Charles Ellison
+ FollowTo the Blago End
It seems like a week of fallen, disgraced politicians.
First, it was Herman Cain with his inevitable, yet stubborn campaign suspension announcement replete with Pokemon references for the kids. And then there was the line-up of high profile and corrupt, yet charismatic politicians going to jail. First it was former Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson getting 7 years in prison for finding creative pay-to-play ways to enrich himself and now it’s former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich slapped with double the time of Jack Johnson for, pretty much, being a bit more flamboyant about the same thing.
Interesting similarities here: both men are Democrats … or were. Both were among the most powerful in their state, each seeking an elected path straight to Washington. Johnson had been mulling a U.S. Senate bid in Maryland, sources tell Politic365. Blagojevich thought he could do President, but apparently settled for attempting to sell the Senate seat of the current President. Both ran things in states notorious for their level of corruption and political boss-tripping, one on the East coast the other in the Midwest. The former state, however, likes to front as if it’s clean, perhaps out of awareness of its neighboring proximity to the nation’s capitol; the latter tends to wear it like a badge of pride in some instances.
In a stunning reversal of typical racial misfortunes, Johnson – the Black man – got half of the Blagojevich’s sentence, the White guy.
Prediction: still, the Black guy will be lucky if he or his wife (who may get a year in jail for flushing evidence down the toilet and stuffing the rest down her bra) get a book deal. Maybe some speaking on the Black church circuit, perhaps redemption heading up a community non-profit far away from Prince George’s County. But, the White guy – and you know how this ends up – will get a talk show fo sho; at the least, his family gets hooked up with a reality show, complete with scenes of visits to prison.
Johnson would only be so lucky. Networks like BET, who could be celebrating their disgraced Black politicians with a reality show or two, only appreciate over-paid and formerly convicted athletes who ran small-scale dog fighting rings. It’s a shame because we’d learn a lot more from a reality series on Marion Barry, Kwame Kilpatrick or Sharpe James.
Some news out of Illinois. Associated Press reports:
The Rod Blagojevich who once challenged a prosecutor to face him like a man, the glad-handing politician who took to celebrity TV shows to profess his innocence, was nowhere to be found Wednesday as he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption.
Frowning and pulling nervously at his tie, the disgraced former governor seemed like another person as he stepped up to address the sentencing judge. His bluster, once as conspicuous as his famously lavish head of dark hair, wiped out since his June convictions on charges that included attempting to sell President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.
Here are Windy City’s politicians casting stones. Chicago Sun Times reports:
From Rod Blagojevich’s former Republican rival to the Democrat who helped drive his impeachment, Illinois’ political elite pitied the ex-governor’s children Wednesday but agreed his stiff prison sentence was deserved.
“Justice was served by the sentence meted out by the judge today,” Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters. “It’s very regrettable what happened to Rod Blagojevich as governor. The jury spoke and so did the judge today. I think the people of Illinois . . . feel let down. I was his running mate, and I think he let me down like he let down the people of Illinois. When you betray a trust, that’s a serious crime, and I think the sentence magnifies how important it is not to have that ever happen again,” the governor said.
State GOP Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, who lost the 2006 election to Blagojevich, called the sentence right.
“I take no joy in seeing any father taken from his children and family for an extended period of time. And yet there is no question in my mind that it is the right decision given the extraordinary damage Blagojevich caused our state, and the importance of sending a clear and unmistakable message that corruption will not be tolerated in our government,” she said.
“Rod Blagojevich ran as a reformer and proved to be worse than anything that came before him,” she said.
Still, it’s not over as Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. has to worry about a prolonged investigation by the House Ethics Committee over Blagojevich’s mess. A Republican-led Ethics Committee will let this one stretch itself out into next year’s election, hoping to knock off a political enemy in 2012. Reports The Hill:
The House Ethics Committee announced Friday that it needs more time to complete its review of ethics charges stemming from allegations that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) acted improperly in seeking appointment to President Obama’s former Senate seat in 2009.
In a joint news release, Ethics Committee Chairman Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) and ranking member Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) said the panel would need more time to “gather additional information necessary to complete its review.”
Jackson is accused of offering former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) $1.5 million in campaign donations from supporters in exchange for appointment to Obama’s former seat. The committee had previously suspended its investigation at the request of federal prosecutors trying Blagojevich, who eventually was impeached and removed from office by the Illinois legislature.
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While Blago is a showman, by the time he gets out of jail everyone will have forgotten him — so probably no reality or talk show for him. He does have a better gubernatorial hairdoo than Rick Perry, though.
It's clear that Blago was sentenced for his combination of arrogance and plain stupidity, because in some ways the sentences should have been reversed. Blago schemed to shake people down for a Senate seat — Jack ("stuff the money in your panties") Johnson actually got money from developers and others in a variety of schemes, some say up to a total of $1 million. The difference is that Johnson pled guilty in the end and expressed remorse (though not full candor). Blago was dumb and defiant to the end, and it hurt him.