Dumbest. Politician. Ever. (UPDATED)
If good looks was a minute/ You know that you could've been an hour- Smokey Robinson, 'The Way You Do The Things You Do'
2008 just keeps giving for me, politically. The Republicans were marched out of office last month. This morning at 6:15 AM, federal agents knocked on the North Side Statehouse of one Governor Rod Blagojevich (Boy Blunder to Shambollocks readers), and arrested him for going on “a political corruption crime spree” (words of U.S. Attny Patrick Fitzgerald). Huzzah!
From early reports, it appears Boy Blunder was auctioning off the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama to the taker whose bid best accommodated Rod and Patty financially. He was doing this up through this weekend, despite reports that he was under audio surveillance on the front page of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE! Wow, really Trib, nobody pays any attention to you. Don’t think this rotten stew could get any better? He was racking his brain for a way to appoint himself to the Senate seat, thereby avoiding the threat of impeachment and prepping himself for a, sit down, run for the President in 2016!
Hahahahaha…oh yeah, I’m at the keyboard.
Illinois is an open sewer. I wonder how this will reflect on Obama, whose staff has many connections to Boy Blunder. I wonder if George Ryan will now get a new bunkmate. Is Daley next on Fitzgerald’s hitlist?
Find news of this developing story here.
Illinois-Where the Governor’s pension includes room and board on the Fed’s dime.
- Here is fine piece from Chicago in February which gives some deep background on Boy Blunder’s problems.
[Dick] Mell [Boy Blunder's father-in-law and mentor] insists that he largely kept his big ego in check during the campaign, but in the aftermath of the November election, he began to feel as if he were getting the cold shoulder from Blagojevich. His phone calls weren’t returned. He was left out of meetings. His nominees for state jobs got rejected. His advice was ignored.
Tempers flared outright a couple of months into Blagojevich’s term, over something seemingly trivial: office stationery. Mell’s office had printed Blagojevich’s name on the alderman’s 33rd Ward letterhead, an inappropriate link to the governor. Blagojevich was furious, but instead of calling Mell, he ordered one of his close advisers, Christopher Kelly, to handle it. Mell says Kelly summoned him to the East Bank Club and announced: “The governor’s really pissed off.” Asked why, Kelly shot back: “The stationery—it’s got his name on it!”
Recalling the incident today, Mell grows animated, and his voice rises: “He sends that asshole Kelly to reprimand me about stationery! He’s my son-in-law—pick up the goddamn telephone and call me.” Adding to Mell’s sense of insult, the governor’s office sent him a cease-and-desist letter. (Attempts to reach Kelly were unsuccessful.)
The first rule of a spouse is don’t piss off the in-laws. I’ve only been married two months and I know that. And if your father-in-law happens to be one of the ten most powerful people in the state and your political base, you might want to walk on egg shells. But not our testicularly vital (his words) Boy Blunder. He took that as a cue and alientated everyone.
Better learn how to make friends now, Rod. Sure helps in the prison showers.
Sphere: Related ContentBoy Blunder Update
If it wasn’t bad enough that we’re stuck sitting through the interminable last days of the Bush administration, we lucky residents of Illinois must also wait out the term of our Boy Blunder himself, Gov. Rod Blagojevich. It takes a lot to make me ponder whether you are a worse executive than Bush, but Rod does that on a near daily basis. One of the fringe benefits of an Obama election is that Rod may appoint himself Senator-designate, and then we would have him out of his North Side state house for good. Let Washington take him. If he remains here, I may send Robert Novak after him while he’s jogging.
Rod can’t get his fundraising bill passed, so he’s taking the high road as usual and raising as much money from state contractors as he can, the Tribune reports.
The events are kept quiet and closed to the public. They’re usually sponsored by top state lobbyists who, like the governor, work to keep details a secret. The Tribune learned about several of the undisclosed fundraisers and showed up to document the story behind the bi-annual campaign ledgers that Blagojevich is required by law to file.
After a photo opportunity to support Mississippi River flooding victims, a state plane sped Blagojevich back to Chicago and his state SUV dropped him at the door of Carlucci’s restaurant in Rosemont to meet with clients of a top fundraiser, lobbyist Milan Petrovic.
On a different June night, another top fundraiser and lobbyist, John Wyma, was waiting inside Chicago’s trendy Naha restaurant when the governor balked at the sight of Tribune reporters and photographers outside. With his security detail running interference, the governor dashed through a crowd of amused passers-by and into the restaurant.
Yikes! Poor Rod. He can’t do anything but draw negative press coverage. Only in Illinois would a leader try to force fundraising reforms by abusing existing loopholes. Add to that his continued use of a state plane to fly him back and forth to his family because he won’t move to Springfield, and well…how many more months left in his term?
Washington, D.C. please take him. We’re ready to transfer custody.
O'Hare Arpt., IL
