Very recently I was immersed in AP stories about the abuse of power in Zimbabwe, human rights violations, corruption, threats, lies, violence; all surrounding one man: Robert Mugabe. He was a charismatic leader, once revered as a champion of Zimbabwe, but now revealed as a wealthy and brutal dictator. Oh, I was disgusted and appalled by him; I seethed at the staggering inflation and dire conditions of his people as his wife was seen on a luxury shopping spree in Hong Kong. I couldn't understand how such a man was allowed to exist and boggled at what a backward country Zimbabwe must be to have allowed such atrocity.
Then I opened up my news compiler one morning and read the headlines that were taking America by storm. The Illinois Governor had been arrested for attempting to sell the seat vacated by some low profile senator named Obama. Surely this kind of this just doesn't happen in America! In the next few months the sneers I gave when reading Mugabe's incredible and incoherent sound bites came back to haunt me. How did we let this clown run the state of Illinois?!
At his impeachment trial Blagojevich was charged with abuse of power for engaging in a plot to "obtain a personal benefit in exchange for his appointment to fill the vacant seat in the United States Senate." Blagojevich was recorded on a tirade, saying that the Senate seat "is a %$# valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing." He also was charged for plotting to divert casino gambling revenues to the horse racing industry in exchange for campaign contributions, and trying to have a Chicago Tribune writer and certain members of the editorial board who had been critical of the governor fired by withholding state financing for a stadium project that would help the newspaper's parent company, which filed for bankruptcy. Even more absurd and comical was the revelation that he threatened to withhold $8 million in Medicaid reimbursements to a children's hospital if an executive failed to make a $50,000 campaign contribution. And he kicks puppies.
He is also accused of suggesting corporate boards his wife could be appointed to, for which she would receive $150,000 a year compensation. HIs wife apparently had a lot of gains from his position in office. Back in 2006 his wife, Patricia Blagojevich, who is a real estate broker, earned $113,700 in commissions from Anita and Amrish Mahajan. Mrs. Mahajan owns a company that received a no-bid contract with the state, while Mr. Mahajan is president of a bank that has two requests pending before state regulators to acquire two out-of-state banks.
Oh, but the best was yet to come...
Rather than resigning or even attending his impeachment trial, Blagojevich launched a media blitz, rushing from one TV studio to another, and likening himself to the hero of a Frank Capra movie and to a cowboy in the hands of a Wild West lynch mob.
He compared his arrest to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. “Dec. 9 to my family, to us, to me, is what Pearl Harbor Day was to the United States,” he declared pitifully.
Next, Blagojevich compared himself to human rights heroes Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, telling news station NBC, "I thought about Mandela, Dr. King and Gandhi and tried to put some perspective to all this and that is what I am doing now."
And recently, he revealed that he was considering nationally beloved talk show host Oprah Winfrey for the seat. Riiight. See, if those horrid people hadn't arrested him, Oprah would have been senator. But then he got arrested and he couldn't do it. It's all the government's fault.
And in fact, the government is tricking us with these lies and accusations in a bid to remove Balgojevich so that they can raise taxes. No, I am not kidding. That was his defense.
Ah, Blagojevich, there is much to be learned from Mugabe. Just like I am learning self awareness from you. And it is quite a pill to swallow. It is bitter - bitter. But I like it. Because it is bitter. And because it is mine.
Then I opened up my news compiler one morning and read the headlines that were taking America by storm. The Illinois Governor had been arrested for attempting to sell the seat vacated by some low profile senator named Obama. Surely this kind of this just doesn't happen in America! In the next few months the sneers I gave when reading Mugabe's incredible and incoherent sound bites came back to haunt me. How did we let this clown run the state of Illinois?!
At his impeachment trial Blagojevich was charged with abuse of power for engaging in a plot to "obtain a personal benefit in exchange for his appointment to fill the vacant seat in the United States Senate." Blagojevich was recorded on a tirade, saying that the Senate seat "is a %$# valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing." He also was charged for plotting to divert casino gambling revenues to the horse racing industry in exchange for campaign contributions, and trying to have a Chicago Tribune writer and certain members of the editorial board who had been critical of the governor fired by withholding state financing for a stadium project that would help the newspaper's parent company, which filed for bankruptcy. Even more absurd and comical was the revelation that he threatened to withhold $8 million in Medicaid reimbursements to a children's hospital if an executive failed to make a $50,000 campaign contribution. And he kicks puppies.
He is also accused of suggesting corporate boards his wife could be appointed to, for which she would receive $150,000 a year compensation. HIs wife apparently had a lot of gains from his position in office. Back in 2006 his wife, Patricia Blagojevich, who is a real estate broker, earned $113,700 in commissions from Anita and Amrish Mahajan. Mrs. Mahajan owns a company that received a no-bid contract with the state, while Mr. Mahajan is president of a bank that has two requests pending before state regulators to acquire two out-of-state banks.
Oh, but the best was yet to come...
Rather than resigning or even attending his impeachment trial, Blagojevich launched a media blitz, rushing from one TV studio to another, and likening himself to the hero of a Frank Capra movie and to a cowboy in the hands of a Wild West lynch mob.
He compared his arrest to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. “Dec. 9 to my family, to us, to me, is what Pearl Harbor Day was to the United States,” he declared pitifully.
Next, Blagojevich compared himself to human rights heroes Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, telling news station NBC, "I thought about Mandela, Dr. King and Gandhi and tried to put some perspective to all this and that is what I am doing now."
And recently, he revealed that he was considering nationally beloved talk show host Oprah Winfrey for the seat. Riiight. See, if those horrid people hadn't arrested him, Oprah would have been senator. But then he got arrested and he couldn't do it. It's all the government's fault.
And in fact, the government is tricking us with these lies and accusations in a bid to remove Balgojevich so that they can raise taxes. No, I am not kidding. That was his defense.
Ah, Blagojevich, there is much to be learned from Mugabe. Just like I am learning self awareness from you. And it is quite a pill to swallow. It is bitter - bitter. But I like it. Because it is bitter. And because it is mine.
Comments