From NPR:
The Illinois Senate’s impeachment trial of Gov. Rod Blagojevich got under way on Monday, but one thing was missing: the defendant.
For Blagojevich, who could be removed from office for allegedly trying to shop President Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, the trial is a sham. Instead, he’s taken his message to the court of public opinion, making the rounds of television talk shows.
“I think the fix is in and … they’ve decided essentially to do a hanging without even a fair trial,” he told NBC’s Today show.
But Blagojevich has been able to take some solace from his predicament. He told the network that when he was arrested on federal corruption charges last month, he was comforted by thinking of other jailed leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi.
Original Gandhi image.
Original MLK image.
“I’m here in New York because I can’t get a fair hearing in Illinois, the state Senate in Illinois,” the Democratic governor said between TV appearances.
“I think he’s misreading the rules,” said Democrat John Cullerton, president of the Illinois Senate, who chaired the committee that drafted the rules for the impeachment trial.
…snip…
“It is not a criminal case. It’s not about his liberty; it’s about his job. And there are definitely different rules than a criminal trial,” Cullerton added.
Blagojevich, who was arrested in December and charged with what the U.S. attorney in Chicago calls a “political corruption crime spree,” has referred to Dec. 9 — the day FBI agents woke him and took him from his home in handcuffs — as his own Pearl Harbor Day. He also compared himself to the Jimmy Stewart character in the Frank Capra classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, saying he’s fighting against a “political-industrial complex.”
…snip…
In FBI wiretap transcripts, Blagojevich is allegedly heard talking about selling or trading the U.S. Senate appointment. In comments Monday, the governor said his words were taken “completely out of context.”
He maintained that the conversations were “part of a political process to leverage to be able to pass a public works program, expand health care and get a deal where we don’t raise taxes on people,” he said.
…snip…
The governor told ABC he had considered the possibility of nominating Oprah Winfrey to fill Obama’s seat.
…snip…
Blagojevich, 52, said he worried the appointment of Winfrey might come across as a gimmick and that the talk show host was unlikely to accept. In the end, Blagojevich appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the vacant seat.
…snip…
[Jeffrey Shaman, a constitutional law professor at DePaul University in Chicago] said there is a remedy for the governor: “If there is any unfairness here, instead of boycotting the procedure, the governor and his attorneys should go to the trial and they should, on a charge by charge basis, argue to the Senate that there is not sufficient evidence to convict on this particular charge.”
Instead, the governor will spend what may be one of his few remaining days in office making the rounds of TV studios in New York, trying to salvage what’s left of his flagging political career.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
This guy started off making you leftys look bad, then he made your messiah look bad, then he made dreamboat Rahm look bad….
Now…
he’s just making human beings look bad…
Lol; Can’t get enough of the blago books!
trm,
he started off making blago look bad, and he’s ending up making blago look bad. none of the dems are defending him. if he had been a rethug, the other rethugs would still be extolling his greatness and denying that he did anything wrong.
ram,
does that mean i can sell the books in your convenience store?
LOL, the poli elite leftist are scared to even mention his name… To be honest they are all dirtier than 10 pigs poohing on 5 pigs, but the aroma from the right is far less nauseating to me 🙂
I can’t wait for them to indict the lefts new Marxist G-D…. I think I’ve asked before but will any of you at least admit that your supporting big govt socialism?
i like socialism, euro-style. bite me buffoon.
thanks nonnie – geraldo was defending blago to glenn beck!!!!!! and the moment of zen on the daily show kicked ass!
sorry, trm, your buzzwords aren’t scaring anyone. 🙄
i just saw it, jenn. it was hilarious!
okay, I forgot your a callous and well traveled crew over here…… especially that unhinged Night Owl, sheesh 🙂
so Jenn, you won’t mind, oh say 50% of your hard earned money going down the street to that neighbor who doesn’t work, won’t work and yet continues to have babies? Or that illegal immigrant down the road?
I had a conversation with a leftist in the airport not long ago and we touched on a pretty good point we thought at least.
Most leftist are city dwellars, hence their groupthink… most of us knuckledraggers (your word) are country folk, accustomed to fending for ourselves and being left alone by government…
With that in mind, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to live otgether under the same government because half the country is always going to be pissed…
Thoughts?
Where’s Blago? In his own little world. The world of buffoonus dullardus; they come in a wide range of IQ, I see. But Blago the Buffoon, unlike the one who visits here, is about to get a rude awakening to the real world; impeached, disgraced, and politically ruined. And his little buffoon wife, too.
michael,
the sad thing is that, if blago is convicted, and i am not so sure he will be, he will probably go to one of those country club prisons for a couple of years, and when he comes out, he’ll have a book deal waiting for him. he’ll go on the lecture and talk show circuit and make a fortune.
trm,
stop the nonsense. the government has never been as intrusive as it was during the 8 miserable years of chimpy. the pendulum is swinging back. stop complaining.
I don’t see it nonnikins……
trm, why do you always single me out by name? 😕
You said: Most leftist are city dwellars, hence their groupthink… most of us knuckledraggers (your word) are country folk, accustomed to fending for ourselves and being left alone by government…
I’ve lived in cities, suburbs, and rural areas large and small (17 different places in my life!). I have lived way out in the country, more than halfway to nowhere, for 12 years now. I have always been surrounded by wonderful people no matter where I have been, with each area having its own quirks.
What I see here is widespread and abject poverty, with many members of the community using many “free” government services for years on end. You know, services like the ones that the YOYOs want to take away? Like welfare, food stamps, free clinics, WIC, subsidized phone service, rent/tax rebates, utility rebates, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SSI, disability benefits, etc.?
To give you an idea, in my son’s elementary school, 91% of the students participate in the free/reduced price school lunch program. Probably 98% qualify. If I drew a circle with a 50-mile radius around my house, it would be about the same everywhere.
However, some country-dwellers have their own “groupthink.” None of them admit to using any of these services (possibly as opposed to some city dwellers I’ve known who talk or even boast about it) because they are “too proud.” In other words, they are not too proud to accept the help, just too proud to admit they are!
As a matter of fact, they think they are somehow “different” from welfare families in the city because their skin is white and they (falsely) believe that welfare recipients in the city are mostly black. (The typical welfare recipient in my state has pretty much always been a newly-divorced white woman with two kids, according to the city’s main newspaper.)
So, of course my neighbors are afraid of so-called socialized medicine or anything else that they perceive will raise their taxes and “not benefit them.” They are barely surviving now! As a result, they continue to vote against their own best interest, based on that fear plus the hot button issues of God, guns, gays, and abortion.
And, trm, of course I mean that in the nicest way! 🙂
I just watched Blago on Rachel Maddow and boy did he put his foot in it. I really think he’ll be impeached and I’d be willing to bet he’ll go to trial and they’ll convict him. He said he wants all of the tapes played for context? When Rachel asked him repeatedly what context, he couldn’t answer.
I think he’s going down and I hope this wraps up soon so that we can get back to our socialist-leftist agenda.
well said, comrade nigh…..i mean, nightowl, my friend. besides all the rural dwellers who depend on welfare and other government services, what about all the corporate welfare? rethugs love to demonize people who are down on their luck, but they just love the giant corporations that rip those people off and then come to the government for handouts in the form of tax cuts (if and when they ever pay taxes) and in services.
jeb,
blago is his own worst enemy. the more he talks, the bigger the hole he digs for himself. howevah, i am still not convinced that he will ever be convicted. there are those who will find him charming and others who figure that all politicians do exactly the same things blago did but aren’t caught on tape. it only takes one juror to hang the jury. he’ll definitely be thrown out of office, but convicted? i wouldn’t put any money on that.
NO, good job pointing out the exceptions to the the rule, I can’t argue it… looking at an electoral map and the blue is always clustered tightest around cities.
I guess w already knew that we disagree that government is the solution to anything. IMHO, they always make things worse.
I fear the more we open the door to nanny gub’ment the more she’ll take control of our lives. he already has, I just found out yesterday that they drug test kids in my neice’s school…
Is that a job the state should be doing? Monitoring your kids?
And dearest Night Owl, I mention you by name because you rock….. for a socialist that is…. 🙂
trm,
you object to drug testing in your niece’s school, but it was okay with you that the chimpy administration was wiretapping everyone’s phone and reading everyone’s email without cause?
making health care available to everyone is nanny government? it’s okay with you if people die because they don’t have enough money to see a doctor? have we gotten to the point where the almighty dollar is more important than people’s lives? did you read about the old man–a world war 2 veteran, i might add–who died because the city-owned utility shut off his power in the dead of winter and he froze to death in agony in his home? that’s okay with you?
i guess we have different values and a different outlook on life. i believe that everyone should have the basics–an affordable and safe place to live, untainted food to eat, electricity and water, education, and health care. i am not against people making a lot of money, and if they want to spend it on bells and whistles, more power to them. let them live as lavish a lifestyle as they can afford. however, those who are not as fortunate should receive those basics i mentioned. yes, there will always be deadbeats who don’t want to work and will try to milk the system. well, there are rich deadbeats who inherit a lot of money and don’t do a damned thing with their lives, too. most people do have a sense of pride and want to work and make their lives and their children’s lives better. giving them a level playing field is more american than giving some rich a$$hole another tax break.
Oh Nonnie, you have made every class envy and emotion driven argument you can, therein lies the difference in us.
I’m poor, but don’t think its anyones responsibility to pay more taxes so I can go get an abortion or free bandaids for my boo boos.
I heard about the guy freezing to death, and sure its sad, BUT, where were his kids and why didn’t e pay his damn bill? And when they gav him limited power to make sure he didn’t freeze to death, he even screwed that up,,,… c’mon Non, where does the gob’ments responsibility to take care o everyone end?
And nonnie, if you think your email and phones aren’t being listened to regardless of what law is passed and by whom, well, you may need to take another look at the world we live in…
An unless you were making or receiving overseas calls to someone named mohommed, your probably fine….. sheesh
Government is bad, freedom is good
Humanity will sort itself out without Hilary and every other dunderhead with a (D) after their name doling out their warped “wisdom”
And for some levity, we could do without some of the big gub’ment RINO’s as well
McCain is a joke, always was…..
still love ya though
no, trm, you are wrong. i am not sitting here with tears streaming down my face whilst wringing a hanky in my delicate little hands. my argument was purely logical. when people don’t have to worry about the basic necessities of life, they are more industrious, and society benefits. when the least amongst us prosper, everyone prospers. it’s cheaper to provide a child a good education and a good neighborhood than to pay for his incarceration later on. it’s cheaper to provide preventive health care and good nutrition for everyone than to pay for expensive surgeries and treatments later on when they are really sick.
the man who froze to death, mr. schur, had no children, and his wife was dead. they did give him limited power, but he would have had to go outside in order to turn the power limiter back on. he was 93 years old! do you think he had the physical wherewithal to go outside in 5 degree weather, and, even if he did, is there any guarantee that he had understood that he had to go outside to retrip the limiter? you don’t think that the power company had any obligation to call the old guy and explain to him what was going on?
don’t give me this crap that if you aren’t calling mohammed over in pakistan that you have nothing to worry about. chimpy & company were spying on quakers. quakers! they weren’t calling anyone overseas. they simply disagreed with chimpy and his war. we will probably never know the extent of the spying and how many people’s privacy was invaded.
It seems I’ve riled you so I’ll let up a bit… will we ever be able to understand each other?
Education… agreed..
but do you think the plan to throw more money at it (as long as its inner city schools) will help?
Privatization and competition is the only thing that will fix our schools.
I feel for the old fella, Mr. Schur, but at 93 don’t you think it was time to go anyway? Sounds horrible but c’mon…
And,
Those damn Quakers are infamous bomb makers!!!! kidding on that last part to lighten up the conversation…
I guess, I’ll have to get my hugs from the dog today…..
Why inner-city schools? Is there something about them that makes them pre-determined to fail? Have you ever been to an inner-city school.
Don’t believe the BS that the schools in the suburbs excel because the kids are better behaved and smarter. It’s because they get the money for their schools and inner-city schools suffer from neglect. If the money were distributed in a fairer fashion, with the belief that all kids deserve a good education, would inner-city schools have the same stigma that you attach to them now?
They probably would for you.
what jeb said. in addition, how will privatization and competition work for the schools that need the most help? not just inner city schools but the rural schools, too. do you think any private enterprise is going to spend a lot of money in bad neighborhoods? how about out in the sticks where they aren’t promised a bit profit? and do you include religious schools? personally, i don’t want any of my tax money going to promote any religion.
just for argument’s sake, though, let’s say that some private corporation builds a big expensive school in a poor neighborhood. what good is the fancy school if the kids are sick and their parents can’t afford a doctor? what will the kid learn if his stomach is rumbling because he hasn’t had enough to eat? of course, we are assuming that the kids can safely get to school in the first place. hopefully, they can dodge the bullets from the drive-by shootings and avoid the gangs on their walk to school.
the schools that are doing badly are doing badly because they don’t pay good teachers enough to stick around, the kids are hungry and sick, there are no updated equipment and text books, and kids have trouble even getting there.
Buffoon, you’re committing a great sin–trolling us to engage in serious discussion when we’d rather be having a good laugh at someone all of us, including you, believe deserves it.
That said, here’s some must read blogging debunking the idea that “government always makes things worse.”
Yes We Can Put Americans Back to Work. We Probably Won’t, Though.
that was a really good article. thanks, neon vincent!
I’m no troll Neon Vincent, and your article is fine, ideologically, we disagree… I don’t want any interference from any nanny state……
we get along in the south just fine without any of it…. but then you’ll pull the card of all the poor white trash down here who are attached to the teet, eh, true…. they’ll in-breed themselves out of existence sooner or later…
trm,
no rethug ever wants interference from the “nanny state” until he is the one who needs it. joe the plumber hated the nanny state, but that didn’t stop him from getting food stamps when he was down and out. i don’t hear you crying over the “nanny state” that exists for corporations. there is so much corporate welfare in this country that it isn’t funny.
well nonnie i don’t agree with the corp welfare and subsidies just as much as I don’t approve the rest… we do have common ground you know….. your just “nicer” than I am….
NOTE: To all the original raisins (yes you too Night Owl)its been three days since I’ve had a hug from a liberal…. I’m starting to get pissed and I’ll take my right wing banter to the Kos where I will be appreciated if you ladies don’t straighten up 🙂
trm,
here’s a nice big ‘nanny hug’. 😀
thats more like it 🙂