At least Governor Ryan had some redeeming qualities (re. the moratorium on the death penalty, though you start to wonder if these politicians have self interest at heart when they start talking of the commutation of sentences of others.) And at least he and Richard Nixon seemed tragically flawed, rather than pure evil.
The Guv is not flawed, he’s all bad. He’s crass, self-serving and stupid. The only way his harebrained policy ideas throughout the last 6 years can begin to make sense is when perceived as fronts and red herrings for ever more preposterous self-enrichment schemes. And on top of all that, he’s embarrassingly goofy.
Illinois was looking pretty good for a minute there, now it’s embarrassed again. But never fear, for there’s the silver lining of Pat:
At a news conference, Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, said that Mr. Blagojevich had gone on a “political corruption crime spree,” and that his actions had “taken us to a truly new low.”
“The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.
From the Prosecuter’s Brief:
The Chicago Tribune had not been kind to Governor Blagojevich, had written editorials that called for his impeachment. And Governor Blagojevich … schemed to send a message to the Chicago Tribune that if the Tribune Company wanted to sell its ballfield, Wrigley Field, in order to complete a business venture, the price of doing so was to fire certain editors, including one editor by name.
In the governor words, quote, “Fire all those bleeping people. Get them the bleep out of there. And get us some editorial support,” close quote. And the bleeps are not really bleeps.
U.S. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald – my hero!
Just don’t turn out to be Eliot Spitzer, okay?
