By John W. Lillpop
Illinois politicians, and especially President-elect Obama, were hoping that embattled Governor Rod Blagojevich would go quietly into the night, taking his countless "F" bombs and wiretapped "pay to play" call list with him.
Just a week ago, it seemed highly likely that Blagojevich would spend Christmas strapped to a guerney in a psychiatric ward, in jail, or at home with his family after abruptly yielding to heavy demands that he resign.
Those hopes were dashed when the Illinois Supreme Court refused to unplug this foul-mouthed bag of unruly hair, and the impeachment process stalled somewhat in the Illinois legislature.
That left Team Obama clinging to the faint hope that Blagojevich would act with the overall best interests of the people of Illinois in mind, rather than giving in to his own selfish self-interests. They were praying that Blagojevich would play the R card--resign--and quickly.
Instead of just going away, however, the raunchy Democrat declared himself innocent of wrong doing and vowed to "fight, fight, fight!" until his last breath, which could not come any too soon for Team Obama and embarrassed Democrats everywhere.
As reported at CBS2chicago.com, Blagojevich held a press conference on which in which he gladly assumed the role of abused child and helpless victim when he said: (1)
"I'm here to tell you right off the bat that I am not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing, that I intend to stay on the job, and I will fight this thing every step of the way. I will fight, I will fight, I will fight until I take my last breath," Blagojevich said. "I have done nothing wrong."
That is unwelcome news for Obama because it means that the Deification of Barack Obama, scheduled to last from December 20 to January 20, is going to have to share BREAKING NEWS headlines with Blago-gate for the foreseeable future.
Instead of answering questions about the economy, Obama is going to be pressed for more information about Rahm Emanuel and his contacts with Blagojevich about filling Obama's vacated Senate seat.
Rather than explaining how he intends to bring socialized medicine to America, Obama will spend his time trying to convince a skeptical media that he barely knew Blagojevich, and would be unable to correctly identify the governor in a police line up.
All in all, Blagojevich has left a huge lump of smoldering coal in Obama's Christmas stocking while giving Republicans a minor cause to celebrate.
Reference: (1)
http://cbs2chicago.com/governor/blagojevich.media.address.2.891120.html
