This is one of those times when I feel my own inadequacies as a writer with a peculiar intensity. How to do justice to the staggeringly audacious corruption of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich? Might I first observe that he makes John Rowland look like a piker-a rank amateur?
How, one wonders, did this guy ever get to be governor of Illinois? Alaska maybe, but Illinois? I’m not just talking about corruption. After all, he succeeded a guy who is now cooling his heels in jail, so the corruption part is to be expected. No, it’s the utter stupidity that is Alaskan in its scope. Sarah Palin couldn’t do better. Here’s a guy who knew he was under investigation, knew he was being wiretapped, yet has the bright idea of selling a seat in the United States Senate to the highest bidder. And not just any seat. No, this particular seat is the one being vacated by the man about to be president. And if initial reports are to be credited, it’s entirely possible that he demanded payment from the new President’s organization. Personally, if I knew that Pat Fitzgerald had me in his sights I would be one very careful person.
This brings me back to my original point. How do you do this stuff justice. No one could make this up. This is Mel Brooks country, and only someone like Brooks, at the height of his powers, could truly do it justice.
Meanwhile, while this “tragical-comical-historical” play begins, a straight farce has come to an end:
The Minnesota Court of Appeals has turned down Sen. Larry Craig’s effort to undo his guilty plea, scuttling the Idaho Republican’s argument that the plea wasn’t valid because he’d mailed it in rather than appearing in court in person.
Some may be cheered by this development, but we First Amendment absolutists are in despair:
The appellate court also was unsympathetic to Craig’s argument that his conduct in the bathroom that day was protected by free speech. The disorderly conduct statutes are not overly broad, the court found, because the law requires that someone who’s charged with such an offense be aware that his or her language or conduct could arouse “alarm, anger or resentment” in others.
Craig will be a Senator for a few more weeks. During that time he could do his bit to protect our constitutional rights by introducing a bill protecting the rights of all Americans to solicit sex in a bathroom. If it ever came to a vote it might be the first time he actually voted in favor of individual rights (not counting guns, of course), assuming one agrees with his premise that bathroom solicitation is a protected activity.
In any event, we have seen the last of Craig. Or have we?
“I maintain my innocence, and currently my attorneys and I are reviewing the decision and looking into the possibility of appealing,” Craig said.
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