The busted moral compass of Rod Blagojevich

Have you ever watched a daytime talk show and wondered what motivates those people to appear on TV? Many of the guests flaunt character flaws that would mortify any normal person. Some have the good grace to be abashed but all seem to relish getting national attention. It is, however, something of a new twist when such a person is a sitting governor. Rod Blagojevich, whose responsibility it was to appoint someone to serve the remainder of Barack Obama's term in the U.S. Senate, allegedly tried to trade the seat for material benefit to himself. Prosecutors have tapes. Blagojevich does not deny that he said what he said, arguing only that it was taken out of context. Claiming his impeachment is "rigged," Blagojevich said he would take his case to the people, and flew to New York to make the rounds of the talk show circuit. On show after show he has made his "out of context" argument, without, however, saying what the context was. This is the quote that grabbed my attention, and made me want to write about this. Blagojevich said this on ABC's "Nightline." "If you do an exchange of one for the other, that's wrong," he said. "But if you have discussions about the future and down the road and what you might want to do once you're no longer governor in a few years, what's wrong with that?" Are you kidding? Is that your defense? Are you that stupid? Have you at last no moral compass whatever? What's wrong with that is that is, in fact, an exchange of one for the other. It makes no difference whether the quid pro quo is a cushy job after leaving office or a suitcase full of Hamiltons in the trunk of your car today. It's crooked. The answer, of course, is that Blagojevich IS that stupid. This is the same guy who compares himself to Ghandi, who says he's doing what he's doing now because he doesn't want to send the wrong message to his children, who struts and preens like he thinks he's a movie star. Oh, yes, he really is that stupid. For example, I think he may actually believe the impeachment process is rigged, rather than accepting that the wrongness of what he did is the reason why the only lawmaker to vote against impeaching him in the Illinois House of Delegates (of 118 voting) was his sister-in-law.

Comments

[John]

Stupid, maybe, but he rolled both [Senate leader] Harry Reid and Obama on his Senate pick.