"This won't change anything," a friend Gchatted me as we separately waited for the Blagojevich verdict. "By Illinois standards, his biggest crime was being an idiot and getting caught."
The cynicism was a familiar refrain from my friend, a young man born with the optimism of a Union Army doctor nine hours into the Battle of Antietam. I shrugged it off. He's just like that (and was partially saying it just to get my goat).
But then the talking head on the TV station's web feed said the same thing. That same cynical phrase I teased my friend about was brought into the public debate by the loosely connected "expert" ABC 7 hired to help fill the dead air while Rod and Patti grabbed lunch at the Dirksen commissary.
This won't change anything.
No, the results of this particular trial will not clean up Illinois or end all corruption. Illinois' culture of corruption will outlast this, just as it outlasted the convictions of former governors George Ryan, Dan Walker and Otto Kerner. There are still patronage hires, funny business with contracts and the strong-arming of political foes.
I've always been struck by the mysterious shoe boxes full of cash former Secretary of State Paul Powell left after his death. The corruption was so rampant, the crooks didn't have time to store the booty properly.
The Blagojevich verdict is not going to stop that. It's just not.
But the verdict's also not going to stop all war. It's not going to help me lose that last 10 pounds or create an electric car that can go from zero to 60 in 1.5 seconds. The results of the Blagojevich verdict will not give me X-ray vision and the power of flight, dang it.
Based on the comments of my friend, the "expert" and a few other people I've heard, it's as if the verdict would only have meaning if it meant an end to Chicago-style deep-dish corruption forever.
Do you remind the mother whose daughter's killer was convicted that murders happen every day? Do you shrug when a child molester is put away because there are still a lot of them out there?
Monday was a good day, even if there are still power plays, shady deals and more money shuffling through Springfield and Chicago each day than through a Vegas casino. A man who thought he was too powerful to be caught was caught. He thought the people who live in Illinois would put up with it because of that "culture of corruption" the cynical bank on.
Thanks to the efforts of people like U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, he realized how wrong he was. Yes, Fitzgerald's a transplant, but that's part of the story. "The Chicago Way" might be a cool movie quote, but Blago found out on Monday how much it means in the real world.
I'm not naïve. I know that right now, some very powerful and corrupt people are not so much shaking in their boots as shaking their heads and mumbling that Blago was an idiot for getting caught.
No, this one verdict isn't going to clean up Chicago or Springfield. Maybe we'll keep getting leaders who think they're too big to take down, to powerful to have their corruption opposed (I could name a dozen off-hand). And, yeah, a lot of them will get away with it.
But as for the others, they'll just have to fight it out with Blago for top bunk. We're getting pretty good at convicting governors.
And that's bleepin' golden.
Blagojevich shook down a children's hospital but got caught and never collected a nickel , it is STILL extortion, only this time the evidence was on tape.
Read One Hundred Percent Guilty available www.consulthammer.com
Corporate is so good at spin they even convince well intentioned people to do things their way. The tea party is an example of this. Financed by big business and herding people all over the country to vote their way. They are winning the war.
Who was fired from the CIA and intelligence agencies for the reports of WMDs in Iraq that led to war and thousands of our soldier's deaths? Who was fired because of the 9/11 attacks and not connecting the dots, or even doing anything about the dots? Who was fired from the SEC for ignoring Madoff's too good to be true results? Who was fired from the Interior Department for the Horizon rig fire (the fire occurred just receiving an award from the Interior Department for their safety)? Who was fired from Fannie/Freddie for their accounting fraud, or being the center of the liars loan mortgage backed securities they sold?
They didn't indict Madigan, just Blagojevich. And I'll believe in this justice system only when Madigan answers for what he's done to Illinois.
who will be brave enough to be the next Republican Governor of Illinois
with a Democrat national administration?
Step right up into the dock.........Sir. or Madam
In fact, every time I read an article about someone going to jail for any crime other than murder, I am going to bring this point to light. Where is the outcry from the press on this issue? There are so many stories out there about people being taken to the cleaners by the banks while they took our taxpayer money and did nothing with it but put it on their books to prop up their losses!
No, while I find Blagojevich repulsive, what he did is a crumb in relation to the whole loaf of bread that these bankers and hedge fund managers divided amongst themselves while John Q. Public struggled and continues to struggle.
investigate.
Now, can we put behind bars any lawmaker who offers any type of favoritism in exchange for money, favors, or makes any law for any reason aside from the interest of the general public at large?
The "regulation" game works like this. Legislators propose regulations for the sole purpose of generating campaign cash. Some companies hand over cash to get favors from government (subsidies, tax breaks, restrictions on competition, guaranteed markets, etc.) while others hand over cash to avoid being on the wrong end of legislation. If government was only dealing with disputes (via the courts) then there wouldn't be any significant campaign cash flowing to politicians. Consider the example of Obamacare: after passage the stock price of insurance companies shot up because now everyone has to purchase medical insurance (a guaranteed market). That these companies were heavy campaign cash contributors was no secret. And one can make the case (but not in court) that these are bribes.
There are corrupt politicians in every state. It's just a matter of whether the state authorities are willing to go after the corruption in search of justice (vs. for political reasons as in the case of Don Seigelman.
We've all heard the saying, better to let them think you're a dummy, than to remove all doubt. In the end, Rod Blagojevich's arrogance did him in with a good helping of, we can't control our client.
Some compassion for Rod Blagojevich is clearly due as he's little more than a reflection, produced by the system itself. There are many others much more sophisticated and deserving on K Street, Wall Street and across the nation to be sure. The fact is, these days there is no shortage of politically crass deal making and the distinction between financial trade and political exchange has blurred and not become any easier particularly in light of last year's Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Fair Elections Committee.
What we must keep in mind and understand is that the criminal justice system can also be a politically manipulated tool--a solid reason why we Americans should begin to look more carefully at publicly funded campaigns and election reforms that obviate the need for backroom schemes and political corruption.