Palin Resigns As Governor

TW: I understand amidst this Great Contraction being governor of any state is not the best platform from which to build a basis for higher office- declining revenues, rising costs and general voter angst and all. Tim Pawlenty saw that in MN and announced he would not run for re-election and the Governator probably wishes he had not sought re-election in CA.

Then you have the bopsie triplets- Mark Sanford said "F it what do I care, I am in love", preceded by the Blagojocrook, and Eliot "I pay to play" Spitzer-all have blown up in the past year.

But can you set yourself up any better than Ms. Palin has this week. A completely inane cheesecake piece in Runner's World ("sweat is my sanity"), your former campaign managers debating how crazy you are then the capper- resigning your office amidst the Great Contraction no less "because she has accomplished her goals". Talk about cuttin' and runnin'.

Funny how in a petro state one's approval can drop from 90ish% to below 50% pretty darn quickly. She is a corker.

I REALLY hope this does not mean she is considering NOT running. Because as much as I viscerally despise the concept of Ms. Palin, I would really miss her. If there is one thing that could get the Dems to a true super-majority amidst the Great Contraction in 2010 it would be her at the head of the ticket.

This quote gives me hope:

From WaPo:
"The first term governor is stepping down "so that she can take the fight for her issues elsewhere," according to a Palin aide."

This person's ambitions are high, perhaps to the point of self-delusion....YES!!!

Not Again...

From Tagean Goodard:
"President Bush will deliver a farewell address to the nation tonight at 8 p.m. The address is expected be 10 to 15 minutes long, from the East Room of the White House. According to Politico, the speech will be delivered before a live audience of what a spokeswoman called "courageous people" Bush has met with during his eight years in office. It was "not going to be a swan song."

Gail Collins: "George W. Bush has been saying goodbye for so long now, he's come to resemble one of those reconstituted rock bands that has been on a farewell tour since 1982."

TW: For those who watched any of the Blago press conference (just after 6 minute mark on tape) the other day this sounds familiar. Will he ever shut up?

Blago: Once a Putz Always a Putz

TW: Our esteemed governor circa 1975 in a boxing ring. Allegedly he requested the photos from the photographer who was there to shoot others. The amazing thing is his hair has not changed one iota in thirty plus years.

And well it looks like Burris will get seated. Burris is a sad case but the law is the law and I imagine the Dems figured out that Burris for two years beat the alternative of a legal mess perhaps followed by an election in which the Dems would have stood a strong chance of receiving a blowback loss.

Political Cynicism At Its Worst

TW: Our dear friend Blago just smears the pile around some more...

From Taegen Goodard:
"Dan Conley, a former speechwriter for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and a keen observer of Illinois politics, offers his take on today's attempt by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to appoint a new senator.

'The selection of former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace President-Elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate has very little to do with the actual seat. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has already made it clear that he will not certify any Blagojevich pick. That will give the Senate Democratic caucus sufficient cause to reject the appointment, which they have already pledged to do. At this point, it would be impossible for the Democrats to backtrack on their earlier pledge, it would implicate them in the Blagojevich sleaze, which is something they will avoid at all costs. So while Burris seems like a winner today, he's a long-term loser.

Why did he agree to be used? Because he's desperate to return to the limelight. It's a sad end to a career that included numerous runs for governor, the U.S. Senate and Mayor of Chicago, plus a term as the state's Attorney General. The truth is, he wasn't much of an Attorney General -- the legal opinions that came out of his office in the early 90s were legally suspect and linguistically challenged -- but he has been a fixture in Illinois politics for years and he's escaped any hint of corruption.

The appointment of Burris is a pure impeachment-defense tactic from Blagojevich. First, he's making a public case that no crime was actually committed. If Burris was appointed without any quid pro quo (highly likely, since Burris has no great wealth or influence), then Blagojevich can argue that all the talk about other possible appointments were just that -- talk. And talk is not a crime. Is anyone going to buy that? Well, even if only ten percent of Illinois voters buy it, Blagojevich will have doubled his support, so why not? There's a certain freedom in nearly complete unpopularity.

But second, and more important for Blagojevich's survival plans, he's chosen to play the race card. To anyone who thought that the election of Barack Obama would diminish the power of racial politics, today's press conference was depressing -- especially the appalling spectacle of Rep. Bobby Rush using the word "lynch" in reference to criticism of Burris, then Blagojevich repeating the phrase while wagging a finger at the press corp on the way out of the room. For a Governor looking to rally support in the House and Senate to avoid impeachment or convinction, it's a smart move. A combination of African American and Latino Senators could be sufficient to save Blagojevich from a conviction in the Illinois Senate. It probably won't work, but Blagojevich has few options left.' "

Blagosteria

TW: Am officially burned out on anymore Blago. I know the Repubs would like to tar my guy BHO with it or at least the Rahmster but...I don't think so...

From Chris Buckley at Daily Beast:
"Thank heavens Mr. Fitzgerald has given us another juicy political crisis to keep our mind off bailouts, the greatest economic crisis since the depression, and our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. For a minute there, it looked we were might have to concentrate on The Big Picture. How much more diverting to focus on the villainy of a potty-mouthed Illinois pol."

"White Sox fans go to the White House, Cubs fan to the Big House"

--Anonymous Dec 10, 2008

The Blago Chronicles

TW: You have probably seen the quote by now, but there are so many good cartoons out there rather than running them as the daily toon for the next week, I figured I would just create a post compilation.

"I have a hard time pronouncing his name. I just call him the idiot." -- David Gergen, interviewed on CNN about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich

Chi Town Hits a (Very) Soft Patch

TW: Man, we were rocking (the Obama thing etc.) but the last couple of days have been tough. Yesterday, Chicago Tribune- owner of our paper, our primary baseball team (sorry Nardo), our TV station and a key architectural landmark- goes bankrupt and Ron Santo for the umpteenth time gets shafted by the Hall of Fame voters in favor of yet another so so New York Yankee.

Then today Blagojevich just takes the cake. We are used to benevolent dictatorship, e.g. Daley mayoralties, and a fair amount of corruption (see George Ryan, Dan Rostenkowski and a hundred others). But Blago has some real cojones, it is no surprise I suppose merely further affirmation of how messed things are.

From the prosecutor statement via TPM:
"Regarding the Senate seat, the charges allege that Blagojevich, Harris and others have engaged and are engaging in efforts to obtain personal gain, including financial gain, to benefit Blagojevich and his family through corruptly using Blagojevich's sole authority to appoint a successor to the unexpired term of the President-elect's former Senate seat, which he resigned effective November 16. The affidavit details numerous conversations about the Senate seat between November 3 and December 5. In these conversations, Blagojevich repeatedly discussed the attributes of potential candidates, including their abilities to benefit the people of Illinois, and the financial and political benefits he and his wife could receive if he appointed various of the possible candidates.

Throughout the intercepted conversations, Blagojevich also allegedly spent significant time weighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat and expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, including: frustration at being "stuck" as governor; a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor; a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016; avoiding impeachment by the Illinois legislature; making corporate contacts that would be of value to him after leaving public office; facilitating his wife's employment as a lobbyist; and generating speaking fees should he decide to leave public office.

In the earliest intercepted conversation about the Senate seat described in the affidavit, Blagojevich told Deputy Governor A on November 3 that if he is not going to get anything of value for the open seat, then he will take it for himself: "if . . . they're not going to offer anything of any value, then I might just take it." Later that day, speaking to Advisor A, Blagojevich said: "I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain." He added later that the seat "is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing."