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Political Hay
Running on His Record
Blago is the talk of Chicago.
My youngest brother was wed in Chicago Tuesday night, so I winged on up there through the good graces of Southwest Airlines. They managed to get me all the way although they landed at Midway. My gate heading out from Fort Lauderdale was B-4 and coming back it was B-10, which made me think of Obama’s two trips to Chicago, the victorious one after the election and the sheepish one this Presidents Day. He too came before and returned beaten.
I had lived in the Windy City twice for two years each, 1979-81 and 1985-87. Still I know my way around a bit less each time with the seven lean years swallowing the seven fat years, prosperity giving way to asperity, stores putting a damper on the pampering, short on shrift and long on thrift. The most fun I had there was reacquainting myself with local talk radio personalities. Listening to the news in Chicago is a different experience than elsewhere, punctuated by an obsession with the mayor’s office since the days of the elder Daley. That Daley is no longer with us, so he cannot serve actively as mayor, but he still has the opportunity to vote for his son, probably more than once.
This time around all the talk centered on former Governor Rod Blagojevich, who has pursued his office in typically backward Illinois fashion, with the actual term first and the trial period afterward. He is being tried by the very creepy Federal prosecutor, Mister Fitzgerald, who hounded Scooter Libby and Conrad Black on very dubious counts. In the case of Blago, while guilt has yet to be established, he is clearly emerging as a blackguard. If he did not do the crime, it was not for lack of trying.
He was being recorded all unknowingly during the period he was entrusted by the Constitution to find a replacement for Senator Obama. Rahm Emanuel called to indicate the President-elect had an interest in a particular individual attaining the seat. Without verbalizing a name he described Valerie Jarrett by gender and curriculum vitae. Blago was unimpressed by the vague offer of Presidential favor, he wanted some tangible favor. And so we are treated to his ruminations behind doors he thought closed about doors he hoped to open.
It is grim fare, to be sure. He pines for ambassadorships, cabinet posts, or at least a six-figure sinecure. He offers colorful descriptions of the players, including the image of our President as hen-pecked. There are plenty of expletives deleted, even a conversation with wife Patti in which she berates him for being too fond of salty language and he agrees. This is Nixon II, but without the consciousness of being taped. The missing part is the partner; all the negotiating is with himself. No one forgets being a pro long enough to offer him a quid or even a quotable quo.
He may not be guilty but he is very far from innocent. The larger question is whether he reflects Illinois politics or he is an eccentric aberration. My intuitive sense of things — speaking as a former Chicagoan — is that he represents an extreme, but the culture of corruption is real. Chicago reminded me of the Boss Tweed era in New York, where graft ruled the day but much of the city was built. The politics of efficient corruption. You pay your bribe to get the contract but then you fulfill the contractual obligations without skimping. In fact, when Jane Byrne was Mayor and the efficiency faltered, the voters escorted her to the exit and replaced her with the late Harold Washington, who knew the score. Only his cronies needed apply and the city prospered just fine. Beautiful edifices built along Lake Michigan, but with a fishy stink. After Harold died, the younger Daley took the position back, presumably a lifetime appointment with symbolic elections quadrennially.
Then again, if the only alternative is Obamaesque idealism, where bureaucrats intrude on the natural flow of life to redistribute income and reconfigure society, maybe the cash in a shoebox approach can be tolerated. The last word goes to Blago himself when someone suggested his wife could be made head of Goodwill Industries. He asked: “What is Goodwill?” That says it all right there.
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (16) | Leave a comment
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martin j smith| 6.25.10 @ 6:56AM
Will Obama himself be implicated in curruption and become a co-defendant ? That would be marvelous.
Ret. Marine| 6.25.10 @ 7:08AM
Keep yourself prayer minded, miracles do happen.
RCV| 6.25.10 @ 12:17PM
What the tapes show is the opposite: Blago thought he could get something in return for appointing the person the President favored, but he was pissed to learn that all he would get from Obama was a "Thank You".
Alan Brooks| 6.26.10 @ 8:56PM
Here is where you Republicans can shine. Even if Blago isn't guilty he was impeached, removed from office, and if memory serves, disbarred. keep it that way. He can write a bio, entertain (they are v. cute) on TV with his pretty wife and make all the money they want, but keep Blago out of politics and disbarred; this prosecutor can help do just that-- if Fitzgerald has what it takes.
Alan Brooks| 6.26.10 @ 9:00PM
"Even if Blago isn't guilty"
that is to say, technically "not guilty" -- as OJ was technically not guilty in '95. You know, something along those lines.
Alan Brooks| 6.26.10 @ 10:20PM
...in plain English,
they do the crime but not the time.
Mattled| 6.25.10 @ 7:30AM
Rezko.
Has he cut a deal and will never give up the goods on Odingo?
That would be sad. I hope not.
Claudia Monteverdi| 6.25.10 @ 12:50PM
Jay...OMH did you really gull your editors, readership and the huddling Chicago masses yeaning to breathe fees with that snap crackle and poppish B4 and B10 pomegrante or two?
Before I am beaten to the mast (is that correct salty seafarer's talk?) I am obliged by regulations to inform you that this was a classic bit of wordomania--poor Ogden Nash, pax vobiscum, olav hashalom, etcetera, has much to learn from you. Whew, just a priceless article which I will cut out and paste on my bedroom wall over myy precious banner: "GWB: Do you miss him yet?"
Ok, help me now..a valiant battlefield general is replaced with a brilliant strategist of demonstrably failing health--the whacko Biden remains by grace of the electorate, The wimp has at leat 30 months to go unless thye impeachment committe gets busy after the election, Harebrained Holebrooke and Yukky Ecklebury (whatever how one spess his infernal name) hold on fast and Jonesy the rotten, incompetant son of a bitch lingsrs at the top--He holds fast to his idiotic, destructive withdrawel date and the rules of engagement only permit backhanded slaps on the High Hoily Days---Machiavelli would say the Prince has Triumphed and the Nation Died----what say you Jay? I am just dying to know.
Love,
Claudia Monteverdi
ARGENTINA
soon to be in battle with PERFIDE ALBION to free the MALVINAS.
any cracks about my spelling or grammar should be addressed to my attorneys..
DAC| 6.25.10 @ 2:11PM
To answer Blagojevich's last question, Goodwill is a front organization for Planned Parenthood. It poses as charity and sends the lion's share of its proceeds towards a cause near and dear to Chicago leftists' hearts, baby killing.
But that's not the point for now--the point is that Blago is not an outlier. He is absolutely mainstream within not just Chicago, but Illinois politics. I had the misfortune of living in central Illinois for 5 years just recently, and I spit on the ground when I left. Frankly it was like leaving the Soviet Union to go to a (relatively more) free country. People in Illinois take great pride in their slavishness--they worship Chicago, they love their overtly corrupt politicians. The fact that the state is an international laughingstock...how would they know? They read the Chicago papers. They do what they're told. Bankruptcy? Businesses fleeing the state? What? Look at Navy Pier. Sure is pretty in the summer.
Blago genuinely believes he did nothing wrong. From his perspective, how could he believe otherwise? His entire life was spent in and amongst crooks and gangsters flaunting themselves as the "people's" representatives, and he quite reasonably expected that when a favor was asked, he would be repaid in traditional gangster fashion. Il Duce Negro sent his Meyer Lansky minion to negotiate the deal, but Blago thought his chit was worth more. Unreasonable on Blago's part? Not at all. Dead-middle of the mainstream for Illinois and Chicago politics. It's a scammer state, one that runs on patronage, fraud, and criminality. It has produced a "president" who lives and operates by those values. Nobody should be surprised.
Yosemeti Sam| 6.26.10 @ 2:06AM
Blago - Chicago.
Kind of rhymes.
Anyway:
Not to worry Blago - you've got Fitz the Ditz on your case.
sophie| 6.26.10 @ 8:41AM
When I imagined a savior for our country, I did not picture an Elvis impersonator. But, heck, maybe the Gods have a sense of humor. C'mon Rod, just keep talking, sooner or later you may unwittingly untangle the carefully constructed web.
Northern Rebel| 6.26.10 @ 3:41PM
Over and over, we see a blatant pattern of corruption that makes Clinton's follies look like schoolboy stuff.
Clinton was a liberal, though a pragmatic one. He wanted to install the democrat party as a perpetual and permanent power. He knew how far he could go.
This "President" wants to install a communist one -world agenda that diminishes our country, and drags us down to the level of the dictatorships he envies, and admires.
To accomplish this, there is no shortcut he will bypass. there is no shameless power grab he won't attempt.
When he turns the entire financial structure of the free world over to George Soros, and every citizen in this nation is working to pay for their own serfdom, I suppose his wife will REALLY be proud.
And the alphabet media proudly marches behind him, holding his imperial robe.
Richard Baker| 6.27.10 @ 11:27AM
Blagojevich. Another self-absorbed Baby Boomer in political life. The best thing that could happen is for this generation to be carried off the face of the earth, soon. Having been born in 1952, I've watched our selfish generation my whole life. The Baby Boomer creed is "Raise my kids, take care of my responsibilities, so I can go play." Look about and the rot and depravity of our generation is everywhere. No wonder the kids think us nuts.