Who Outed Blagojevich? by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #97
Who Outed Blagojevich? by Mike Gold
Brainiac On Banjo #97
Casablanca has given us one of the all-time favorite bits of movie dialog. When Captain Renault is ordered by the Nazis to close down Rick’s Place, he does so under the pretext of gambling. A long-time frequenter of the joint, Renault is asked why. Renault replies “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Just then, a croupier hands Renault a boatful of cash and says “Your winnings, sir.” The Captain thanks the staffer politely, and then orders everybody out of the joint.
Much like the hubbub over Illinois’ moronic governor, Rod Blagojevich, when he was indicted last week for influence peddling. People are outraged that Blago was selling the senate seat opened by the election of Barack Obama. “Lincoln would roll over in his grave,” we were told.
Now, I’ll make my nod to the too-self-righteous-to-breathe. It’s wrong. On so many levels. Really, really wrong. I mean it. Okay? Happy?
It’s also been standard operating procedure for as long as the United States of America have been united states in America. History has shown us the practice goes back to the Roman senate. Probably well before that. So let’s not be so quick to reach for the paper bags. It’s a little hypocritical to condemn a guy for trading a senate seat for personal gain when you and your buddies have been bought and paid for by thousands of lobbyists.
“Lincoln would roll over in his grave,” my ass. The big political leaders controlled all the jobs, and they weren’t interested in simply handing the ripest plums out to the most qualified candidates. Why do you think Boss Pendergast anointed Harry Truman? Can you explain wacky New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker (or a hundred others) without using the phrase “Tammany Hall” in the sentence? Ever hear of Huey Long? Boss Tweed? There’s nothing parochial about this fool Blagojevich; it is not politics the Chicago way. Chicagoans like Anton Cermak, Jacob Arvey and Richard J. Daley were very smart guys. Lincoln isn’t rolling over, he’s laughing his bony ass off.
Like most politicians caught red-handed, Blago’s going down for hubris in the first-degree. The man’s so stupid he discussed all this stuff on his telephones when he knew he was under federal investigation. This sucker didn’t even watch The Sopranos, for crying out loud.
The people of Illinois are better off without such a stupid megalomaniac at the helm of state. But let’s not go acting like this fool invented Original Sin. He’s just behind the times.
Criminally behind the times, as it turns out. And that’s kind of nice.
By the way… just who do you think was responsible for outing Blagojevich? According to my Chicago sources – and I’ve got the print and broadcast journalism background to have solid Chicago sources – it was one of his neighborhood’s congressmen. An outgoing congressman named Rahm Emanuel. You know, Barack Obama’s incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
The Obama Team’s reasoning is quite simple. Obama was a senator from Illinois. Blagojevich is (as of this writing) governor of Illinois. The Right is going to imply some sort of connection and then exploit it as best they can. That’s what they do, truth be damned. I half expect them to tie Bill Ayers into the conspiracy. It’s better that Emanuel got ahead of the story long before the Inauguration. Before New Year’s. Before Christmas. Before the collapse of the American car industry. Absent of any damning evidence – and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said Obama played no part in any of this – he’ll be out of this scandal at least four news cycles before he becomes president.
To be fair, Chicago Tribune owner Sam Zell, himself a victim of a Blago shakedown, has also been mentioned as a contributor to Blagojevich’s downfall, as have a few others who this idiot tried to muscle. But Obama and Emanuel had the most to lose by inaction, and the most to gain by cold-cocking this incompetent fool.
And that, my dear friends, is politics the Chicago way.
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December 15th, 2008 at 8:29 am
“And that, my dear friends, is politics the Chicago way”
“Here endeth the lesson.”
December 15th, 2008 at 8:43 am
This poor boob’s only crime was saying out loud (on a tapped line) what is usually just said in back rooms, where it belongs. And for ANY politician to suck their teeth over is just setting himself up for an embarassing fall when a dedicated Agent Of The Otther Party decides to look into HIS dealings, under the premise that I Fear He Doth Protest Too Much.
This is a good way for Obama to further distance himself from the “Old way” of running things. He’s shaken his head and made it clear he’s had no dealing with the Governor about the issue. And he’s all but certainly lying through his teeth. But I don’t mind – that too is The Chicago Way.
One of Rush Limbaugh’s recent comments about Chicago politics in general was that “The Daleys have owned Chicago since the fire, and one of them probably started that”. (He then hastily added that he was joking. But the Daley dynasty is nothing to laugh at. I am wholly confident that were I to be frozen and thawed out at any point in our future, I could go to Chicago, ask to see mayor Daley, and the response would be “Right this way” and not “Who?”
December 15th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Actually, one of Richard J. Daley’s sons — former Secretary of Commerce Bill Daley — was one of Obama’s key political advisors during the campaign. Without Bill and David Axelrod, there’d be no President-Elect Barack Obama today.
Like most things, Rush Limbaugh is full of shit about the Daleys. Richard J. didn’t assume control of the party until 1953 and the city until 1955. He had no successor, and between his death in 1976 (he had no political successor in place) and the Shackman Decree which effectively banned most patronage jobs, the Daley Machine was dead. His son, Richard M. Daley, wasn’t elected mayor until 1989 and was elected on his own merits as state senator and state’s attorney. He’ll pass his father’s record as major any day now, and probably won’t stand for reelection. He’s worn out his welcome, despite having completely reformed the city’s horrible public schools system (with help from his dad’s enemy Bill Ayers, and others). He’s apposed to the Iraq War and in favor of gun control, and has a pretty damn good record on green issues.
But the Daley family has owned their home area, the 11th ward, for more than half a century.
Richard J. Daley has been falsely credited with giving JFK the 1960 election by bringing out the dead to vote. Whereas this is undoubtably true, when the Republicans bitched and wanted a recount Daley agreed — as long as the recount was statewide. The Republicans, knowing they stole more votes downstate than Daley did in Chicago (for the whole Republican ticket, not just for Nixon), backed off immediately and entirely, lest they lose valuable state offices in the recount.
December 15th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Blagojevich’s wanting to see what he could get for Obama’s empty Senate seat doesn’t shock me. I’m a little dismayed, but not overly surprised.
The allegation against Blagojevich that really turned my stomach was his shakedown of the Children’s Memorial Hospital! Blagojevich wanted a $50,000 in campaign contribution from the head of the hospital, in exchange for an $8 million funding for a program for sick children! That’s a sniveling, Dickensian evil, ludicrously snide and heartless! Holding sick children hostage. That’s such a crass debasing of politics and decency, it would have Richard J. Daley spinning in his grave.
December 15th, 2008 at 9:57 am
” And he’s all but certainly lying through his teeth.”
Yeah…I try to tell folks not to get it twisted. BO’s not the messiah…he couldn’t have survived and thrived in Chi-town without being a consummate politician.
I try to pray daily for him and believe that he is absolutely the one who’s needed in this desperate hour to help right the badly listing ship of state and steer her back on course, but he most certainly knows the locations of a bone or two.
December 15th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Politics and corruption have gone hand in hand since the invention of both concepts. Memphis, my home town, has been under the control of the Herenton machine for a couple of decades now, and is suffering for it. Back in the Twenties and Thirties, it was firmly in the grasp of Edward Hull Crump, who was cut from the Boss Tweed mold, and ruled the City of Good Abode with an iron fist. Most people remember him as being a kindly old man who died sometime in the late Fifties, but historians have a different story to tell. Trust me, Chicago’s not the only place with crooked politicos. The main reason Memphis doesn’t have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is because Willie Herenton couldn’t find a way to get some squeeze out of it.
Why do you think Kinky Friedman defined “politics” as being from the Latin “poly”, or many, and “ticks”, bloodsucking parasites?
Miles
December 15th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Miles, you nailed it with the Kinky reference. I cannot wait for him to run for Governor of Texas again in 2010.
December 15th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
“The people of Illinois are better off without such a stupid megalomaniac at the helm of state. But let’s not go acting like this fool invented Original Sin. He’s just behind the times.”
Makes you wonder if Blago even paid attention to his midnight poker games with George Ryan, really. As a native son of this fair city, I wasn’t the slightest bit shocked to hear the news. If people think being in politics, be it in Chicago, Illinois or Walla Walla, Washington didn’t somehow come in contact with corruption… jeez… call those yokels Clark Kent (knowing that Mr. Kent is indeed an investigative reporter, but my point rests more on Mr. Kent’s desire for a simple, honest, and good world as opposed to the money-in-the-back-pocket corrupt world in which we live in).
I give credit to Mr. Emmanuel as you say, for jumping on this as quickly as he did. It’s akin to the faux-chief-of-staff John Spencer from the West Wing tv program. Smart politics. If it’s one of the many reasons why I’m happy Barack Obama takes office soon, it’s because he chooses to surround himself with smart people, who know how to win a fight with intelligence.
Great article Mike.
December 15th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Russ said, “The allegation against Blagojevich that really turned my stomach was his shakedown of the Children’s Memorial Hospital! Blagojevich wanted a $50,000 in campaign contribution from the head of the hospital, in exchange for an $8 million funding for a program for sick children! That’s a sniveling, Dickensian evil, ludicrously snide and heartless! Holding sick children hostage.” and I agree.
I spent many years living in the shadow of Children’s Memorial Hospital and I know of its fine works. It’s an amazing place, saving children’s lives from all over the planet. It takes a particularly evil person to try to shakedown the place; hell, even Al Capone ran soup kitchens at the start of the last depression.
That neighborhood, back in the days when I lived there, was full of astonishing creativity. Steve Goodman, John Prine, Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor; Stuart Gordon, David Mamet, William H. Macy, Neal Adams, Grease; the Chicago Seed, Radio Free Chicago, Jay Lynch and Skip Williamson… Hanging out with John Ostrander at the Organic Theater… wonderful times. And Children’s Memorial is still there, over twice as big and far more significant than all the nation’s governors put together.
December 15th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Reg said:
“I…believe that he is absolutely the one who’s needed in this desperate hour…”
Agreed. In fact, I have said in the recent past…
“Help us, Obama Wan Kenobi. You’re our only hope.”
February 6th, 2010 at 5:01 am
Man I wish my blog was as well written as yours!
great work! I guess I am still learning and started on a tough topic, weight loss!