And some people say Skolnick is falling over the cliff
once again with his recent article, pinning indictments on Bush and his cronies
based on what he calls credible sources, telling him they have been nabbed for
perjury and obstruction of justice in the Chicago grand jury investigation about
the Valerie Plame-CIA leak case.
"I knew I would be called a liar for this one, but it
won't be the first time or the last," said the tough talking investigator,
nicknamed the "judge buster," from his home on Chicago's south side, a place he
has called home for the last 54 years.
And, in the face of adversity and doubt, Skolnick
would be the first to crack a smile and scoff at his detractors, saying "it goes
with the territory" since dealing with dark, back alley payoff type stories
brings dark, back alley comments about most anything he writes and investigates.
But, on the bright side, there are many others who
know his work well, swearing on a stack of holy bibles about Skolnick's
analytical approach, incredible energy and a 40 year data base of sources he
uses in order to finger the bad guys who are swimming like sharks and feeding
off the people's money.
And to those who know the 'judge buster" even better,
know him as a friend or colleague, he is considered nothing less than a national
treasure and a man who will stop at nothing to find out the truth, even if it
means stripping the robes off the country's most powerful and corrupt judges,
even if it means taking on the Bush administration right square in the belly
where it hurts with accusations of homosexuality and pedophilia running rampant
right in the halls of the White House.
In this shady world of backroom deals, syndicate
payoffs, and well-oiled corruption, Skolnick has somehow over the years found
his place, a place on the outside looking in, a place where he is always staring
in very closely with a watchful eye and a finely tuned ear able to spot a
crooked judge or a politician as quick as a dog can sniff out a bone.
It would take several book volumes to detail all the
investigations Skolnick has been involved in and all the judges and crooked
politicians he's been responsible for putting behind bars since the early
1960's. But like any good baseball hitter, only as good as his last at bat,
Skolnick prefers to talk about his last investigation first, working his way
back to when he was a young man in Chicago who represented his parents before
the Illinois Supreme Court for being bilked by a shady broker for $7,000, the
family's entire life savings.