Gov. Rod Blagojevich seems to have directly bypassed traditional Illinois machine politics in managing his career. Instead , one might find a well-worn copy of George Washington Plunkitt’s 1905 Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics: “There's an honest graft, and I'm an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin': 'I seen my opportunities and I took 'em.'"
(For the record, Plunkitt did believe there was such a thing as "Dishonest Graft", according to Plunkitt, would be using influence to have a project built on land after the land had been purchased. In any case, he may not have objected to Blajo's practice of selling offices to the highest bidder, as this was a Tammany staple. However, if Blajo actually did read Plunkitt's treatise, it would be unlikely that he would have progressed as far as a passage decrying anything as "dishonest".)
Has the “liberal” media been engaged in an attempt at a massive cover-up of the messianic mess? Unlikely. It seems like they’ve been asking the “hard questions” and then jumping to answer for Obama, but that may be just because there isn’t anything traceably fungible between Rod’s and Barack’s camps. As this investigation had been going on for five years, which pre-dates Jack Ryan’s implosion and Obama’s cakewalk of a Senate election versus GOP heavyweight Alan Keyes, one can safely surmise that Obama was smart enough to stay away.
Additionally, had there been anything substantive and the Republicans gotten wind of it, one thinks that they would have been able to make charges of rank corruption stick; even they hadn’t been simultaneously so brazen and incompetent. In any case, the conservative media has been behaving in exemplary fashion since the election; most “serious” outlets (e.g., not including Limbaugh and Coulter) have essentially been saying the same thing: We Blew It. The realization has set in that they had their moment—28 years of it—and now its over. In terms of political capital, conservatism is certainly experiencing its own recession, and nobody is about to bail them out. Still, even while appearing to be duly chastened, conservatives on whole have been genuinely gracious.
Gary Hart owes Gov. Goniv a thank-you note for one-upping “follow me around; you’ll be very bored”. Hell, Blagojevich even makes Nixon look good; at least Tricky Dick didn’t tell anyone he’d been taping until he was forced to, and besides, JFK was actually the one who had installed the system in the first place.
But to dare the authorities to wiretap you? And after 9/11? The only explanation I can come up with is that Blajo was laying the groundwork for what might turn out to be a successful insanity defense.
Too bad Plunkitt isn't available to defend him.
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