How dumb is ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich?

‘You could cut off his head and he wouldn’t be any dumber’ (Chicago insider)

“At his first trial, Blago’s lawyers keep him off the stand and he gets a hung jury, except for one count.  The defense decides to put Blago on the stand for the second trial.  Common in the movies, this is rare in real life.  It usually happens for one of two reasons: the defense fears the prosecution has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, or the defendant insists on it, sure that his charm will win over jurors in the same way it won over voters.  So Blago takes the oath and tells the jury of his insecurities, a middle-class kid going to Northwestern University where he  ‘was afraid that I wouldn’t measure up to the other kids.’  But, he had one thing going for him.’Those were the days when your hairbrush was an extension of your hand,’ he said.  The jury had already listened to tapes in which Blago threatens to withhold $8 million in state funding from the state’s largest children’s hospital, serving mostly the children of the poor, unless he gets a $50,000 campaign contribution.  and now he is telling the jury about his hairbrush?” Roger Simon, ‘Another Illinois Governor Goes to Jail’, The Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2011

Let us accept the general thrust of the evidence and confirm that Blago is as thick as a 4″ x 4″ plank of wood. Let us further assume that this is evident to any person who has to size him up for any position of responsibility. And on this basis let us attempt to answer some uncomfortable questions that the mainstream media never confronts about the nature of democracy in the United States.

1. Given that the State of Illinois empowers its Governor to replace any of its U.S. senators who resign in mid-term – Barack Obama in this instance – which is safer for mankind, a Blago free-choice or a Blago auction?  Commonsense dictates that the auction must be the better way to go. At least the winning candidate must demonstrate superior access to wealth – in the case of Illinois such access may be voluntary or machine- coerced, who knows – unless Blago is so dumb that he sells out to the lowest bidder.

2. If Blago is so obviously dumb, what does this say about the grey cells of the Illinois electorate. If they are as dumb as Blago – definitionally they cannot undercut him in terms of brain-power – should they be allowed in the ballot box at all? What kind of democracy emerges when thick planks control the outcome?

3.  If selling an election is a felony, what about buying one? President Barack Obama is currently targeting $1 billion in campaign funds in order to purchase the 2012 presidential election. Should that put ‘Yes we can’ into a jail cell adjacent to Blago?  If democratic elections basically are bought and sold in return for cash outlays is that precisely what the Founding fathers had in mind?  Certainly it makes for a social contract solution.  But not necessarily one designed to protect our  lives, liberties, and the pursuit of happiness!

4.  If feel good politics is what the game is all about, then should we not all be chanting  ‘Go, Blago, Go’ as he runs for the presidency in November 2012?  With all that hair, no other candidate would stand a chance. He may not even have to dye it!  And Americans love good hair,do they not? Indeed that is the only memorable  JFK-legacy!

Tags: Blago is the dumbest, elections athat are bought and sold, the dumb lead the dumb, what does that say aboutr Illinois voters