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About The Author

BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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You got that right! ; )
Naw, somebody said jo but stank
so, what is it we’re supposed to do, say, think about this scandal?
That Blago is a corrupt idiot. That our own party can be as bad as the Republicans. That our loyalty should be to individuals, not the party. We cannot afford to be blind party loyalists.
We have to call corruption in our own party out on the carpet and give it the harshest possible treatment. We need to see him severely punished with a strong message sent to the rest that this is UNACCEPTABLE, because it’s currently widespread.
I don’t want to see anyone defend this jerk, this system, or our party over this. We’ll have no credibility at all if we close ranks behind this guy. He should go. And if we lose to a Republican in Illinois, we’ll deserve it.
So far I have not heard a single word that sounded even a little bit like defense. Last night I heard someone say his approval rating was around 13%, and someone else replied that they believed it was actually in the single digits.
I dislike political parties, and do not affiliate myself with any of them. Inevitably party concerns, loyalty, etc. will, a good deal of the time, trump more important matters.
The guy was dirty.
But TPM has it right: He needs to claim insanity, because he was talking about running for POTUS. There’s no way he would have won a single state. He is certainly very unpopular in IL – my home state and state of current residence. I live downstate, and no one likes him here because he doesn’t live in the Governor’s mansion. He is expensive, and a scummy toad.
I used to defend him, but boy was I confused.
Don’t feel bad, I once defended Zell Miller to pateacher, and I know I’ll never live that one down.
There is no reason why, as the Governor of IL, he could not name the Senator tonight or tomorrow. All the remedies which would prevent that would take time, and all it takes is for Blago to write the name on official stationary, and POOF – it’s a done deal.
This would be horrible, but imagine if he said “fuck it” and picked Alan Keyes.
yeah, I did take the time to look into that today even though I thoughtlessly failed to blog about it.
It seems that Blago could appoint someone and that there is a legal precedent (from the House) where the courts ruled that Congress can set the rules of admission but cannot refuse to seat someone that is eligible under the rules. So, they would probably feel obliged to swear in Blago’s appointment, but they would then be free (by a 2/3 vote) to eject them. Or, they could challenge the precedent because the House case involved a duly elected official, not an appointed one. Or they could pass a law now changing the rules of admission to preclude anyone appointed who is under federal indictment.
It’s really not a problem.
Blago is not indicted. A criminal complaint was filed. I’m not a lawyer, but Fitzgerald was clear that they are still working on an indictment.
I’m not sure what the criminal complaint did in reality, except generate headlines. Maybe a lawyer could explain.
They arrested the GOVERNOR of Illinois at his house in front of his wife, children, and neighbors. You are not certain if this is a serious situation? They have a TON of stuff on this toad. He’s going to prison.
Of course, it’s serious. I don’t really doubt the allegations, either. But what does the criminal complaint do if an indictment is needed and not done yet?
I’m not against pulling him down, I question the tactic. Surely his lawyers will argue that he can’t get a fair trial because of the media splash. You don;t arrest somebody and blow the wiretap unless you are either ready for trial or fear they will skip the country.
do you really think the US Senate would accept his choice. You do know they have the last word on who is a member of the Senate.
OK, let’s go over the Rogue’s gallery
IL – Blago – abuse of power, pay for play
MO – Baby Blunt – abuse of power, unable to follow sunshine laws, did not follow email laws, cost state 1M in legal fees over this
IN – Mich Daniels (may be running in 2012 for POTUS) – sold IN toll road to the Dutch or Spanish or someone
IA – clean as a whistle
MN – land of 1 million stalls – come out of the closet and into the restroom – hey sailor, those are sure some shiny shoes
You forgot Wisconsin.
It actually does… ; )
I’m probably violating a million rules by doing this but I’m tired and this is my last best effort:
How low can Rod go? That’s the question state legislators are gleefully pondering in Springfield, as they debate the depths to which Blagojevich’s poll numbers, political support, and moral credibility will plummet.
In a town where camaraderie and conviviality are the norm, the governor’s belligerence, recalcitrance, petulance, egotism and arrogance are deemed abhorrent – if not deviant. “The man (Blagojevich) has a character flaw,” Democratic State Senator Mike Jacobs is quoted as saying.
Blagojevich does not govern, which means to direct, lead or manage. Instead, he reacts, which means he responds to polls. His style is confrontational, and he is in a perpetual campaign mode, undoubtedly convinced that voters are more impressed by a governor who is a fighter than by a governor who is a doer. He seeks sound bytes, not accomplishments.
“What’s wrong with him (Blagojevich)?” lamented State Representative Joe Lyons (D-19). “We, as Democrats, could have accomplished so much. But, because of him, we have accomplished so little.”
According to Lyons, the governor had a six-year gameplan to vault to the presidency: Govern competently during his first term, get re-elected in 2006, and then run for president in 2008. That will never happen. “He’s alienated every important Democratic politician in Illinois,” said Lyons. He means: In short, Blagojevich is a failure. .
According to the late August Rasmussen Reports poll, Blagojevich’s job approval rating is ten points lower than President Bush’s–22 percent excellent or good (to Bush’s 32 percent in Illinois), while a stunning 78 percent disapproval, with 25 percent rating him fair and 53 percent poor. A month earlier, a Rasmussen poll put him at 25/64 approval/disapproval. Among blacks, the governor’s disapproval is at 57 percent. And among women, to whom he is aiming his “Illinois Covered” health care initiative, his disapproval was at 84 percent; among men, he was at 70 percent. Clearly, in his battle with the Democratic-controlled legislature, the governor is not emerging as a hero.
Does this faze the governor? Not at all, according to one Springfield lobbyist. “He figures he has time on his side, and that the health care issue will be his salvation.” The next gubernatorial primary is in March of 2010, fully 30 months away. And, by making Democratic Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan a target of his scorn, he hopes to tarnish his daughter, state Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who is preparing to challenge him.
Adds this lobbyist: “Blagojevich’s principal advisors were Lon Monk and Brad Tusk, who had jobs in the Clinton Administration. They saw the fight, confront, attack approach work against Newt Gingrich and the congressional Republicans. The more confrontational Bill Clinton, the more his liberal base loved him. But, in Illinois, the Democrats are in control. He’s demonizing Democrats, not Republicans. And the Democratic base is getting angry.”
Robert Howard, in his 1988 book on Illinois’ governors, Mostly Good and Competent Men aptly described Democrat Dan Walker (1973-76) as an “…adversarial governor. Scornful of compromising…downgraded the importance of the legislature and aggressively used `me-versus-you’ tactics…for four years, hostility prevailed.” Sounds just like Blagojevich. In 1976, Walker lost re-nomination by a wide margin.
Here’s a synopsis of Blagojevich’s recent blunders:
RTA/CTA bailout: : The governor is adamant that he will not raise either the state income or sales tax during his reign. State Representative Julie Hamos (D-18), of Evanston, labored mightily to craft a $534 million bailout bill, which included a 0.25 percent sales tax hike in Cook County, and a 0.50 percent hike in the collar counties. Blagojevich promised a veto.
With service cuts looming for Sept. 16 – the mass transit “Doomsday Scenario” – Blagojevich offered $24 million in state aid, pilfered from other state accounts. The agency needed $110 million. Finally, with much fanfare, Blagojevich used his powers to allocate $91 million, including the entire para-transit and discounted fares subsidies. When those funds are gone, another crisis will arise.
Health Care Insurance: : Blagojevich’s “Illinois Covered” plan, which supposedly insured 1.4 million uninsured adults, had a price tag of $2.1 billion, and would have increased to $4 billion annually within four years. This was to be financed by a cigarette tax hike of 75-90 cents per pack, and assorted revenues from casinos and sale of a 75-year lottery lease.
The plan was not approved by the legislature, but Blagojevich decided that that he could veto $500 million from the state’s new one-month, $59.5 billion budget, and, in conjunction with his two-percent funds transfer authority, allocate that money to his coveted $463 million health plan.
Among his vetoes were the “member initiative” projects in the districts of every legislator. Each senator got $1.3 million of earmarked projects in his district, and each representative got $650,000. Since, in the House, Madigan’s Democrats opposed him, the governor vetoed the projects of all 67 Democrats, but not of the 51 Republicans; in the Senate, since Senate President Emil Jones is a backer, and Republican minority leader Frank Watson isn’t, the governor vetoed the projects of the 22 Republican senators, but not the 37 Democrats. According to Blago, he vetoed “pork” – or at least the “pork” of his enemies.
Budget Cuts: : The state’s month-to-month fiscal 2008 budget contained an additional $597 million in school funding. This was far less than the $1.5 billion sought by Blagojevich and Jones, but more than the $400 million targeted by Madigan. When Blagojevich first ran for governor, he promised to raise education spending by $1,000 per student over four years; he’s increased it by about $400 in six years, with over 80 percent of state funding being allocated to teacher and administrator salaries and benefits, and independent contractors. Nationwide, Illinois ranks 29th in education spending.
Yet Blagojevich didn’t veto the cost-of-living pay hikes for himself, state officials, and legislators.
Infrastructure: : A typical liberal, Blagojevich views every problem as an opportunity to spend taxpayers’ money. When a bridge collapsed in Minnesota, Blagojevich immediately called for a $20 billion capital projects bill. At present, 700 of 7,000 state bridges need repair, and 90 have reduced lanes. How to pay for it? Bonds, borrowing, and/or an expansion of gaming positions at current casinos. The governor opposes any new casinos, or any sales tax hike.
The betting is that the governor won’t sign any infrastructure repair funding bill unless the legislature passes his health care package.
New Taxes: : Earlier this year, Blagojevich, claiming that he wanted to “ease the burden on the middle class,” and that he was a “pro-business governor,” unveiled a 2008 budget with $33 billion in new revenue, including $10 billion from the Lottery lease, $16 billion from new pension bonds, and $7 billion in new business taxes, from a gross receipts tax and a payroll tax. The business community was outraged. The plan was Dead on Arrival in Madigan’s House. Prominent Illinois Democrats like Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn, Comptroller Dan Hynes, and Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, opposed it.
Yet Blagojevich lamely tried to maintain the fiction that he was a tax-fighter, not a tax-hiker.
Stupid Lawsuits: Blagojevich promised to “rock the system” when he ran in 2002. At his current pace, he’ll barely prompt a quiver. He’s taken his battle with Madigan to the Sangamon County court. The governor ordered 16 special sessions, at a cost of $42,000 per day, over the summer. He’s suing to compel the legislators to address the issue that he stipulates on the day he chooses. He’s also sued the House Clerk to compel entry of his vetoes in the House Journal.
Perhaps somebody should sue the governor for the $5,800 it costs each day he flies from Chicago to Springfield, and back, and accomplishes nothing.
Where’s the money? During the governor’s first term, he raised $30 million, or roughly $625,000 per month. Thus far, as of June 30, six months into his second term, he’s raised $283,782, or just $47,297 per month. Why? First, because the federal probe into Blagojevich donations from state contractors, appointees and employees has chilled the environment. Don’t donate, and don’t get investigated. And second, Blagojevich is looking like a loser in 2010. So why donate?
The governor’s hope: That a flock of contenders – Pat Quinn, Lisa Madigan, Paul Vallas – all run against him in the 2010 primary, splitting the vote. But Blagojevich is looking more and more like Walker. Because of his truculence, petulance and ignorance, he’ll surely rank among Illinois’ worst governors.
jesus. put some line breaks in there. I can’t read that. And are you citing something or is that something you put together?
No I didn’t write that! I just cut-and-pasted it and the formatting went out the window. That’s why the caveat.
May I suggest you use the preview feature if you ever do that again?
Are we supposed to be able to read this? Why spend all the time and energy to write this and forget to paragraph? This is beyond me. If you want your posts read, I think you should put them in legible form.
It’s called communication.
Threatened veto of CTA taxes was not all bad politics. The Suburbs hate to be taxed for benefits in Chicago. And this one poured salt in the wounds by taxing the Suburbs twice as hard as the city and on top of the “Stroger Tax” also primarily for the benefit of the city.
I fully support all his Health Care initiatives, all Progressives should. I do fault him for his Republican-like “no taxes” pledge which has brought the state to insolvency. And of course, I can’t condone the corruption.
As for Mrs. Voice, her stand is,”He helped us when we needed it badly (Illinois KidCare) and I’m not going to abandon him now.” For reference, Mrs. voice was born and raised in Chicago, hence certainty that all politicians are corrupt, all that matters is what they do for you. I’m not so sure she’s wrong. The Spitzer and Edwards revelations really shocked me.
So, you put extramarital sex on the same level as political corruption, up to and including selling off a Senate seat to the highest bidder for personal profit?!!!!
How very puratinistic American of you! :o}
I think you mean “puritanistic”. Yes, I am very American and not at all European in outlook.
I didn’t take the position you say I did. However, a man who breaks his oath to his wife is apt to break to voters. I don’t know what relationship Spitzer had with his wife, but there is something repulsive about Edwards banging the office bimbo while his wife was dying of cancer.
If I were you, I would abandon him and abandon him with extreme prejudice.
I have already written him a letter urging him to resign and look forward to the Quinn administration.
Mrs. Voice is the soul of loyalty. I love her for it, but it is a failing.
to this Blagojevich fiasco.
“Pay to Play” seems to be the buzzword.
As if that practice isn’t in play up and down the system.
All of that big-time corporate money that poured into the presidential campaigns?
What the fuck do you think that was?
His was a mediocre, relatively small game.
Much like the whole “Big Lie” syndrome, the big hustle goes uncriticized while this poor schmuck…admittedly untalented at the game and quite possibly off his nut…goes down for the count.
So it goes.
As long as you are starting a Blagojevich thread…here are some of my other posts on the matter from here and elsewhere.
This thing’s got legs.
Through Rezko and/or Blagojevich and/or Rahm->Obama.
Watch.
AG
How about a seat held successively by Dan Rostenkowsi, Rob Blagoevich, and Rahm Emanuel?
Shall we keep an eye on Rahm’s replacement?
Also, I was a big critic of Hillary but I don’t recall ever criticizing Bill for money he’s made post-presidentio.
Watch.
I said elsewhere that the Rahm choice was going to be the first thing to get Obama in trouble.
I just didn’t think that it would start this fast.
Watch.
AG
P.S. If you didn’t in some way pontificate on Bill’s position of power…whether specifically about the amount of money he has made from his ex-presdentialness or not…you were the only anti-Hillary blogger not to do so.
And that power IS “money”.
Or vice-versa, of course.
I think I limited my criticism of Bill to his proclivity to try to take center stage and just generally be a big distraction and pain in the ass.
That was true as first husband, first vee-pee, and it’s true now.
As for the bleed-out from the Blago scandal, I think there is some risk to Rahm, but little to Obama (except, potentially, thru Rahm).
Actually, Obama looks startlingly clean considering his surroundings.
Lord, Booman!!!
You don’t watch the mafia dramas?
That’s how it WORKS!!!
The top guy keeps his hands clean while his underlings do the dirty work.
That’s what Rahm DOES!!!
He’s a classic bagman.
Watch.
AG
yeah, but he’s a smart bagman.
Bet on it.
Watch.
AG
you make a good point about the quality of the jazz musicians. Yet, it’s just a hunch, but I don’t think Obama’s iPod is filled with the Marsalis Bros.
Any more than it is about his private tastes or even his aims.
Not really.
It’s about what he chooses to emphasize.
He is a gradualist.
My fear is that he will prove to be too much of a gradualist.
We shall see.
AG
P.S. The Marsalis Brothers?
Branford is 100 times more honorable in his musical quest …and thus 100 time less successful in this devolved culture…than is his brother.
Bet on it.
that’s just my misreading your comment. I wondered why you were lumping the two brothers together, but I guess you weren’t.
Nah, you forgot Michael P. Flanagan (R 1995 -1997).
How could one forget such an unmemorable loser.
Or whatever happened to …?
Just one more gift of the Gingrich Revolution.
And then I tune into Tweety Bird and a couple of his pet talking heads flatulenting around about how bad Rod has been, blah blah blah blah, then a pause, another couple of pet rocks in to talk about the Caroline Kennedy thing, and not a hint about how they are two sides of the same dirty little set of rocks!!!
Whadda buncha crooked maroons!!!
They are so busy defending the fix that they are as obvious regarding their dishonesty as was Blagojevich about his on the wiretaps.
By the way…parse Obama’s little soundbite regarding his innocence in this matter.
‘Stammer stammer, pause pause”…and then he uses the word “we” in a claim that there has been no contact between Blagojevich and his systerm, then quickly substitutes “I” for “we”.
Hmmmm…
“I didn’t have sexual relations with that woman.”
But…something happened, didn’t it Bill?
“We…errrrr…I had no contact with the governor or his office.”
But…something happened, didn’t it Mr. Soon-To-Be?
Shit happens.
Watch.
This isn’t going away.
AG
What happened to the NEWSTRIKE!!!?
Did you see this?
Nthank you very much.
Every once in a while, I go in under cover.
To get some intel, don’tcha know.
The fact of the matter is, the whole NEWSTRIKE!!! thing is about the idea of never, ever believing the top 4 or 5 layers of what the corporate media tell you about anything whatsoever. That and not buying the products that are advertised if it is at all possible to survive without doing so. Never watch any advertising while unconscious of its true hypnotic purpose.
The channel changer is the greatest enlightenment tool that has been presented to modern man in the last 70 years.
Bet on it.
I actually invented the first one in the mid- ’60s. I had a pushbutton channel selector on an old Sony TV and a broomstick.
Look away, Booman.
Look away from the swinging watch.
You be bettah off.
Later…
AG
Not live, but I read it.
I will believe it when I see it in action.
Listen, Booman…
If he brings in the real thing…not just superannuated old artists (no matter how vital they may have been 30 or 40 years ago), pop ripoffs of previous art and historians who are parroting what happened before they were born (and I include the entire Wynton Marsalis/Harry Connick/Michael Buble/Bush Jazz, big corporate money-supported so-called “jazz” movement in that idea)…then I will believe it.
A fine player and I were talking last week. I jokingly mentioned that I would pay my own transportation and room down to DC in order to play at one of the inaugural parties because I wanted to wash the lingering taste out of my mouth from the one that I played when the Butch people took over. It was among the most disgusting experiences of my life. Really. A musician gets to see into the souls of the drunks stumbling around in front of him in those kinds of situations, and the greed, corruption and utterly untalented stupidity of the Butch administration were there to be seen in January, 2001 for anyone with the eyes to see it.
He answered….speaking a factual truth or a metaphorical one, I didn’t even bother to find out because either way it was as true as rain:
Followed of course by the laugh-that-does-not-mean-ha-ha that has become part and parcel of the black experience in Omertica.
YOU know.
This one.
I do not really know how deeply Obama’s commitment to “change” really runs. On any level. We shall see soon enough. It will certainly be deeper than Butch’s, but that’s obviously not saying a great deal.
As I said above, much of the root idea behind those NEWSTRIKE!!!, MEDIASTRIKE and CULTURESTRIKE things is to never, ever consume advertising on an unconscious level.
The Obama campaign won Advertising Age magazine’s Marketer Of The Year award, beating out Apple Corp’s brilliant marketing surge. Now, these fellas know advertising when they see it, and they know great advertising as well. And what is great advertising, really? It is advertising that…by hook or by crook…reaches deeply into the subconscious of a very broad number of buyers without effectively alienating (and thus driving to its competitors) so many other potential buyers that its reach is nullified by the counter-numbers.
A big part of the Obama advertising tactic was of of course the “change” meme.
We have already seen how serious he was about fulfilling that idea on the appointment level. He’s a practical politician, after all, and he’s playing both ends against the middle in true practical politician fashion.
Now…how is he going to approach the cultural part? Is he going to trot out the tried and true?
Or is he going to attempt real change? Throw his (tacit) support to the edges by allowing those changing edges some national, presidentially approved face time?
Whadda you think, bro’?
On the evidence?
(Insert Grandmaster Flash and his No-Ha-Ha-laugh here, please.)
It’s all about the votes.
Bet on it.
That’s his job, and so it goes.
Later…I gotta go practice now. I got a bunch of door gigs coming up.
You know what “door gig” is? In the NYC jazz scene as it exists today? That’s where a non-corporate-sponsored, corporate-accepted group of musicians…often truly world class musicians, people who have not given up and never will (Like those fools down at Minton’s in the early ’40s…Bird, Diz, Monk…like them.) present the real thing to the few unhypnotized people left in this culture. For the money that appears at the entrance door. Depending on the size and complexity of the group plus the number of people who show up…why, sometimes we make as much as $80!!!
But it’s more often much closer to $15.
So it goes here in culturally devolved Omertica.
C’mon down sometime…it’s burning in there.
Bet on it.
Later…
AG
Although I’d love to jump on the conspiracy bandwagon and BofA-kicking, this seems like a pretty quick turnaround for anything like that.
Does anyone know the date of the conversation about selling the Senate seat? Just curious.
+++
Very local scandal:
I have a twenty-year acquaintance who has been forced to resign from her position at my union for… well, that much hasn’t surfaced yet, but it probably has to do with the improper/illegal acquisition of money.
Another guy is retiring and will be out of the country as of early January, and while that may be just coincidental, the fact that all but the most junior officer managed to disappear from the last branch meeting before the resignation was announced was, eh, unusual.
I ran on a ticket against these guys a couple of times, as a reformer. We specifically wanted an outside audit. The way politics in our local works the incumbents have tremendous advantages, control the shop steward network, can get out into the different stations more easily, etc., so it wasn’t unexpected that we’d lose. Now I’m retired and others who ran with me are about to, so our local seems to be bereft of leadership. Don’t know how deep the corruption is. On one hand I’m enjoying my retirement and don’t miss the seventy-hour weeks I put in when I was an officer, and on the other hand I spent over twenty years fighting the good fight for my brothers and sisters.
Corruption vs. Being born into the power
and to think I thought I couldn’t dislike Blago any more than I already did. He makes me go to new levels of loathing I didn’t think a Democrat could go to. There is a reason Blago has a lower popularity rating than Bush.
Serbia has suffered enough without this jagoff making things even worse. Jeez!
Pax
I decided to actually peek and see what the Serbian media had to say about this whole thing.
There’s nothing new about the arrest but there is an interesting tidbit which I had not known – Blagojovic was one of the people who went with Jesse Jackson (aka Desij Dekson in Serbian spelling hehe) back in 1992 to secure the release of American POWs during the war on Serbia.
That made sense as obviously Blagojovic spoke Serbian. But what makes this doubly interesting was some people were saying Jesse Jackson JUNIOR might’ve been a candidate for Obama’s seat.
Interesting stuff.
Pax
Always good to see you up and about.
Here’s a Chicago politician who thought he was invincible and untouchable. Blago’s either the most stupid politician in years, or he thinks he has something on Obama.
Coin flip as to which it is.
“Is this a joke?”
He had protection. Fitzgerald was busy chasing his tail for three years and digging up small potatoes and then this falls into his lap? Right.
Axelrod just forgets shit and Rahm wasn’t hired for brass knuckled political work.
The shadow White House pulled the rug out from under Blagojevich.
He was jerking them around on selecting a Senate replacement and got a 2×4 upside the head. It’s Obama to a tee. Nothing personal, strictly business.
Except that presumes Obama already controls the federal judiciary. Not likely.
Do you really think that they would ignore a phone call from the President-elect?
Do you think Obama is as stupid os Blagojevich?
HELL no!!!
No phone calls.
Rahm Emmanuel taps the orders out out in on his limo window in Morse code to someone at a stoplight.
In Hebrew.
While wearing a Bill Clinton mask.
Bet on it.
AG