Blago the 'tap' of the iceberg
Call it pay to play or quid pro quo, that's how everybody does it here
Gov. Blagojevich almost won me over.
He didn’t deal with the specifics of the criminal complaint that brought him to the floor of the Illinois Senate pleading for his job.
But he did the one thing that needed to be done if Illinois is ever to rid itself of the pay-to-play mentality.
Blagojevich looked the members of the legislative body in the eye and dared them to put themselves in his predicament.
If they are honest, just about everyone of them would have to admit that they would likely have their own legal troubles if the feds had tapped their phones.
I say that not because I believe that Illinois politicians are any more corrupt than any other politicians.
I say that because I believe that the political system in Illinois is corrupt at its core.
Most politicians in this state aren’t into “something-for-nothing,” even if the something isn’t anything more than front row tickets at an entertainment venue.
Whether you call it pay-to-play, quid pro quo or a shakedown, that’s the way business is done in Illinois.
Business folks know it. Contractors know it. Lobbyists know it. Job-seekers know it. Even the do-gooders who board buses for Springfield to lobby against guns and for schools know it.
Blagojevich knows that the very senators who acted as though they were shocked by taped conversations revealed during the trial have likely danced to the tune of pay-to-play, and he tried desperately to get their empathy.
“If someone said the things they said about me, and you know you didn’t do it, and it’s been a rush to judgment, an evisceration of the presumption of innocence,” Blagojevich pleaded. “Imagine how you would approach this. Think about if you knew you were right and you were innocent and you didn’t do anything wrong.”
Obviously, Blagojevich isn’t being booted out of office because he went around the Illinois General Assembly to increase health care, or because he purchased flu vaccine without legislative approval.
So Blagojevich’s defense that he wasn’t able to call witnesses was another attempt to appeal to his colleague’s sense of fairness.
The governor was thrown out of office because like a speeder, he got caught while other speeders flew past.
Blagojevich will pay the fine.
But a lot of members of the Illinois General Assembly share the blame.