Fried brains on Blagojevich

Well everyone, it's been an eventful week. I've been out and about almost every night and furiously working during the day on niche-ing my blog, networking with other writers, and even -yesterday- registering for a class that promises to kick my ass into gear on a book project by the end of March. I had to celebrate the registration for the class, of course, because once it starts next Tuesday I'm sure I'll be working my behind off for the next few months and won't be celebrating much of anything. So celebrate I did, and inebriation followed. And this morning, accordingly, my brain is fried.

So this post won't be worth much. But I've been reading about former Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich getting booted from office yesterday after a unanimous vote by the state Senate. The guy has been accused of rampant corruption and general sliminess, and while many people are shocked and dismayed and disappointed, and others are probably unwilling to believe he really tried to sell Obama's US Senate seat, all I can say is:

You guys honestly expected this guy NOT to be corrupt and sleazy? Really? What on earth would make you think he'd be an upstanding guy? I have three very good reasons to suspect him of being a dirtbag without even knowing the details of the case:

1) He got his start in Chicago politics. I only lived in that city for ten months and it was made abundantly clear to me that Chicago is a seriously corrupt city. It's so racially segregated I hardly have words to describe it, and police brutality against black people is so routine it doesn't even get attention from media anymore. The entire city is located squarely in Mayor Daley's pocket - the guy is now in his SIXTH term as mayor, and his dad was mayor for 21 years. Something smell a little fishy about that? You don't know the half of it. Without going into details, let me just assert that my impression of Chicago politics is that in order to climb one's way up the ladder, one must either work one's ass off and be as perfectly upstanding and clean as humanly possible (a la Barack Obama), or, if you're like most politicians out there, you're a slimeball. Blagojevich is clearly the latter. He's even admitted it, telling the New York Times that the climate in which he made it to the top in Chicago was one of "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

2) His name is ROD. I don't think I need to explain why that's a bad thing. Just say it out loud. Now, try to imagine actually calling someone that as if it's that person's name. In your mind, does that person look like the kind of guy you can trust? Probably not. My advice is this: Never trust a dude named Rod, not with keeping a secret, not with watching your pet, and CERTAINLY not with stewardship of your state.

3) LOOK at the guy! What a TOOL! How on earth did he get elected in the first place?




Seriously.