Lawbreakers can be compelling and personable. Some lawbreakers are people who, given different circumstances, may have been or later became successful in legitimate endeavor. Others are compelling for their commitment to the nonviolent assurance of equitable treatment of all of God's children, surrendering to the authority of an unjust statute as method of revealing its lack of moral integrity.
Most lawbreakers, however, are people who just got greedy and finally got caught.
The former group runs the gamut. Junior Johnson was a moonshiner who found himself paying a debt to society to become one of the most repected figures in American motorsports. Martin Luther King, Junior is now revered for his work bringing equality to a system which held African-Americans accountable without offering access to the systems that could propel a population to great heights. Not all lawbreakers are crooks.
Rod Blagojevich is someone who got greedy and finally got caught.
One does not question Blagojevich's integrity: that would imply that he had some type of integrity.
He started out by calling himself a reformer. Reformer is one of those words which should be included in a future explaination of what things really mean. In Blagojevich's case, Reform meant that the bully pulpit of the Illinois Governor could be leveraged to the highest bidder, as opposed to giving preference to ideology before taking bids.
On at least three occasions the Illinois legislature attempted to rescind a split speed limit of 55 miles per hour for large vehicles on rural expressways. It is a law held in wide disregard by Illinois law enforcement and most of the population outside of Chicago. In Chicago, 55 miles per hour is a fantasy, the two speeds there being damn slow and stop. Robbin' Rod spoke as an "advocate of public safety."
And Hitler wanted to "help the Jewish people." It is appropriate to question how much money from trucking companies, insurance companies, railroads, and authoritarian "safety" groups like RoadSafe America went into Blagojevich's pocket.
If someone were genuinely interested in trucking safety, one may wish to take steps against archaic laws allowing drivers to be paid by the mile as opposed to the hour. One may wish to offer a statewide moratorium on companies not paying truckers overtime. The state could find ways to sanction communities that impede the construction of rest and service facilities dedicated to commercial drivers. Holding companies to a higher standard of accountability beyond that of provable gross negligence could be a good place to start, too.
It could begin with offering something along the lines of the flat-rate book successfully used by people in other trades for at least fifty years.
Blagojevich holds degrees from several prestigious institutions including Northwestern and Pepperdine. The implicit understanding is that the man knows how to read. It is not as if he attended a Community College located in the abandoned Oasis of an unrealized Tollway project. (Turnpike State! On Atlanta's 420 Inner Belt! Go Roadkills Go!)
One is not wholly insensitive to some of the circumstances in the Governor's life which may have altered his outlook. When the Condo board in Oprah Winfrey's Lake Shore Drive building refused his application, it had to hurt. The clause used was the same one they used on Steadman Graham, and rather insulting in its wording.
It is unfair to blame the Governor for the wanton use of force by state law enforcement agencies since the Blues Brothers' era. At that time, Blagojevich was an apprentice crook in college. Questions remain about the uncredited writing of the script for Blues Brothers 2000, a veritable train wreck of a film.
There has been no truth to the rumor that Governor Blagojevich sold his mother to a white slavery ring in Boy's Town, Mexico.
Investigations with regard to several female cousins, however, continue.
While significant mention was made about President-elect Obama's relationship with Tony Rezko, let it be said that the most fastidious cultivator of hogs will get splashed when a boar goes batty in the slop. Blagojevich dived in and joined the party. That relationship was so strong, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevy could have been enlisted to perform a civil union.
Political observers throughout the state of Illinois have suggested that Governor Blagojevich's remarkable pompadour is a toupee. That is untrue. There are some things that a wig shop just will not do.
Blagojevich has feuded with over twelve million residents of the state of Illinois, yet was under the illusion that he could win a third term. Talk about living in a river in Egypt. In a poll taken by the Rantoul Morning Spud, of 983 registered voters in Central Illinois, Blagojevich lost to a fictitious Republican candidate, "Ayatollah Fidel Adolf Stalin," an undocumented immigrant and Chicago Cubs fan, 87% to 2%.
95% of the undecided respondents cited the Republican's support for the Cubs as the deal-breaker.
When one speaks of abused political mechanisms, the state of Illinois has been identified regularly as a place of remarkably unethical behavior. The Abraham Lincolns, Adlai Stevensons and even Barack Obama have been overshadowed by Richard Daley, Dan Rostenkowski and George Ryan.
Today we observe the dawn of a new class: a politician has finally been located who is too corrupt even for Illinois. Congratulations, Governor Blagojevich. You will not be forgotten soon.
No matter how much one wants to.
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