What
hath Rod wrought?
by Norm
Winick
The arrest of Governor Rod Blagojevich and the
audacity and profanity of his comments taped at the behest of Federal
prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has put Illinois in the limelight again.
While there is no doubt that the alleged
attempts by Blagojevich to auction off the United States Senate seat vacated by
Barack Obama and to extort funds from a hospital administrator are beyond
redemption, the surprise to many observers, myself included, is that all this
happened in the last six weeks.
We all knew that the Governor was under
investigation and has been almost since he took office. In the interest of full disclosure, I
will admit that I have defended Blagojevich on many occasions in terms of the
earlier accusations against him. Pay-to-play is not new to Illinois politics.
The term was invented to describe the widespread machinations and special deals
made under former Governor Jim Thompson. Former Governor Jim Edgar was an
ex-Secretary of State and his offices were no different; jobs and contracts
were for sale. Those two Governors escaped all prosecution and I'm sure that
Blagojevich thought he would, too.
I even justified some of his actions on
occasion as "politics as usual." I assumed it would be hard, if not impossible,
to prove whether a contribution was a prerequisite (bribe) for a State contract
or job when everyone interested also made a contribution and some of those
people were never rewarded and some plums were awarded to people who never
contributed.
Rod Blagojevich has done some good things. His
attempts to expand health care coverage and pre-school for kids is commendable.
Open-road tolling is wonderful.
He can charm a crowd.
He gets blamed for a lot of things that aren't
his fault. The multi-billion dollar budget shortfall is not of his doing. He
doesn't live in Springfield but most recent former Governors have also forsaken
the Executive Mansion. He has been on the right side of many issues and
supported workers and the citizenry over corporate interests on many occasions.
What he cannot do is play well with others.
Rod Blagojevich has no friends in Chicago and fewer in Springfield. He is the
bitter enemy of the Speaker of the House, the Lieutenant Governor, the
Comptroller, the Attorney General — and they are all of his party.
The voters knew his flaws, even assumed he was
playing politics with jobs and contracts, and re‘lected
him easily.
If he would have been indicted over past
dealings with Tony Rezko or others, I don't think
anyone, including myself, would
have been surprised. But I underestimated the Audacity of Rod. Why anyone would say the things he did
on a land-line telephone knowing he was under investigation is beyond
stupidity.
He must resign or be impeached — and he
will.
There is no excuse for the things he said and
no justification for his attitude.
Convicting him is another matter. While his
statements on tape are atrocious, there is a reason Patrick Fitzgerald asked
publicly for more tips and evidence. Rod Blagojevich never acted on any of the
things he said. He never appointed a Senator who bribed him; he never cut off
funds for the hospital; The Tribune never fired the editorial board member.
That's why the complaint charges him with
"conspiring" and "soliciting." Those accusations have been used successfully in
some other prosecutions but a good lawyer should have a field day with them.
I expect a deal to be cut with Blagojevich
leaving office and the charges to be reduced or dropped.
Pat Quinn will be the new Governor who
will appoint a new Senator. Then he'll be forced to make the hard choices that
will probably doom any chance for his own election.
12/11/08