The truth? He can't handle the truth
It's not as if he's lying -- to anybody other than himself
I've just replayed the videotape in its entirety to savor each word, but I still can't tell for sure whether what we witnessed Friday afternoon was Blago playing the Gipper, or Blago as Reagan playing the Gipper, or Blago playing Churchill -- or even Blago as the Angel of Darkness.
Any of them may have been the inspiration for the key dramatic line from Gov. Blagojevich's declaration of innocence: "I will fight. I will fight. I will fight until I take my last breath."
(AP)
Whatever the source, the campy result was definitely Blago being Blago.
This was only fitting, because you wouldn't want that national television audience to only think of our governor as that goofy-looking guy running around in his sweatsuit. He cleans up real nice.
What you saw, ladies and gentleman of America, was quintessential Blagojevich, right down to his recitation of a portion of Rudyard Kipling's "If."
Meet our governor, the idiot savant. He can memorize the poem, but probably doesn't understand its meaning.
The only thing missing was when Blagojevich said, "I have on my side the most powerful ally there is -- and it's the truth," he didn't add his usual postscript, which is: "And the truth will set you free."
For now, all that's setting Blagojevich free is a personal recognizance bond that required him to turn in his passport and any guns he might have in the home.
The truth? He hasn't come to grips with it yet.
I submit to you, though, that when Blagojevich says he's done nothing wrong, he absolutely believes that.
It's not as if he's lying -- to anybody other than himself.
Those who have watched him over the last few years know the governor is entirely capable of creating an alternate reality for himself, one in which everything is going to turn out right if he just keeps smiling and denying.
In that world, he didn't do anything wrong in seeking campaign donations as his reward for various official actions as governor because, as he always says, "We do things right."
Obviously, if you only do things right, you can never do anything wrong, even when you're breaking the law. Therefore, Blagojevich hasn't done anything wrong.
I suspect he sleeps the sleep of the innocent.
Of course, George Ryan didn't think he'd done anything wrong either. Now Ryan might be able to offer Blago some insights about the U.S. Bureau of Prison's policy on hair-care products, not that he uses them himself.
The governor says he is "dying" to answer the charges against him and to show us how innocent he is.
The suspense is killing us, too, but he's right about this much: We'll have to be patient.
If the day ever comes when Blagojevich accepts the truth about his corrupt administration, maybe somebody will read him the last two lines from the Kipling poem:
"Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!"