Did you bring cash?
Last night I was talking to a friend about the mechanics of power in Illinois politics. That however depraved and disgraceful Blagojevich's behavior might be, he did not spring full-grown from the forehead of Zeus; that the very casualness of his loud, loutish, where's-my-fucking-slice attitude of absolute entitlement speaks of a man who was raised as a barbarian, in exactly that sense George Bernard Shaw conveyed in "Caesar and Cleopatra":
"...he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature."
And that instead of ending up shining shoes and screaming at strangers on the "L", this dimwitted shakedown artist rose effortlessly through the ranks to take the top job in Illinois politics before the age of 50, which tells anyone who is bothering to look that, far from being the aberrant/outsider mutation of healthy political culture, he is the perfect/insider product of a deeply barbaric culture.
The first truth about such men and women is that they do not succeed in spite of their pathologies, but precisely because they learned monkey-see-money-do the barely disguised extortionist habits and vocabulary of their chosen profession. In Blagojevich's case he had merely internalized it all so well that he started to forget that there are tiny corners in the world where shaking down a children's hospital for cash --
...
On October 8, Blagojevich told a person described only as "Individual A" that he was willing to make $8 million available for Children's Memorial Hospital, but "I want to get [Hospital Executive 1] for 50."
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Individual A felt that Blagojevich was talking about a $50,000 campaign contribution from the hospital's chief executive officer and that the $8 million referred to a recent commitment by Blagojevich to secure state funds via "some type of pediatric care reimbursement."
"Intercepted phone conversations between Rod Blagojevich and others indicate that Rod Blagojevich is contemplating rescinding his commitment of state funds to benefit Children's Memorial Hospital because Hospital Executive 1 has not made a recent campaign contribution," the affidavit says.
...
-- is not shrugged off as de fucking rigeur.
The second truth is that such men cannot exercise their thuggish will alone. They first need aides and lackeys to dress up their plots in the antiseptic language of policy, and then some of the instrumentalities of government itself to execute that policy under the color of law.
Where your find one chief executive this fucking dirty, you are going to inevitably find a whole whelping box-full of enablers and political button men who keep their jobs by knowing the exact GPS coordinates of where every body is buried.
Now I'm sure not saying that this from the Chicago Tribune has anything to do with that dynamic, but...3..2..1...
Deputy governor Greenlee resigns
12:15 PM CST, December 10, 2008
CHICAGO
A spokeswoman for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says one of his top aides has resigned.
Spokeswoman Kelley Quinn on Wednesday said Deputy Gov. Bob Greenlee resigned. The reason for his resignation wasn't immediately clear.
Greenlee's resignation comes a day after Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges.
Greenlee was promoted to be a top aide to Blagojevich in June, replacing former Deputy Governor Sheila Nix. Greenlee had been a top administration aide previously.
State records indicate the 33-year-old Greenlee lives in Chicago and earned $149,000 a year.
13 comments:
How did he get elected, anyway? Like JMM just said, he's that unique Palinesque combo of ignorance and arrogance. Or do ya'll like 'em that way?
Blagojevic first ran for governor in 2002. The Republican Party in Illinois was in ruins due to George Ryan's legal troubles, so everyone knew that whoever won the Democratic Primary was going to win the general. Blagojevic won the primary due to the help of his father-in-law, Chicago Alderman Dick Mell, who lined up the support of downstate Democrats to enable his son-in-law to beat state comptroller Roland Burris, and Chicago Public Schools head Paul Vallas in the primary. In the general, he steamrolled Republican AG Jim Ryan (no relation to George), whom he ripped (rightly) for his conduct as AG and DuPage County State's Attorney in trying to convict Rolando Cruz for murder in spite of mounting evidence of his innocence.
Four years later, no one challenged him in the primary, and he demolished Judy Barr Topinka, the state Treasurer, and the last statewide Republican officeholder (who did not have the unified support of her own party).
Most people held their noses and voted for Blagojevic, as his stupidity and arrogance had turned off a lot of people. Those sounds you heard yesterday were champagne corks popping all across Illinois.
Meanwhile...we have more important issues to deal with.
Monday's P.M. Press Conference
Its all good.The Dems will get to cut this Blago monkey loose,the Pugs and wingnut bloggers get to quiver with barely suppressed sexual excitement over corruption charges not involving the usual hapless,though wholely unrepentant Republican dirtbags,and Wolf Blitzer(and the omnipresent "Liberal" media)gets to use words like "shocking" "appalling" and "stunning" more times in 2 days(2 sentences?) than he has for the entire 8 years of the Bush Presidency.What fun!
DG- you're closer to the action so I am curious if you can comment on my understand of things. It seems to me that Obama got tired of Blogo and, one phone call later, Blogo was in handcuffs.
This leaves me with the impression that Obama knows how to play the game of Chicago politics. If this supposition is correct it leaves me drooling to see how he chops up the GOP come 1.20.09.
Your insight would be most appreciated. :-)
I've got to chime in behind Bluesy.
Exactly what I was wondering too.
And who is behind O? (Okay . . . no one knows this exactly yet.)
We await your further insights.
Suzan
Obama got tired of Blago? HUH?
What are the prog blogs smoking. I'm amazed I didn't notice before the obsession we have with conspiracy, and failing that, intrigue "who is behind O."
OOOH maybe it's the Saudi Royal Family!
You know I love ya, Suzan et al. And while this is DG's blog, as a fellow Illinois resident, all I can say is, Fitzgerald seems like a guy who does his fucking JOB and who CANNOT take orders from Obama yet. Even if Rahm Emmanuel dropped a dime on G-Rod this week, that's three YEARS into the federal investigation.
Again, Blago has been under investigation for eons, and should have assumed at least since Obama got the nomination that his every word was being recorded. That he decided to attempt to sell a Senate seat, probably expedited his arrest. But every FBI investigation is a "secret conspiracy" between a FEDERAL JUDGE and LAW ENFORCEMENT to catch a crook. They did that here. And in this instance, they did it according to Hoyle and got a really stupid criminal a-hole power abuser. End of story.
Sorry to take over the thread DG.
Oh and that's the most fabulously subtle photoshop I've seen in a good long while. Bravo.
His hair is enough to make one suspect malfeasance.
He looks like a bit player in 'St. Elmo's Fire'.
Bollox Ref
Blue Gal- as I have been reading a bit about this, including DG's posts below, it seemed to me as if there was a triggering event that shifted things from "under investigation" to "arrest the sucker." My curiosity was whether Blago's attempt to cut a deal for the new Senator was the tipping point, and how did Obama or Rahm or whomever know who to call? It's clear that Blago didn't know he was under investigation (or was too thick headed to think he'd get caught), but other folks did, and that's where my curiosity lies.
WTF!!!
Hairdo's and Handshakes the ultimate credo.
Imagine at 6:15 in the AM this dickwad being arrested. Try to invision all the different badges being held up for scrutiny! Authority fighting authority, some concept there, whata ya think "cougar"?
I love the poetry in "Tarred and Feathered and Run Out of Town on a Rail".
BG, everybody knew Blago was under investigation. Even Blago, though he didn't act like it. US Blues, everybody knew that Fitzpatrick was in charge of the investigation and thus the person to call if you wanted to drop the dime on Blago.
The current timeline seems to be that on November 5 or shortly thereafter, after the euphoria of actually winning had slightly worn off, one of Obama's people called Blago about Obama's preferred choice for his successor. Yeah, the governor has the power to appoint, but by tradition usually just appoints whoever the person leaving office for higher office wants appointed. This timeline goes on that when this contact happened, Blago tried to shake down the Obama campaign for a position, cash money, whatever, in exchange for getting Obama's preferred person appointed, and when informed that "our administration doesn't work like that," cursed out the Obama staffers involved and hung up and went around trying to sell the job off to someone else.
Story goes, then, that the Obama staffers involved looked at each other, and said to each other, "hey, y'know, he just solicited a bribe from us! Shouldn't we report that to someone?", well, Fitzy got a call. And the FBI got a call. And that's when they started the wiretapping.
No idea if Rahm Emmanuel was one of those staffers. Doubtful, under this timeline. But one rule of machine politics is to keep your principal out of the rough stuff. So a) they wouldn't have told Obama about it in order to give Obama plausible deniability, and b) they would have kept it as quiet as possible.
Now, the question is, what moved Fitzy from "Investigate" to "Arrest" mode during the month since he got the report that Blago was soliciting bribes in exchange for the Senate seat? No idea. The Bank of America thingy might be one. Or maybe just some hints that Blago was close to selling the job to someone. We'll find out. Maybe.
The second truth is that such men cannot exercise their thuggish will alone. They first need aides and lackeys to dress up their plots in the antiseptic language of policy, and then some of the instrumentalities of government itself to execute that policy under the color of law.
Crystalline brilliance!
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