Adapted from As of Yet Untitled.
This morning I turned on NPR during breakfast and heard the news that the governor of Illinois was arrested at his house this morning in his blue and black jogging suit. Throughout the day today, in the car, on the train platform and over lunch I’ve had conversation with friends and strangers, all Illinoisans (yep, that’s how it’s spelled). The consensus was clear: we are all absolutely staggered by how stupid this man has been.
For those of you who haven’t been following Illinois politics for the last few years: Thank You. The news has been nothing but embarrassment to those of us who live in this state. For the last 3 years, the governor’s office has been under heavy investigation. The governor carried on defiant and self-righteous. Just yesterday he said, “If anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it. I appreciate anybody who wants to tape me openly and notoriously. And those who feel like they wanna sneakily and wear taping devices, I would remind them that it kinda smells like Nixon and Watergate.” according to the Washington Post.
And here’s where the really really stupid stupidness comes in. In this context, in which the governor knew he was under intense investigation. He was taped saying “You gotta be careful how you express that and assume everybody’s listening, the whole world is listening. You hear me?” So what did he do? that he decided to sell the Senate seat left vacant by Senator Obama’s resignation. Two of the most blatant quotes from the wire tap:
“I’ve got this thing and its [expletive] golden and I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I’m not going to do it. I can always use it. I can parachute me there.”
What was he thinking? This quote from the wire tap says all we need to know about his basic motivation: “I want to make money.”
I was chatting with a friend from Singapore about the colorful political landscape here in Chicago. I sent him the link to What was Blagojevich thinking?. After reading the expletive laden quotes from the federal complaint he said it “read like an Extra-Special RAW edition of WWF.” But personally I think that’s an insult to WWF wrestlers. At least they understand when they are up against the ropes and it’s time to take the fall.
The one good thing about this is that it give all of us Chicagoans something to talk about besides the snowy weather. When I walked unto the El platform this evening, there was already a conversation going on about the governor. I didn’t have to ask what everyone was talking about. We all shared our collective amazement at the governor’s gull. And Chicagoans of all people are used to corruption. Just not corruption this stupid.
In the end, who says it better then the Psalmist?
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Psalm 146:3-4 (NIV)
P.S. Need a pick me up after such a sad sad article? See these two cold stories with happy endings: Penguin outsmarts killer whales and Pilots survive night on ice floe.
The people really know how to pick ’em, don’t they?
An embarrassment? What did you expect from a politician? We live in a society that consumes, consumes, consumes and dumps toxins into the environment at such a rate that we are about to melt the polar ice caps completely, and none of us are willing to change our lives to try to prevent further damage. That governor is exactly what this society deserves…that little bit of corruption is nothing compared to the corruption rampant in the society at large.