickheadJoe.
Wonder what happens when Brickhead is asked why he never turned up anything on the Hired Truck guy who runs the county water commission?
They will probably seem dazed and confused, because they spend so much time defending the alleged non involvement of the Brickhead in the Cruz case. Guess thay forgot the visit to the witness and related tampering. Hmmmm.
Before he goes after GRod, he needs to get some credibility in the 'hood. Mikey V will bea good plae to start.
Hey sollyhemus, why don't you have the testicular virility to post with your real name?
Do you think it's intelligent to call someone names such as Brickhead Joe?
Sounds like Brown-Noonan, Noonan-Brown to me.
By the way, Birkett has plenty of plenty of credibility on fighting corruption. He prosecuted the first guy in the licenses-for-bribe case, and sent Bob Hickman and Joe Kotlarz to jail. Did you forget about that?
Why don't you take your mask off, solly?
Why don't you answer Carl Nyberg's questions, Danny boy?
Hey what's a Brown-Noonan? Somekinda fish swimming in Lake DuPage?
Can't believe that is the real Dan Curry spending all his time on the blog. Wow he dug up some 10 year old+ cases to wow us with BJ's crimebuster prowess
Went back to the Dusties myself and found the following. Does not seem Brickhead Joe mentioned by his pals at the Trib. Just crimebuster Gainer and the guy who took over for Ryan.
And Dan....Maybe we use a nom deplume over fear of reprisals from our jobs at the county. I hear Nixon thought Deep Throat was a traitor! Have a great weekend
chicago tribune 2-16-95
Robert Hickman, once one of the most powerful Republicans in state government, was accused Wednesday of defrauding the state's scandal-plagued toll highway authority of $240,000 while he was its chief.
Hickman, who resigned in April 1994 as executive director of the Illinois Toll Highway Authority, and state Rep. Joseph Kotlarz (D-Chicago), a former Chicago alderman, were indicted Wednesday by a DuPage County grand jury on charges of theft and conspiracy.
The indictments, which also accuse Hickman of official misconduct, resulted from an investigation that began in December 1993, when other toll authority officials asked state police to investigate a real estate commission paid in connection with a tollway land sale.
From the beginning, the probe centered on Hickman, who used his political clout to raise millions of dollars to propel his longtime friend Jim Edgar into the governor's mansion in 1990, and Kotlarz, a close associate of Hickman's.
The 1992 land deal involved a 12-acre parcel north of the East-West Tollway at Meyers Road in Oak Brook. When the tollway authority abandoned its plans to build a service center oasis on the site, it offered the parcel for sale to WMX Technologies in 1989. The waste-disposal company wanted the property to improve access for its employees working at its corporate headquarters, which borders the land.
But the two sides failed to come to terms until July 1991, when Hickman approved a proposed sale agreement calling for WMX to pay $3.8 million to the tollway authority for the land. The agreement also called for WMX to pay a $240,000 real estate commission to an Arlington Heights real estate firm.
At the time, Kotlarz was an attorney representing WMX in negotiations with the tollway authority on the purchase of the land, according to WMX spokeswoman Christine Combs. She declined to say what the company paid Kotlarz, who is a licensed real estate broker.
Tollway officials, however, said they did not learn about the commission until 1993. The real estate contract outlining the $240,000 payment was never brought to the board's attention when it approved the deal in 1992. Board members later questioned why a commission was paid at all, because neither WMX nor the tollway authority had hired a broker.
Prosecutors on Wednesday charged that the tollway authority should have received the $240,000 as part of the land sale. But according to the indictment, $190,000 of that sum was paid to Kotlarz, who has a long-standing friendship with Hickman.
Payment of the fee by WMX to the real estate firm, and allegedly in turn to Kotlarz, "deprived the Illinois State Tollway Highway Authority of the use of the said" funds, the indictments charge.
At a news conference Wednesday announcing the indictments, DuPage State's Atty. Anthony M. Peccarelli said, " . . . Robert Hickman and Joseph Kotlarz conspired to divert these funds from this transaction by falsely representing that a real estate firm acted as a broker in the sale of this land."
Eagle Real Estate, formerly of Arlington Heights, received $50,000 for its part in the transaction. The firm's attorney, Thomas Breen, declined to comment. Prosecutors said no charges would be filed against the real estate company.
"The general public has a right to be outraged when something like this happens," said Terrance Gainer, the director of the Illinois State Police, which conducted the probe.
While investigators subpoenaed bank and financial records of Hickman and Kotlarz, the formal charges do not allege that Hickman received any of the money, Gainer said.
Hickman could not be reached for comment. His attorney, William Conlon, proclaimed his client's innocence.
"Bob and I look forward to addressing these charges in court. I would say that I would hope what the state's attorney is saying to the public is that these are merely charges and that Bob Hickman is presumed innocent," said Conlon.
Kotlarz, who was attending the legislative session in Springfield, had no comment on the charges.
His attorney, David Stetler, said, "I don't think that Joe Kotlarz did anything wrong. At least now that the charges are publicly made we can assert his innocence."
Stetler noted that at the time of the land transaction, Kotlarz was an attorney in private practice and had not yet been elected to the state legislature.
Defense attorneys suggested prosecutors might face a tough fight in proving the charges. Some said there were at least two appraisals that set the land price at less than the $3.8 million the tollway authority was paid.
"They (the prosecutors) will have to show that the tollway lost the $240,000, and that's not going to be easy to do," said Brian Telander, a Glen Ellyn attorney who represented the authority's former chief legal counsel, Frank Howard, in the investigation.
Howard, Kotlarz's former law partner, was not charged in the investigation. He was forced to resign his $95,000-a-year post with the authority in October because of handling outside legal business.
Hickman is the highest-ranking member of Edgar's administration to be charged criminally in connection with his official duties.
Arriving at a dinner in Chicago Wednesday night, Edgar noted that his administration called for the state police investigation that resulted in the indictments.
" . . . We're obviously disappointed when someone does something improper. In this case, let's let justice take its due course," he said.
Edgar's relationship with Hickman began in 1974. Hickman, then the mayor of Charleston, Edgar's hometown, was one of the few Republicans to back Edgar in an unsuccessful bid for the state legislature. Edgar never forgot that early display of loyalty.
A gifted basketball player who attended Kansas University, Hickman was a glad-handing, gregarious fundraiser for Edgar's 1986 secretary of state race and his 1990 gubernatorial race against Democrat Neil Hartigan.
In the 1990 race, Hickman was credited with almost single-handedly raising $14 million for the campaign, a financial advantage that provided the winning-edge over Hartigan.
Hickman's fundraising feats landed him a number of starring roles in Edgar's administrations, culminating in the appointment as executive director of the tollway authority in February 1991. The post is considered a plum because the tollway chief presides over a cache of lucrative contracts to dispense to campaign contributors.
Hickman's appointment soon proved embarrassing for Edgar. Hickman was constantly criticized for his personal investment in a firm doing state business, for tollway spending practices, for his use of a state helicopter for personal business and for awarding a contract to a firm that employed his son.
During last spring's primary, Hickman became a favorite political target of Edgar's eventual opponent, Democrat Dawn Clark Netsch. Shortly after, Edgar put his friendship aside and forced Hickman to resign as the agency's 12th executive director.
Kotlarz, who earned a reputation as a wheeler-dealer while a Chicago alderman, developed a close friendship with Hickman. The two traveled together to vacation spots, once flying to Martha's Vineyard aboard a private jet leased by Kotlarz.
Hickman and Kotlarz have agreed to surrender to DuPage County authorities, Peccarelli said, and will be released on $50,000 bonds pending trial.
Meanwhile, Gainer said, authorities were continuing other investigations at tollway authority into allegations of wrongdoing, including scrutiny of a multimillion-dollar contract to install electronic toll-collection systems.
"The Illinois State Police continues to explore leads and other allegations of misconduct by members of the highway authority," he said.
Dan Curry also flacked for Jim Ryan... the official who worked the hardest to lynch Rolando Cruz. Maybe that's why Birkett hired Curry. He already knows the ins and outs of the Nicarico case.
Dan, isn't it time you disassociate yourself from that mess? Or is your fate somehow tied to it? Why do you continue to play in the bloody waters of this travesty of justice?
One of the things I promised readers when I started this blog was to keep track of the number of days DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett has failed to charge or indict Brian....
I don't think some of you are reading Curry's posts, that "JB has said publicly he expects to move forward on the Dugan case in the very near future. "
What do you guys want, have Court TV broadcasting DuPage Couny grand jury proceedings????
There's an old saying, Mr. Ruberry, about grand juries. Something about them indicting a ham sandwich.
Maybe Mr. Birkett is too concerned about protecting and/or embarrassing his mentors like Jim Ryan instead of prosecuting the true killer of Jeanine Nicarico. Just a guess here.
Good morning
Looks Brickhead Joe and his pet rock Dan dozed off right after the Trib story failed to mention his guy as a crimebuster in the vaunted, decade-old Bob Hickman case.
I am sure they will wake up soon.
This could be CapFax's first three day blog orgy
Cheers
Looks like Solly still thinks his trip to the "dusties" (Hey Solly, did you have that Trib article laying around in your "I hate Birkett" drawer or did someone e-mail it to you?) even remotely has anything to do with whether JB was involved as the lead prosecutor on the Hickman trial.
Gee wiz, if the Tribune doesn't tell me that someone was involved in a prosecution, that means he must not have been.
Come on Solly, that's weak. That's weak even for someone who can't seem to get past name calling. I can't believe you have the testicuar verility to gloat over a something as pointless as your last post. Get a life.
I agree with the above anonymous. I think Dan ought to answer Carl Nyberg's questions.
Since we all like to ask questions on this blog, I'll ask Rich a couple before I answer Carl. This is your blog and you can do what you want, but why did you delete my post and a story I posted. You said the post was personal and the story violated copyright. Yet Madigan's guy posted a long story and there it sits and he continually calls Birkett names and you just let it go. At least I told people who I was.
Carl asked whether "Joe has come clean on Nicarico."
As I've stated numerous times, Joe did not supervise or try any of the cases and never was SA making overall office decisions during the original prosecutions. He was on the trial team a couple of weeks during a pre-trial period and never did much of anything. So what do you want him to apologize for? Being in the office?
He publicly defended the DuPage 7 and they were all acquitted, three on directed verdicts. So he defended innocent men. Do you want him to apologize for that?
As I stated before, it is very likely that a major indictment will be brought very shortly. When that occurs, Joe Birkett will answer any and all questions about the entire saga, including, I'm sure, his thought about the original prosecutions.
About the politics, I hardly think Cruz was ever a plus for Joe, even in DuPage County. From the time he first ran, he has been attacked on a case he had little to do with. Yes, he defended lawmen who, it turns out, were wrongfully indicted.
He also led the office when it settled the civil case against Cruz and Co. for a couple of million dollars -- essentially nuisance value.
The Ford Heights case was settled for $40 million, I think.
Wait, this is what I don't get Dan--trying to say Joe Birkett didn't have much of a role isn't quite right--it's fair to say he didn't run the prosecution, but he was one of two lead prosecutors who decided to go after Cruz for a third time after the Dugan DNA was known. In fact, Birkett and Huiner tried to be cagey about how they theorized Dugan's DNA showed up. Mehling had to order them to disclose their claim.
It's fair to say Pecarelli was SA, but it's a bit hard to say Birkett didn't have input in a decision to go after the guy three times.
I think what many of us would like to see is at least some understanding that mistakes were made during the period. Jim Ryan admitted as much and seemed to have taken those lessons as learned. One of my biggest concerns about Birkett is that he's never really tried to demonstrate how he learned from mistakes on the case--even if he wasn't SA--he has an institutional role in the case that matters.
For the record,I've criticized Daley and more importantly Dick Devine for this, though I think Dick has taken on a more proactive role since.
I posted a story about Birkett's role over at AP:
http://www.archpundit.com/archives/012426.html
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