On Eve of Prison, Blagojevich Keeps Talking, but Some Tune Out

[alp227]

Source: NYT

Rod R. Blagojevich stepped into his front yard on Wednesday for a last goodbye.

As always, the cameras rolled. Helicopters whirred. Curiosity seekers and supporters crushed in, delivering banners with messages like “Only God is Perfect.” Tears fell.

But much of Chicago, which had been living with Mr. Blagojevich’s tale for years, seemed to shrug. What began in 2008 with his stunning, predawn arrest at this very house, amid allegations that he had tried to trade or sell a United States Senate seat, had taken many topsy-turvy detours: his impeachment as governor, his attempt at a star turn on the television talk show circuit and reality TV, the deadlocked jury, the second trial and the anticipated start, on Thursday, of a 14-year prison term.

Around this state, people said they were simply ready to think about something (anything) else — or that they had already stopped pondering Mr. Blagojevich long ago, a few even confiding that they had not realized that he was still around.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/us/blagojevich-to-begin-prison-term-for-corruption.html

[midnight]

1. But Rove, ETC.... walk around freely. Go figure...

[JDPriestly]

2. Does anyone remember why federal agents were already recording Blagojevich?

I can't seem to remember.

In 2002, Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, was elected governor on a reform platform — the antidote, his campaign seemed to say, to a Republican governor, George Ryan, who was mired in scandal and would later go to prison. By late 2008, just after Barack Obama won the White House, Mr. Blagojevich, then in his second term, happily found himself assigned by state law to appoint a replacement for Mr. Obama from Illinois in the Senate.

But by then, federal agents had already been recording Mr. Blagojevich’s telephone calls, and swiftly came a slew of corruption charges that the federal prosecutor said would make “Lincoln roll over in his grave.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/us/blagojevich-to-begin-prison-term-for-corruption.html?_r=1

[Tx4obama]

3. What came to mind after reading the article ...

Excerpt:

Elected officials — even those who had furiously condemned Mr. Blagojevich’s behavior — expressed deep empathy for his two school-age daughters, who are expected to continue living here in his North Side home after Mr. Blagojevich reports to prison. In recent weeks, Mr. Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, appeared on Rosie O’Donnell’s television show and tearfully professed her fear that the girls are “going to be totally screwed up from this.”

And on Wednesday, she stood beside her husband, tears running down her cheeks, as Mr. Blagojevich spoke of his daughters and asked aloud, “How do you make sense of this, and what is it that you can tell your kids so they can appreciate the magnitude of this calamity?”

Okay, I feel for his kids, BUT this is what it is like when everyone that goes to prison and leaves their family behind.

And there are TONS of folks that shouldn't have been sent to prison the first place (drug offenses, wrongly convicted, etc) and TONS that are there longer than they should be.

I think that now is the time that elected officials/politicians should work for prison reform BEFORE they end up in prison.
I'm sure there are many things wrong with the prison system that Blago will notice while in there and I bet he will end up wishing that he had spent some time when he was Governor trying to fix 'em.

Too late now, at least for him.

[rocktivity]

4. What Mrs. B can tell her kids "so they can appreciate the magnitude of this calamity"

Last edited Tue Jan 21, 2014, 11:15 AM - Edit history (1)

is that their father CAUSED the calamity -- and single-handedly.


rocktivity

[rocktivity]

5. "After two trials, he was convicted on 18 counts. But in the interim,

Illinois came to know Mr. Blagojevich, who vehemently professed his innocence and whose lawyers have started an appeal, in a way the state never really had when he ran it. He recited poetry in news conferences. He shared chats with daytime talk show hosts. He performed Elvis Presley songs for a neighborhood party. He wrote a memoir. He pitched pistachios in an ad. Until the last few months, he talked and talked and talked."

He talked and talked and talked because he had lawyers to pay and pay and pay.


rocktivity