Why Blagojevich ought to be celebrating
As the sun ascends over Chicago's partly alabaster skyline, it is the dawn of Rod Blagojevich's favorite day. Despite his awakening as a convicted bribemaster, Mr. Blagojevich ought to be celebrating.
Granted, B-Rod might feel more festive on Elvis' birthday, but he has always had a soft spot in his heart for Independence Day, the Fourth of July.
Ten years ago today, on the cusp of his first run for Illinois governor, Blagojevich was on the parade circuit, crisscrossing Main Streets from the lakefront to the Southwestern suburbs. For many people who lined the parade routes, it was their first look at the man who would be governor. He seemed like a nice young man, with well-combed hair, a fast quip and a firm handshake.
On that day, few probably could pronounce his name, but that too would change. It was, after all, 2001 B.C. (Before Corruption)
Blagojevich had $3 million in his campaign fund. He was off and running.
For Blagojevich, like most politicians, Fourth of July parades are command performances. They don't realize that most of us see them as spoilers of otherwise pleasant events. It is uncomfortable to see them up close and personal on family days, working the crowds in their once-a-year red, white and blue outfits.
How many times during parade appearances, Independence Day cookouts, military and political celebrations the past decade, do you suppose Rod Blagojevich heard the song “America the Beautiful?” Maybe he even mouthed the words to it, fantasizing he was in a black leather waistcoat with his shirt popped around his neck.
“God mend thine every flaw ... Confirm thy soul in self-control ... Thy liberty in law!”
Do you think when those lyrics floated between the pompadour B-Rod ever winced?
As the song proclaims “God shed his grace on thee, till selfish gain no longer stain, the banner of the free!” Blagojevich, and Gov. George Ryan before him, proves we're still not there yet.
In July, 2002, Republican candidate for governor Jim Ryan said, “Rod Blagojevich is programmed like a robot, and the facts don't get in the way of what he says. He says that I nitpick. I say he is lying.”
Blagojevich would go on to be elected governor twice by a majority of Illinois voters.
Ryan's liar accusation of 2002 would simmer until 2010, when Blagojevich was convicted of lying to federal agents — a precursor to the larger corruption conviction of last week.
It was fitting that Blagojevich was convicted first of being a liar because that really was the foundation of all his problems. Without lying to his staff, his aides, his opponents, the voters and himself, there could be no shakedowns, no bribes, no greasy palms, no corruption.
At the height of Blago's conniving, the Fourth of July was as good a day as any for him to plot from behind the hair swirl, focusing those beady eyes on whatever was the scheme du jour. On July 4, 2008, Rod invited over his brother and pressed him to run the “Friends of Blagojevich” campaign fund — a move that was the beginning of the end for the secret project that would yield a windfall of wealth once he left office.
The sordid details all played out in both of Blagojevich's trials. On such a day of celebration, there is no need to recite them and cloud the sight of the real fireworks.
So why should Rod Blagojevich be celebrating today, as he faces years in federal prison?
Two reasons. First, he got to experience firsthand one of America's greatest attributes: the trial by jury. It was one of the hard-fought freedoms for which all of us celebrate today.
Thomas Jefferson said: “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”
Finally, Blagojevich should rejoice for American independence today because, without it, we might still be living under English rule. At the time we broke away from Britain, one of the reasons was the brutally unfair way the English treated felons, regardless of their crime.
The kind of felon that Rod Blagojevich is.
Back then, Blago would have simply been executed.
Ÿ Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by email at chuckgoudie@gmail.com and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie