[Rhodes22-list] Politics: Blago - now a mental case

[Brad Haslett]

Ed,

It's the MSM that's floating the "nuts and sluts" defense.  Blago IS
nuts by sane and rational standards, but not Chicago.  The idea the
hopium addicts want us to believe is that there was The One who swam
with all the other rats in the same sewer but no feces stuck to his
coat. That's not unprecedented, Harry Truman came from a similar
environment and was honest. I seriously doubt that The One is Harry
Truman and he certainly isn't Sarah Palin - more like Sgt. Shultz if
there's any innocence at all. We'll see soon enough.  Kass from the
Chicago Trib has followed this story closer than anyone in Chicago
(attached).  He's still not as good as the late Mike Royko I grew-up
reading but still pretty good.

Brad

www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-thurs-11-dec11,0,301469.column
chicagotribune.com

By Chicago standards, Blagojevich isn't crazy

John Kass

December 11, 2008

When it comes to Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-Dead Meat), many national TV
talking heads can't resist playing amateur psychiatrist.

"He's crazy," said one talking head of our governor. "A sociopath!"
said another. "He should have been put in a straitjacket, not
handcuffs," said a third, all of them diagnosing Blagojevich as
cuckoo.

I can see how they arrived at their cockamamie theory. Anyone who read
the federal complaint with all the f-bombs in there and watched
Blagojevich drive to work on Wednesday morning, the TV crews following
his black SUV in a low-speed chase, as if he were some angry Serbian
O.J., might think he had lost his marbles.

But is Blagojevich truly cuckoo?

Well, he was caught on federal tape using multiple f-words while
allegedly trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat to
the highest bidder. First Lady Patti Blagojevich was also on tape, and
she's a better cusser than her husband. All she needs to do is learn
how to chew tobacco and scratch and she could manage the Cubs.

Again, is Blago some blithering maniac ready for a padded cell?

Of course not.

But one thing is clear: The pundits who make such diagnoses have never
talked to a Chicago machine politician in their lives.

How do they think Chicago politicians talk in private when they're
muscling some other guy for cash? Like Helen Mirren playing the queen?

Now, with federal investigators interviewing everyone in the case,
it's time to assess the mental health of our political leaders.

The good news is that Obama isn't cuckoo either.

He was severely delusional, though, for a day, trying to avoid saying
anything about Gov. Dead Meat. But he came to his senses and called
upon Blagojevich to resign.

He bravely sent out a spokesman to declare, "Under the current
circumstances, it is difficult for the governor to do his job and
serve the people of Illinois."

Translation: Will no one rid us of this accursed madman?

Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, the boss who runs the machine that he
says doesn't exist, refused to take a position either way. That's
because he's sane.

The governor isn't the only one in this mess. His chief of staff, John
Harris, also was arrested. Before Harris worked for Dead Meat, he
worked for Mayor Shortshanks at Chicago's political golden goose:
O'Hare International Airport.

Blagojevich "has to figure out what's best for him and his family, and
the State of Illinois," the mayor said. "He will have to do the right
thing."

Ah, the right thing. When Harris spills—and he will, because he's not
crazy either—Daley doesn't want Harris to spill on him. He wants guys
to do the "right thing," which, if I may translate, means to keep
their traps shut.

In a fevered dream, I picture them, a convicted Dead Meat walking with
a visiting Shortshanks behind some federal fence, smoking cigars on a
gray afternoon.

"You know, the Roman Empire, when a plot against the Emperor failed,
the plotters were always given a chance to let their families keep
their fortunes," says Shortshanks.

Dead Meat knowingly puffs on his cigar.

"Yeah, sometimes they gave a little party," Dead Meat says.

They shake hands as they part.

"Don't worry about a thing, Frankie Five Angels, um, uh, I mean Dead
Meat," says Shortshanks, as they put their fingers to their lips in
the ancient signal of silence.

One guy who yapped a lot the other day—but didn't say much—is U.S.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Budweiser).

Jackson was identified as Senate Candidate 5. According to the federal
complaint, Blagojevich said that an emissary of Candidate 5 offered
him $1 million in donations in exchange for an appointment to fill
Obama's Senate seat.

In a careful denial on TV, after which he declined to take any
questions on the advice of his attorney, Jackson said he wasn't a
pay-to-play kind of guy.

"I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an
offer, plead my case or propose a deal about a U.S. Senate seat,
period," Jackson said.

The last time I saw him so emotional, it was at the Democratic
National Convention in Denver. Jackson got weepy at a party breakfast
and started to hug every machine politician he could grab. First, he
grabbed Daley, and cried, and hugged him and hugged him.

"I've been trying to get to know Mayor Daley for 14 years," Jackson
sobbed as somebody handed him a tissue.

Then he demanded that rivals Blagojevich and Illinois House Speaker
Michael Madigan hug each other, which they did. But no reporter
thought Jackson was cuckoo. We all knew he was perfectly sane. He
wanted to become a U.S. senator, and he wasn't afraid to act crazy to
get the job.

So listen up, you amateur psychiatrists from national cable TV land.
Don't be alarmed when Chicago machine politicians act like raving
lunatics.

It's when they're quiet and reasonable that you've got to worry.

jsksass at tribune.com

Copyright (c) 2008, Chicago Tribune


On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 5:34 PM, Tootle <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>
> Brad,
>
> Chicago has taken care of the problem and requested that the State Supreme
> Court label him a mental case and put him in an institution.  No time
> limits.  Does this sound like the old Soviet Union?
>
> Ed K
> Addendum:  "A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep
> water."
>
>
>
>
> Bill,
>
> OK, everyone showed for the last event I'm covering today so it's out
> the door for the hangar - but before I go,  here's today's NYT's
> coverage.  The "Gray Lady" may be suffering hard times financially but
> this scandal could sell enough papers to revive her bottom line.
>
> "A Democrat familiar with Illinois politics and the Obama transition,
> who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there probably were
> calls between the Blagojevich and Obama camps about the Senate seat.
> It was not clear if any calls were recorded by federal agents, who had
> tapped the governor's phones."
>
> The WSJ said it's Emanual who made the calls.  For the NYT's to even
> admit that someone/anyone "probably" made calls can't be good. Of
> course, it's within the realm of possibilities that Team Obama were
> shocked, SHOCKED, by the brazenness of Blago and tipped off Fitz
> because they're honest brokers.  Hello?
>
> I'm already bored with this movie because I have a gut feeling how it
> will end.  The most interesting thing now is how the press will
> resuscitate itself - or not.
>
> Brad
>
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Politics%3A-Blago-tp20957914p20964989.html
> Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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