What bothers me most about the arrest of Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is that he allegedly tried to shake down the CEO of Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Why? Because if convicted, this man tried to take away funding for a worthy program for the whole state of Illinois, not just the children of Chicago. This is personal for me, because in March 1971, I had open heart surgery at Children's. I can owe practically my whole life to the surgeons and nurses who took care of me before, during and after the surgery until I was 15 years old.
The scar on my chest is a testament to this hospital and the causes it still supports.
The political impact of Blago's arrest is yet to be seen because we don't know who, with the exception of Jesse Jackson, Jr., is touched by this scandal.
If Blago thought he could shake down the Children's CEO, who else has he tried to hamstring in the last six years or so years?
What leaves me puzzled is why he thought he could get away with it. Especially when you consider how he came to be governor. His predecessor, former Gov. George Ryan, is currently serving federal prison time for the "licenses for bribes," debacle.
Lo and behold, the prosecutor in the Ryan case was U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald, the same man who won a conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, of the Valerie Plame case.
Fitzgerald has a pretty good conviction track record, when President Bush doesn't interfere that is.
There's no way Blago didn't know that he would be watched like a hawk, what amazes me is that he thought he could get away with it.
I'd like to think that Blago's good deeds would cancel out the current charges against him, but I can't make that leap. Why? Because for every good deed he's done, there are probably four or five bad ones out there to undo the good.
I've come to realize that when it comes to politics, money talks and bullshit walks, especially in the state of Illinois, and its bastard child Chicago.