Blago's Dog and Pony Presser
Okay EW is tied up and will be along in a bit, but Rod Blagojevich just had a fascinating press conference. Like a demented king (there is that Elvis parallel again) holding forth in his court. Probably not for long, but the guy knows how to play a room, you have to give him that.
Blago rambled around about how he has brought healthcare to the poor, which he actually did do, but of course it was how he did it that is the problem. The biggest LEGAL issue they’ve got on him for is that he pushed through the Family Care Program in Illinois. Doing so was completely illegal (the Legislature had said no once via a vote, and then once again via a separate modality). It was a way to get healthcare to those in the 400% poverty level; a really laudable policy if you like people, but really horrible legally.
As many of you have seen, I, in the long run, care very much about the process of law, and irrespective of the good motives, that process must be followed. He didn’t.
My take, Blago is on drugs, and damn good ones too. Jeebus, he was even quoting Alfred Lord Tennyson at one point. If not drugs, he is completely loopy. One of his former aides thinks that is the case. Josh Marshall agrees.
Discuss.
Update, from ew: Here’s what I think he’s doing. He is going to the voters over the head of the lege, exacting a cost for what they’re doing by painting himself as the champion of the people and the lege as just selfish politicians who want benefits they won’t give to taxpayers. He’s also taking a few specific counts and flipping them–concentrating on his goals, rather than his illegal means to get them done. From his presser:
The causes of the impeachment are because I’ve done things to fight for families that are with me here today.
bmaz mentioned the FamilyCare program above. From the Impeachment Report, starting on page 29.
The evidence showed that the Governor proceeded with the expansion of a program known as "FamilyCare" over the objection of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules ("JGAR"), despite the fact that, under state law, JCAR’s objection barred the Governor from doing so. The issue presented herein is not the merit of expanded health care coverage, but rather the authority of the Governor to ignore state law and the legislature, and impose an epansion of a program on the citizens of this State unilaterally, without legislative approval and without money appropriated for that purpose.
Blago, of course, is trying to make the issue the merit of expanded health care. Expect Blago to repeatedly bring up examples of the benefits of this program, and ignore the illegal means he used to put through the program. It’ll be particularly timely, because part of what Blago did was sustain SCHIP in IL, despite the Federal failure to extend SCHIP. So it’ll be timely.
Also note that he attributes his I-SaveRx Program (described starting on page 40) to Rahm Emanuel. If you’ve got any other doubts he’s trying to embarrass Rahm–and through him, Obama–this should end those doubts.
He may be crazy, but it’s a fairly smart strategy.
Bmaz “As many as you have seen, I in the long run, care very much about the process of law irrespective of the good motives, that process must be followed”
It’s true Bmaz you do seem committed to the “rule of law”, as well as many of the other folks here at FDL. Just too damn bad that so many in the Bush adinistration operate outside of the law and our Congress and DOJ do not seem to give a flying bleep.
I’ll tell you from what I have seen in the health care world for our seniors it is tough to argue with Blago for attempting to help poor folks access health care by what ever means. I could write a book after what I have seen the last year dealing with my father moving in one hospital to a nursing facility (Heartland in Kettering Ohio an excellent facility) to an Assisted living facility (Gables /Singing Woods in Dayton OHio excellent, now to Maria Josephs nursing facility in Dayton OHio (boo, Boo, boo, allow older folks to sit around in shitty diapers and most of the folks who work here are too over weight to help others let alone carry their own weight). To think that many of these facilities get around 6000.00 dollars per month either from private insurance companies,(my pops) Medicare or Medicaid. (lots of pathetic care going on in some of these places) Great care in others. What a rat’s maze for our seniors
Leen,
It’s a misdirect. Blags is taking credit for a federally funded program. KidsCare isn’t unique to Illinois. He raised the income threshold a bit, in conjunction with legislators. Most Dem governors would have done something similar.
You don’t get to sell a Senate seat in return for a multi-million appointment for yourself and your wife to Foundation positions just because you once signed a law that most people in your position would have signed. That’s not the way rule of law works.
Do a diary for $6,000 a month you should get much better.
Blago reminded me of a relative who has bipolar disorder in one of her most manic periods. I’ve never heard anyone else talk like that. After watching him I wondered to myself, “Is he insane?” then clicked on TPM and saw that Josh had already declared it.
How the hell did he pull it off in Illinois? I mean getting elected
His cognition is impaired.
This is one for the neurologists and the psychs. But as in so many other cases, the legal system will end up dealing with it.
So what happens when the law is being ‘implemented’ by someone who’s nuts?
A question that resonates with so much we’ve seen the past 8 years…
Came after a jailed Rethug governor. It probably wasn’t too hard to do.
After living in MA and seeing 3 rethug governors in a row elected, in liberal MA, anything is possible.
I’m from Mass .it ain’t the liberal place people think it is.
In central Mass I saw more Mc Insane signs in front yards than Obamas
His father in law Alderman Mel has a political Machine to rival Mayor Daley’s. But after the election the Alderman and the Son in law had a falling out.
Seriously, read the whole Sun Times piece.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/m…..09.article
He’s quite obviously out of his mind. I’m just surprised he appointed Burris to the Senate seat and not himself.
Great question. Maybe he blathered his way into the voters’ hearts. I just read the article bmaz linked to re: Blago’s former aide. Incredible.
Hmmmmmm….where have we seen that technique before?
Oh, yeah, wailin’ palin. Two raving idjits in one week; the media is falling (you can supply a more gross term here, should you choose) all over itself in anticipation and joy.
yup, batshit insane, but playing a great hand of poker for now.
A bipolar person in a manic phase can be very productive. Jus’ sayin’.
Churchill was manic and productive, but he never lost his moral compass.
In keeping with your “bring it on bubba” comment in the other thread, I just want to point out that you seem to have been completely oblivious to the Amar/Chafetz dissent and its compelling argument that Powell McCormack doesn’t apply.
And I want to point out again that no one said your respect for the law was newfound. Either you misread a statement that didnt’ apply to you individually, or you were taking the petty tack of feigning offense for rhetorical purposes.
At any rate, when you say “bring it on” before actually looking around to see whether your opponent is armed, you wind up looking like George Bush.
Now go familiarize yourself with Amar and Chafetz, and then come back like a good little scholar and deal with the strong legal arguments that the Senate CAN judge the validity of an appointment made under suspicious circumstances, rather than just wishing those arguments away with a fairy wand.
(wanders off away muttering: “bring it on” … sheesh … Chucklehead!)
Blago will put the prosecutor on trial in the court of public opinion. Blago will argue that providing healthcare to the poor put him on the GOP’s hit list.
Blago will note that Fitz did not get a conviction in the Valerie Palme case. And as everyone here knows only the WH and CIA knew that Valerie was a spy so how did Fitz lose?
How many Dem pols have gone to jail thanks to the Bush Justice Dept? How many went there on shaky evidence?
Blago will argue that we can’t trust the system.
Will Blago going free be the whirlwind that years of DOJ corruption have sown?
Don’t like the guy, hope he resigns, etc — however, I thought his comments were hitting the mark for were low-information voters in the state of Illinois rather than a guy with a PhD from Princeton writing blog in NYC.
The saga will continue, seat will stay vacant:
Meanwhile, Blagojevich was also seeking bribes as the price of admission for Hospital administrators looking to build or expand. Those who paid had to find that money somewhere, and no doubt some of it came directly from charity care. Other hospitals chose not to offer the bribes through Blags intermediaries (who are already in prison, by the way), so expansions were canceled or postponed, which also raises the cost of health care.
The guy is just a thug. Even the good things he did were done only to put himself in a position to reap vast personal gain. Don’t shed a tear for him. We had an honest Democrat who he beat, a man who turned around the city school system and threw the crooks out. He beat him in part by keeping Burris in the race to siphon off a sufficient number of votes from blacks who otherwise tended to support the CPS chief.
You have to remember that in the early 90’s, cities were widely believed to be untenable, dying ratholes, and Chicago’s schools were item 1 in that case. Now, Arnie Duncan is heading to the cabinet after building on the success of Vallas, the man Burris and Blags tag-teamed.
I think there are few greater heroes in this country than Vallas and Bill Bratton. One has put three school districts on the road to country, and the other oversaw tactics that revolutionized crime-fighting and brought the murder rate back to 1950’s levels. These two men saved our cities, treated some of the key wounds of race-hatred (since the dereliction of white city bureaucrats had been a hallmark of the breakdowns in cities in the 70’s that led to the pathologies of the 80’s).
We haven’t overcome these problems yet, but Vallas and Bratton showed we could still fight them, and that government was part of the solution. Against that backdrop, Blagojevich raised some $10 million mostly from state vendors who feared a Vallas administration would award contracts honestly. The sorry result is playing out in legislative committees today.
Wow, is that interesting.
I’d encourage you to put the info in your comment into an Oxdown Diary.
Adding in the point that Stout donated the money for both Dem candidates, and you begin to see an elction strategy that worked.
Maybe. All that glitters is not gold.
I hope he is crazy like a fox, hasn’t made any money, and is about to name a whole bunch of names. I keep hoping for some tic to be ready to come out and tell it like it really is.
Blag may just have to. The fun may have not yet begun.
>I hope he is crazy like a fox, hasn’t made any money, and is about to name a whole bunch of names. I keep hoping for some tic to be ready to come out and tell it like it really is.
Blag may just have to. The fun may have not yet begun.
He’s certainly made money. His wife created a wildly lucrative real estate career out of thin air by selling properties to and for state vendors who knew their contracts depended on going through her. You can only look at her client list in awe and wonder.
But I think you’ve hit on an important point. Blags will start naming names. The question is when and to whom. My bet is that he ends up giving the US Attorney a lot of interesting stuff come sentencing time.
Huh. Now here’s a coincidence: (Chicago) Real estate power broker dead of apparent suicide
And in other news, just to show how costly this whole Blago mess is for the larger tasks that need to be accomplished, it’s perhaps worth noting two little data points also happening today:
1. Robert Rubin, whose CITI ‘lost’ $20 billion in 2008 (but received $45 b-b-billion from TARP) has handed in his resignation to CITI effective this spring. BTW, he made $119 million since 1999 according to MarketWatch.
2. And speaking of TARP – on the AutoBailout-What’s-Cerberus-Up-To-Today update:
Perhaps Cerberus and the TARP recipients should be sending bouquets to Blago for is success in keeping the public and media distracted? And they should toss in extra roses for keeping the Senate and Harry Reid distracted, as well.
“this is why they are impeaching me”
he then went into his ramble about the things he’s proud of instead of the reason he is being impeached, his illegal activity
interesting there was no presser by a senator to disabuse anyone believing blago’s show
Will this be decided by a jury trial? Blago has healthcare if your poor, old, have kids or relatives/friends benefiting from Blago’s program you might feel like voting him not guilty.
If you are African American well hearing that Senator Harry Reid did not want anybody African American to get Obama’s seat but Blago stood up to him and gave the seat to Burris might sway some votes.
Alderman Mel does still have a political Machine I think its Polish and Slavic voters Chicago is still very ethnic and having one of your own in charge is considered a good thing.
I think Blago will try for jury nulification.
>Alderman Mel does still have a political Machine I think its Polish and Slavic voters Chicago is still very ethnic and having one of your own in charge is considered a good thing.
Mell HATES his Blagojevich. They haven’t spoken in years, and they have to make special accommodations for him to see the grandkids so that the two don’t come in contact with each other.
I said they had a falling out but his daughter is still married to the guy so maybe strings might still get pulled.
Blago had about a 10% approval rating in the state even before he was arrested so the idea that he can go over the heads of the legislators and make his case to the people of Illinois is laughable. The people of Illinois want him gone yesterday.
I would still like to see the Burris nomination drawn out long enough for the state Senate to remove Blagojevich. This would allow Quinn to name somebody else and for the Burris nomination to be mooted.
Chicago Suntimes or Chicago Tribune poll does it matter they ae both GOP Papers.
The Trib has a long record of accusing the Daley family father and son of corruption but never getting a conviction. Why Daley provided for Illinois. Blago is down in the polls now maybe not as much as reported.
But will he be a few months from now?
Those are the two major papers in the state. But I would love to know where anyone sees a groundswell of support for Blagojevich. There is none downstate or in Chicagoland. There might be some among some African Americans who would like to see an African American in the post but even there I don’t know that support for Burris translates into support for Blago.
There is no support yet the media tide against him just started and is feeding on the nobody wants a dark cloud to wreck Obama’s big day.
Normally only Us political junkies and residents of Illinois would care.
But Blago can put the DOJ on trial for going after Dems.
Blago can claim Fitz tanked the Valerie Palme investigation. Blago can say I was impeached for giving people healthcare by the very people who voted to approve my plan?
Blago can say that Harry Reid wanted to give Obama’s seat to a person who never won an election because none of the African Americans in Illinois could hold the seat.
Blago has cards to play is all I’m saying will he play them? Well he appointed Burris didn’t he?
Can he beat Fitz on the law no, hence Jury nulification.
Can Blago out play Harry Reid yes Harry will Fold as soon as he gets his cards.
Blago will likely beat Harry Reid. I don’t think he will beat Fitz but still stranger things have happened in Illinois trials.
Blago has no credibility so it is difficult to see whom he could convince at this point.
Public opinion is fluid not static I’m saying he can change public opinion, He has the issues he has the courage to play his cards and Harry Reid does not.
Talking about committing a crime is not the same as actually committing a crime.
I assume Fits has something else?
“I assume Fits has something else?”
Oh yeah – like so much evidence coming in the door it’s causing a traffic jam.
It doesn’t really matter what Fitz has since the action is now in the state Senate in Springfield. It will be politicians not lawyers who will try and convict Blagojevich in the impeachment proceedings and there is no indication that they won’t. What happens with Fitzgerald is down the road. And once Blago is no longer Governor his megaphone for the jury nullification you think he is going for will get a lot smaller.
So jury nullification is going to go nowhere with the pols. And when Fitzgerald moves sometime down the road in March with a formal charge and a trial maybe later this year or even next year, jury nullification is going to be a lot harder.
Alternative viewpoint, I guess: I watched the first few minutes of the speech, and I don’t think he comes off as crazy at all. I haven’t followed his career terribly closely over the years, to be honest. I knew he was crooked, but I didn’t know the details. Then Fitz managed to get him on tape trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat, and I knew his goose was cooked–he’s going to jail for his corruption.
And so the Illinois House impeaches him for… something to do with children’s health care? Huh? Yes, I know they got Al Capone for tax evasion, but come on. You’ve got him on tape trying to sell a Senate seat. It’s clear cut. It’s an open-and-shut impeachment case. Why the hell bring children’s health care into it? Better yet, why bring it up NOW, as opposed to when it happened? I thought Blago played his cards pretty well today. I don’t think he looks crazy; I think the Illinois House looks stupid.
Fitzgerald would not make the tapes available to the committee due to his own ongoing investigation. He asked them to forego looking into this issue and they agreed. So they focused on other instances of his corruption and/or unfitness. Still Blago’s attempt to sell Obama’s Senate seat overshadows what is going on in Springfield. The impeachment would not have happened without it. And things would not have gone so fast if Blago had not nominated Burris to the seat.
One can only imagine where those Blago/Rahm/others conference call tapes would end up in the data mining world. What key words would have started to alarm the system “fuck this and fuck them”. aye yi yi.
48 Lab Dancer “There’s a certain meth in this madness”
Maybe that explains things…Blago is on meth
Yeah, I’m no clinician (thank God).
It’s possible his thought process is this unstable, but I’m really with Josh Marshall on that whole, “What is this guy on?” question. Last week at one point, I wondered whether (like GWBush) he’s alcoholic. Or whether substances are involved, even legal meds that he’s not taking on a predictable basis.
Something’s awry.
But as FormerFed pointed out last week, there are much larger issues..
Problem is, if the people making decisions have zero credibility, then things fall apart.
As we’ve seen.
They impeached him for children’s healthcare? Are they trying to turn him into a Martyer?
Is that the headline that the GOP wants to see? Blago taken down because he wanted to help kids so he broke some silly government rules.
Isn’t government rules stopping people from acting to solve problems Reagen’s line?
This will play well in the Burbs around Chicago they love Reagen and deregulation.
I count another group who might vote for jury nulification.
Rod Blagojevich is a cheap hustler whose only interest is in himself. He is loathed by both parties and has an approval rating lower than George W. Bush. I believe it’s in the 8% range.
He was elected, in large measure, as a response to the utter corruption of the Illinois Republican Party. (Our last GOP governor, George Ryan, is serving 6 1/2 years in the federal pokey for corruption.) Every single Republican officeholder was turned out in the election that put Mod Rod in the governor’s office. He was reelected when the GOP chose to run a woman who had served in the Ryan administration against him.
He has no constituency. Business and civic leaders look at him as a joke. He’s run the state into the ground. He loves unfunded mandates. Last year, when the Chicago Transit Authority was begging for money to keep operating, he insisted they give free rides to senior citizens in exchange for the funds, which was a $38 million hit to the system. Many seniors, who already were given significant discounts on the CTA, were quoted as saying they really didn’t need a free pass, but hey, if you’re handing them out.
Just read the transcripts. The guy was playing hardball with a children’s hospital because the CEO wouldn’t pony up the kind of money Mod Rod thought he should to the gov’s campaign coffers. He’s a punk. A bastard. An a-hole. And he will richly deserve the punishment that looms in the future.
This has been business as usual in Illinois since Mike Royko wrote at the Trib. This City ain’t ready for reform.
Gov Ryan was not impeached and his bribe taking resulted in a white preacher losing his wife and several kids in a car accident with an immigrant who bought a trucker’s license.
But Blago is help to a higher standard than that when he didn’t kill nobody?
FrankProbst and ThingsComeUndone:
FYI, Most of the people voting for impeachment also voted FOR KidsCare.
Great Catch Should they be impeached Blago will have a public relations win with that.
Gov Ryan was not impeached and his bribe taking resulted in a white preacher losing his wife and several kids in a car accident with an immigrant who bought a trucker’s license.
But Blago is help to a higher standard than that when he didn’t kill nobody?
Governor Ryan was beaten before it was clear to everyone that he was guilty. If he’d been on tape, he wouldn’t have lasted four years. And extorting hospitals DOES kill people. We just don’t know which ones would have survived if the hospital had $100,000 more resources because they didn’t have to pay Blags bagmen.
It’s much too cynical to say “everyone in Chicago does it this way.” That’s bs. Quinn doesn’t. He’s not my first choice for Governor, but he’s not a political extortionist. Quigley doesn’t. There are loads of people trying to keep their hands clean or making occasional mild compromises to get things done that they believe in. There are many other crooks, but that’s no defense for Blagojevich.
No the Chicago Tribune was covering the story maybe people didn’t care.
So what if I broke the law I did it to help people!!
There are some people that think our laws are only suggestions of how things should be done.
Yeah Republicans
Right populism, left populism, they all try this gambit — talk over the heads of the legislators and the courts and the media in order to connect with “the people.” It’s distressing to see how often that works in some places, although it’s good to hear people here saying that it’s not going to work in this case.
I found that a disturbing performance, but I’m a slow talker, and he sure isn’t. It was romantic and narcissistic and condescending, and I hope people realize the inherent dangers of that mode in public life. Sheesh: Kipling last time, Tennyson this time — I don’t think that means he’s a Victorian, just that he’s a sentimentalist with delusions of grandeur. We should send him some Matthew Arnold.
That hospital was in the Burbs right? It was a money maker the Burbs have plenty of hospitals because they have cash. I never waited long when I was sick in the emergency room in the burbs.
However Chicago in the poor areas is under served by hospitals watch the tv show “ER” and look at the waiting room.
Nobody would have died if the burbs didn’t get another hospital heck given the downturn in the economy the area might lose a hospital because of to few customers willing or able to pay.
But people do die because the poor areas of Chicago are underserved by hospitals.
Blago’s healthcare plan help’s hospitals in poor areas survive. cancel Blago’s plan (which looks likely now since thats why he was impeached ) and in this economy how many hospitals serving the poor in Chicago and Downstate go under?
Blago is guilty of making a fat cat for profit hospital pay him for the privilege of getting rich serving the rich burbs.
Now if Blago wanted a bite from a hospital that wanted to serve Downstate or in Chicago that would be wrong.
He’s robbing from the rich on healthcare/hospitals and with his healthcare plan giving to the poor.
Still selling the Senate Seat thats going to far.
But to impeach Blago for his healthcare plan? Nope thats overreach.
A good rip on Blago…but his appointing an unprincipled liar like Burris, for NO other reason than to embarrass the Senate dems, is just good quality “rule of law”…
My friends, this is something really special here; a classic; something that, if I had the Yiddish, & this were the Catskills, would form the centerpiece of an stand-up act of legendary quality, on a par with the top monologues of Myron Cohen.
This, very clearly, is no ordinary, garden variety corrupt pol we have here. I’m not exactly sure what genus of corrupt pol he is, but whatever it is, it’s proof that you don’t have to a Republican, or even a female, to be at one with Sarah Palim.
This could explain the Burris choice. Can’t you see the Ozymandian epitaph? Here Lies – Quite a Goy
And we, we lucky few, in the entire arc of time, in the brief, whacky history of our species, we are favored. So let it all in – & prepare to be amazed: watch; learn; and marvel at a true master of his craft.
MacBlago on jury pools, the simultaneous working, solidification & expansion of – The Plan:
Against a backdrop brimming with disabled adults, injured youths, crippled infants & crying babies, some with canes, some in wheel chairs, and predominant among them, African American faces – to one of whom before speaking he pauses to greet & to ask after his well-being- whereupon he turns back to the podium to ‘Face the Press’, and proceeds to provide the public with a comprehensive, itemized response – – [non sequitur] point by [non sequitur] point – – to his being impeached by a vote in the state house recorded as 114-1 [with the “1″ having proved by admission beyond any doubt his vote to have been founded on a critical misconception about his official responsibilities], based on 69 pages detailing a record of corrupt official practices so chronic, so systematic, so reflexive, so … AUTONOMIC as to make Tammany Hall reel in envy.
MacBlago on press relations, the manipulation of:
The Set Up: on being interrupted mid-aria by a member of the working press: “I’ll be happy to talk with you”, implying: Later dude – lemme get thru my schpiel first.
The Rim-shot: After taking care to invoke the memory of his parents, pause only long enough to ensure his having thrown Alfred Lord Tennyson cleanly under the L, he utters a clear & forceful: “Thank you”, and promptly proceeds to walk: stage right, off the podium, off the stage, off camera, out of the room, out the door, out of the premises, into the sidestreet, into the waiting limo, & speed away from the vicinity … having successfully taken on & skillfully negotiated the pitfalls in exactly zero questions.
Ms E Wheel: “He may be crazy, but it’s a fairly smart strategy”
Suggested alternative: There’s a certain meth in this madness.
You don’t have to like Blago but just because you don’t like him you should not dismiss him.
Blago isn’t Bush he is shows us how a worthy villain would act.
Bush is a cartoon villain.
Which makes MacBlago not which: a cartoon, or a villain?
Have to say: BOTH of ‘em come across pretty darned cartoonish – & if you’re saying MacBlago’s not a villain, then you’re not only going to have convince the me, and at least 114 Illinois state house members, and some percent up to 92 of the poll-able residents of Illinois, but also the US attorney for the SD of Illinois, one P. Fitzgerald.
Good luck.
Just saw the tape on Keith. Plenty of gall… what on earth does he think is the endgame here?
FWIW, he may be ‘crazy like a fox,’ but the whole thing strikes me as ultimately tragic.
However, it is also interesting to me that Blago is kind of resonant of GWBush; that’s part of what keeps this item on my radar. Egotistical, envious, and not in Obama’s league, and he’ll never, ever forgive them for being smarter and more adept.
Scary stuff.