I Already Miss Rod Blagojevich
If you drove through a toll plaza on your way through Springfield, Illinois Thursday, you would have been greeted by this sign: “Open Road Tolling — Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor”.
Not so today.
Yes, you truly know you’ve been ousted from the Governor’s office when the DPW workers start removing your name from signs on the state highway system before the ink is even dry on your articles of impeachment.
Sure, the guy was corrupt, but he bought corruption to previously unknown heights, elevated it to an art form. You sort of have to admire someone who refuses to even pretend that he’s honest. Let’s face facts, most people in his situation are going to try to do something that will net themselves the best deal but they’ll dance around the issue. They’ll never come right out and lay the quid pro quo on the table. Not Rod, though. He made it perfectly clear that Barack Obama’s senate seat was for sale and was actually quoting prices to people. And when he got caught he pretty much gave the middle finger to the Illinois state legislature and the United States Congress and appointed a new Senator despite their apoplectic outrage. They were so mad that they tried to deny seating his pick, and it was days before anyone realized that their was no legal way of denying him because, as people seem to forget, Blagojevich hasn’t been convicted of any crime. Sure, he’s been impeached, removed from office and crucified in the press, but the guy hasn’t even been indicted yet.
And so, as we watched the television and listen to another disgraced politician compare his own struggles to those of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, somewhere in Illinois a highway department worker unbolted a sign from a tollbooth and tossed into the back of his truck, along with the others.
I know you had to go, but Rod we hardly knew ye.