Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Oy Vey!

I could not be more disappointed in my fellow electorate than I am right now. Although in a world where Titanic can win Best Picture, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Rod Blagojevich was elected to a second term.

After being thoroughly dismayed upon reading this morning’s headline in the SJ-R, a gloom that was lifted momentarily upon reading the editorial staff’s opion piece*, I was left with this thought. If you were to put L. Madigan, D. Hynes, and J. White in a room with Blagojevich, who in their right mind would pick Rod to be the boss? Meritocracy was clearly not in play here. Democrats have a lot to crow about nationally today, but they should stop and think how they allowed the crude to rise to the top when there was plenty of cream in the state’s cup.

I can’t recall ever disliking a politician as much as I do Blagojevich. Although I had a rather low opinion of George Ryan, somehow his grumpy personae made his corruptive activities more tolerable. He was a shady politician who had the decency to look and act the part. Sure he would deny allegations of wrong doing, but he never gave the impression that he cared if you believed him.

Blagojevich, on the other hand, wants you to love him while he’s lying to you. He wants you to belove him as a great leader for providing healthcare to children, but he wants you to be dim enough not to notice that the state can’t afford it. Even though the curtain has been pulled back for some time now, he’s still pretending to be the great and powerful Blag. Dorothy and I aren’t buying it, but apparently there are a lot of munchkins out there whose knowledge of state government is limited to what can be found in 30 second campaign commercials.

One more thing. I don’t like to comment on superficialities, but this opinion surfaced again a couple of times recently and so I’m compelled to ask: among which species is Blagojevich considered handsome? If all it takes to be considered a good looking guy is a full head of hair, then why wasn’t Emo Phillips asked to star opposite Julia Roberts in Pretty Women? It might have made that insipid movie somewhat tolerable.

Okay, that’s it for the election coverage. I’ll stop being bitter now. We survived Pretty Woman 2 and, somehow, we’ll survive the Return of Virility.


*They called the governor a pansy. Actually they were telling him to stop being a pansy. Same thing though.

8 comments:

underneath the bunker said...

*my reaction was more like, "Oh, great, it's okay to call someone pansy now." What's next? Is the governor faggy? Or did the editorial staff not recognize that "pansy" has historic anti-gay connotations?

Anonymous said...

I consider myself a Democrat. That said, I could not vote for our govenor. Topinka was a horrible choice for the Republicans in my opinion.

I think your blog is right on again. Enjoy reading each week!

BlogFreeSpringfield said...

Occula,

I guess my sense of the word pansy is that, rather than being synonymous with faggy, it questions a person’s manhood. I suppose for many that is synonymous, and the dictionary seems to agree with your interpretation. But I still think there is a difference.

That said, I do think the paper was trying to bait him by using that term. Perhaps they perceive something in the governor's personality that makes them think that he would respond to such a tactic by facing off with reporters more often, even if it did go against the advice of his handlers. Whatever you think of the paper’s methods, the pubic will be better served if reporters can detour the canned messages and start getting some unscripted comments from the governor.

BTW. I checked out your blog and was really impressed. I'm a big Tupelo/Wilco fan. I look forward to reading about your future concert experiences.

Thanks for commenting,
Dan

Anonymous said...

I was surprised by the use of pansy by the editorial staff. However, I took it to mean coward but more attention getting. It takes a lot to get a governor's attention. I consider myself an independent and voted for JBT as the lesser of two evils. You are old enough to know of Emo?

Anonymous said...

Milton

Are you suggesting that it was Topinka's blue-collar background that provoked her inappropriate comments about the governor? It's a quite bold to deem an entire working class of people as ill-suited for the office of governor.

Anonymous said...

Milton,

Thanks for getting Nancy off my back.

Dan,

Question for you. How can Lisa Madigan seem to be so honest and competent in spite of being the offspring of such a Blagojevichesqe type of individual? And a Democrat to boot.



Just kidding Nancy.

Anonymous said...

Dan

I could not agree more with your assessment of Blagojevich. My total disgust on Tuesday evening was only heightened on Wednesday morning when I saw the picture on the cover of the SJ-R and read the pulled quote ('you ain't seen nothing yet'). The arrogance in his face in that photo just made me sick. And I'm quite sure he's right, we haven't seen anything yet, in terms of indictments, investigations, scandals, and baptism/birthday gifts (I can't remember which) for jobs and appointments.

The fact that he dodges the press whenever possible and actually sneaks in and out of the Statehouse on his rare trips to Springfield speaks volumes. A man who had nothing to hide would not be so afraid of unscripted events or impromptu questions.

I'll take blue-collar bluntness over his pompous arrogance any day of the week.

BlogFreeSpringfield said...

Monkey Boy,

Although I'm not a fan of Mike Madigan, I wouldn't call him Blagojevichesqe. And I would be leery of having Lisa as governor while her dad was still wielding so much power in the House and in the party. But still, she would be a definite step up from Rod as governor. A whole flight of steps actually. For one, she seems to be interested in doing her job. And two, she isn't a narcissist.

As for being a Democrat, it didn't stop me from voting for her for AG.

Thanks for commenting,
Dan