The moment I heard that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had been arrested for suspicions of trying to sell the state's U.S. Senate appointment, it was obvious the jig was up.
Growing up in Illinois and with most of my family still there, I'd heard it all before. Vote Early, Vote Often. Where the dead vote. Downstate politics vs. Chicago. Heard it all not just throughout the state, but specifically with Mr. Blagojevich, who'd long had influence charges swirling around him. It just seemed a matter of time before he got sucked into his own Black Hole. But this...this - this was just...this, this was pathetic.
What leaps out so much from this debacle is not that it was "business as usual" in Illinois or with Blago (which is unacceptable under any condition), but that this transcended even that. What leaps out is that this was so brazenly, insanely, gallingly stupid.
It's not just Lincoln turning in his grave, as U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald suggested, this would make even the first Mayor Daley turn in his grave, a man who could peddle boodle in his sleep without a scratch.
Here's Rod Blagojevich, a smart guy, a practiced high-ranking politician, the governor of a tough state - a guy who knows he's been looked into in the past for associations with influence-peddling, who knew that some people he was dealing with were wire-tapped, and who was dealing with filling a Senate seat for the freaking President-elect of the United States. He had to know that every single move he made was being watched with a warehouse of microscopes. Watched not just by the public, not just by the press, but by the Feds. All of them. He had to know. And still...and still...he did this. Did this amazingly, brazenly, gallingly stupid and criminal act.
Sorry, "alleged" act.
Just pathetic. Or as the wonderful Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) called the generality of his actions, "Delusional." Schakowsky had long been considered one of the leading contenders for the Blagojevich appointment. She must now be on her knees thanking the heavens for having avoided receiving the job. It could have ended her career.
How the successor will be worked out now is best left to jigsaw puzzle masters. But it's something that won't be imminent, which means Illinois will be without a second senator for a while. Happily, they have an excellent senior senator in Dick Durbin, and an excellent former senator heading into the White House.
No doubt Republicans will try to make hay with this - because, well, that's all Republicans have these days. And their efforts will show that emptiness. Because remarkably, not only does all information makes clear that Barack Obama had absolutely zero to do with any of this, but there's growing evidence that makes him appear even more admirable as a result. It's not just that he and Rod Blagojevich weren't remotely close - Gov. Blagojevich wasn't even invited to speak at the Democratic Convention - but tape recordings have the governor referring to the president-elect as, "That motherf*ker"...and precisely because Mr. Obama wouldn't give him anything! Yet further, reports are that it was Mr. Obama's chief staff Rahm Emanuel who may have actually tipped off the feds!! Moreover, the whole FBI investigation appears to have been started because Barack Obama was pushing for stronger ethics laws in Illinois (!!!), which forced Governor Blagojevich to act precipitously.
Of course, under George Bush, those who broke the law weren't turned in to the Feds, they got the Medal of Freedom.
And as a final touch, Barack Obama didn't stand behind, "No comment, because the case is being adjudicated" - he called for Rod Blagojevich to resign.
More to the point, there remain deeply-serious issues the nation needs to deal with - from a collapsing economy to two wars and more. Not a local governor acting on his own greedy, criminal behalf. The American public understands this.
So, if Republicans try to draw non-existent, convoluted connections between Barack Obama and Rod Blagojevich in a criminal conspiracy, just as they tried to do with Mr. Obama and William Ayers (-or the Baby Obama and his Hawaiian birth registrar - ) Republicans are going to dig the hole their in deeper. The public gets this. The public actually likes Barack Obama. The public desperately wants America to solve its problems. And the public wants the president they just elected to succeed. Republicans attempting to turn a Blagojevich action (and only Blagojevich action) into something it's not do so at their own very great risk.
On the other hand, anyone addressing this Blagojevich action as something that it is - the dance floor is open. Get a ticket. Stand in line. Unlike Republicans who tended to circle the wagons around any of their criminally convicted malefactors, Democrats understand the gross wrong here and, even though it's to their deep benefit to have a Democratic governor make the appointment, have been condemning it vociferously. As well they should. It's ghastly. It's gallingly stupid. It's pathetic. You want to scream, "Rod?!!! What in God's name were you thinking???!!!"
The easy answer is that, clearly, he wasn't.