Dan Rostenkowski

A protégé of Richard J. Daley, Rostenkowski, the grandson of Polish immigrants, represented Illinois's 8th congressional district from 1959 to 1995. Despite a 1977 Chicago Tribune investigation which found that he had loaded his congressional payroll with friends and business associates who did little-to-no official work for him, he became chairman the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 1981. Indicted in 1994 of mail and wire fraud, obstruction of justice, accepting kickbacks, and a maintaining slush fund, he plead guilty to mail fraud in 1996, and served 15 months in prison. Pardoned in 2000 by Bill Clinton, Rostenkowski remained unrepentant, always maintaining that he had been singled out "to be held up as an example" because of his opposition to then-President Ronald Reagan.