I live in Pennsylvania, where we have a governor, Ed Rendell, that I really wish would shut up every once in awhile.
Ed Rendell and a live microphone is almost always a recipe for disaster. He tends to do stuff like equate the public review process for the state’s budget with “whining”, get on national news programs and compare his party’s presidential nominee with Adlai Stephenson (who got his ass kicked in a presidential campaign for being seen as “too brainy”) and other things too numerous to mention.
But, I can take some solace in the fact that at least he’s not Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. While Ed can say and do some off the wall stuff, at least he’s not doing stuff like going on The View and begging for his political life.
In case you’ve been in a bunker somewhere, here’s the whole Blagojevich scene: The United States Attorney’s Office in Chicago arrested the governor before Christmas on charges that he tried to sell President Barack Obama’s senate seat. Since Obama obviously isn’t going to finish his term, the governor has the constitutional right to appoint someone to fill the expired term.
While Chicago is famous for it’s political horsetrading, I think that Blagojevich has taken it to a new level. Some of the highlights from the tapes include such things as him calling Obama’s senate seat: a fucking valuable thing. You don’t just give it away…I’ve got this thing and it’s fucking golden!”
Or, my personal favorite Blagojevich response regarding the Obama folks and the “gratitude” they offered if he appointed someone they liked: “Gratitude! Fuck them!”
(It’s the Def Comedy Jam of politics folks!)
Despite being asked not to appoint someone to Obama’s seat because the person would be considered tainted automatically, he did appoint someone, Roland Burris, and after much saber rattling on the part of Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, he was seated two weeks ago. Granted, he will probably get his clock cleaned in the next election, but Burris is a senator for now.
Naturally, the Illinois legislature, a group that he’s been beefing with for quite some time, has issued articles of impeachment because that’s what you do when your governor gets indicted and he refuses to resign. The House has already voted to impeach him. The Senate trial is going on now.
Yet, Blagojevich is making the national rounds trying to get the rest of the United States to stand behind him. Personally, I think that the rest of us don’t have a dog in this hunt. Blagojevich needs to take his case to the citizens of Illinois…unless they’ve already decided that they’ve had enough.
And my guess is that they have.
But they, like us, are going to have to stick with it for awhile.
The Mad (Political) Scientist 