The Fifth Amendment protects against double jeopardy, but some defendants still go on trial twice — in court and in the papers.

Dan Rostenkowski, former U.S. chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud in 1996. Giving the final Medill Crain Lecture of the school year Monday, Rostenkowski spoke to about 100 people, analyzing election trends and criticizing an overzealous media for boosting the prosecution’s case against him.

Rostenkowski represented the fifth district of Illinois and served as committee chairman from 1981 until the Democrats lost the congressional majority in 1994. Two years later he pleaded guilty to federal charges of converting public funds for private use and spent 17 months in prison.

But Rostenkowski, who now heads a political consulting firm and is a commentator for Fox TV, said he had paid for all accounts but that the rules for handling accounts had changed.

“I was a busy man,” he said. “I should’ve been more concerned about the things I was personally involved in with respect to office management. I didn’t, as was reported in the press, take the government for $600,000.”

Media members help prosecutors convict defendants by “glorifying” any tip they get, Rostenkowski said. Prosecutors then blame the state’s attorney for the leak, and the state’s attorney in turn blames the district attorney, and the chain of blame goes on, he said.

“(The press) would prefer to write something that’s critical, maybe because you like to read that stuff,” Rostenkowski said.

Two years before the scandal, he could have legally withdrawn $1.8 million from his campaign funds and retired, but he did not want the public to think he had “some war chest,” he said. Although the media passed judgment on him, some people understood his plight, he said.

“I never lied about anything,” he said. “I don’t think people made a judgement about me, about my commitment, about my ability to legislate.”

He said it was criticism from the media, not the public, that hit closest to home.

“For 18 months, every Sunday, for someone to rehash it all and put a headline on it … it kills you, especially with your family,” he said. “That’s where it hurts, for your daughters to come to you saying, ‘What’s that all about?'”

But Rostenkowski did praise some qualities of the media of the past.

“The news wasn’t so immediate,” he said. “You didn’t change your mind based on something in the editorial pages. You had time to come back to your district and educate your people.”

Rostenkowski said that while growing up, he never knew former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was disabled.

But media coverage would not show such deference to a public official today, he said.

“They’d wait for the president to fall on his face and take a picture of him lying down,” he said.

Rostenkowski declined to predict who would be the next president but offered his views on the two candidates.

“(Gore is) bright, he’s a hard worker, a bit visionary, but — I’m amalgamating what the word is in Washington — he’s not an easy guy to like,” Rostenkowski said. “When he gets on stage something happens and he leaves people with the impression that he’s a little bit arrogant, a little bit forceful.

“George Bush can look to the right wing of his party and have the courage to say, ‘I’m going to try to bring you to the center because I’m going to do some legislating.’ Al Gore doesn’t have that privilege of reaching over and getting Republicans.”

Election winners tend to offer qualities the people need most, he said.

“In the 14 years I was chairman a lot of people called me a mean SOB, but a lot of people thought I was a pretty good guy,” Rostenkowski said.

Some students said they disagreed with Rostenkowski’s stance on several issues, such as ignoring China’s violation of human rights to establish free trade, or his view that Hillary Clinton’s run for Senate sets a bad precedent for First Ladies.

“I don’t see anything wrong with her running for the Senate,” said Alex Davidson, a Medill junior. “She’s just as much a public official or a citizen as anyone else. She has her right.”

Others said they thought Rostenkowski presented his case well.

“I would’ve voted for him in the last election simply because I feel the media screwed him over,” said Evanston resident Jacob Aronov.