Blagojevich Deserves the Chicago Tribune's Thanks

One of the oddest parts of the case of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich -- apart from his mouthful of a last name -- is his apparent obsession with sidelining editorial writers at the Chicago Tribune who were critical of him. Having worked for several years at the Los Angeles Times as an editorial writer, it was often unclear to me who was actually paying much attention to what are, by definition, exercises in high dudgeon. But you could usually count on whatever organization or individual was the target of an editorial to send in an indignant letter or, at worst, complain to the editor. The worst possible fate was to be ignored.

Blagojevich, though, seems to have gone a step further by demanding that owner Sam Zell fire the offending writers. He should have just exercised a little more patience since Zell, who has just had the Tribune declare bankruptcy, seems to be taking down the entire place anyway. But the scribes who nettled Blagojevich in the first place should be grateful to him for the attention he's paid them. No self-respecting journalist should be able to avoid feeling a twinge of envy: the Governor couldn't have paid the Tribune writers a higher compliment than demanding that they be ousted.