Refreshingly Corrupt

I have to admit it. The flagrant, idiotic arrogance with which Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich engaged in systematically corrupting his already blighted public office is, in a weird way, sort of refreshing. He brazenly discussed extortion and bribery on phones he knew were likely to be tapped. He threatened his opponents and sought openly to enrich himself and his family before even considering his constituents. And he made it so entertaining! Blagojevich's conversations sounded more like Tony Soprano than that other star of the wiretap, Richard Nixon. Rod the God even had the brass cojones to call the President-Elect of the United States a "motherfucker" , for refusing to participate in his evil scheme to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

So why, you ask, do I find this gubernatorial "crime spree" (in Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's words) a refreshing occurence? Well, quite frankly, it's kind of nice to see good old-fashioned dirty dealings back in political news. After eight years of Orwellian power grabs and constitutional subversions by Bush and pals; the increasingly horrific costs paid in civil liberties, American and Iraqi lives, the US' international reputation; financial and domestic stability; two terms of being lied to about everything from the origins of the 9/11 attack to the pretenses of the Iraq War to the goal of national unification... well, a scandal as clear-cut as this bumbling Mob goon of a governor, complete with an '80s bouffant and dollar signs for eyes, seems downright quaint. No wars were unjustly launched, habeus corpus was not suspended, nobody was tortured in a secret military prison, nobody died for what proved to be a false cause. The guy wanted money. Lots of money. And he was prepared to engage in any form of bribery or extortion necessary to get that money. Plain and simple. Far from engaging in a conspiratorial plan for Middle Eastern domination, this dude wasn't even coordinated enough to avoid a word-for-word exposure of his criminal plans to the FBI.

So, really, the Blagojevich corruption case is a throwback to the good old days of political scandal... days when cash was king, blatant power plays were the norm and elected officials were dumb enough to explain their nefarious plans on tape, like some sort of soon-to-be-foiled Bond villain. Thanks, Mr. Blagojevich, for reminding us what a scandal is really all about.