Big day for Chicago today: the Trib filed for bankruptcy and Gov. Blagojevich was arrested.
And things had been going so well!
The transcripts are just embarrassing.
I know I’m further echoing a common refrain, but the unbelievable hubris of these guys just floors me. I mean, scandal after scandal and politician after politician, the blatant, shameless hypocrisy and the absolute certainty of getting away with it…who are these men? Where do they come from? And how are there so damn many of them? I know that power corrupts, but, while my powers of imagination are great (and my ego not at all small), I simply cannot imagine ever having my own ego blown up to the immense proportions of these fellows. It almost makes me want to stand up and applaud.
Upon his election in 2002, Blagojevich had this to say:
“My heart is full tonight,” Blagojevich told a boisterous crowd of supporters at a north side steel factory where his late father once worked. Blagojevich said the election represents “a bipartisan call to action.” But he also reiterated a central theme of his campaign: That a generation of Republican control is responsible for the corruption and ethics scandals that have rocked Illinois.
“Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, Illinois has voted for a change,” Blagojevich said.
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, via Harper’s)
Illinois governor Rob Blagojevich allegedly offered to help the Chicago Tribune’s parent company save $100 million in a real estate deal in exchange for firing members of the editorial board who had criticized the governor in print.
One bit of news from Patrick Fitzgerald’s press conference was that he had asked the Tribune to delay reporting certain stories based on its own reporting in order not to interfere with his criminal investigation, and the Trib complied.
I’m reminded of a common improv warm-up that involves everyone on the team standing shoulder-to-shoulder with eyes closed, and counting to 20 as a group without anyone overlapping. When two people speak at the same time, everyone has to start over at 1. The game is supposed to improve focus and solidify ‘group mind’; actually, it is a boring, stupid, frustrating waste of time in which everyone is forced to stand way too close to each other and smell each other’s breath, and every time a coach suggested it before a show, I wanted to punch someone, but that’s all neither here nor there. What was my point?
Oh, yes – that whenever the country is excited about a new political superstar, it feels a lot like that game: the strained, hushed, careful counting to 20, hoping against hope that you’ll somehow make it there without having to start over. Not that Rod Blagojevich was ever especially inspiring to people, but still, I’m just waiting for Obama to do something awful. So far, though, so good:
According to the charges, “Blagojevich said he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but ‘they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them.’ “ . . . In another passage, Blagojevich fumes that if Obama doesn’t show him some love, he’ll appoint a person Obama doesn’t want. Obama comes off as good as he could possibly have hoped for: He’s behaving well even when you don’t think anyone is watching.
