Blagojevich aka Nixon

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was impeached and found guilty of trying to sell the senatorial seat vacated by Barack Obama. I'm sure you've heard about it - he made SURE of it. In fact, he skipped the first day of his trial to go on a media blitz in New York, starting with the ladies on The View!! *Best Moment*: when Joy asked him to do a Nixon impression and say "I am NOT A CROOK!" and he totally refused. Smart man! That sound bite would have been played over and over and over right now. The similarities between Nixon and Blago can't be denied. The speech in this clip could almost be used word-for-word by Blago...

He made a great effort to avoid the impeachment trial, raising hell over the fact that he was not given his 6th amendment rights and he couldn't bring witnesses to testify to his innocence and it was all a conspiracy because real corrupt politicians in Illinois didn't like all the "wonderful" work he was doing for the people. Right. BUT at the end of the day, if you read the 6th amendment, it says "In all criminal cases" which means NOT in impeachment trials. His was a case of the legislature deciding whether he was still the best person to take care of Illinois, not whether he was going to jail - so the 6th amendment doesn't apply here.

He was given an undetermined amount of time to defend himself and NOT ONCE did he deny the charges of corruption or deny that he was trying to gain financially from the available senate seat. He did not provide affidavits from the supposed witnesses he wanted to call. Instead he spent almost AN HOUR talking about his immigrant parents, his children thinking he was corrupt, the great work he has done, detailing EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE (aka his JOB). I wish I knew how to play the violin so I could play along to the tune...

He will go down in history and when corrupt politicians have no defense but insist on their innocence, it will forever be known as Pulling a Blagojevich. So now Illinois is Governor-less (to my knowledge) and if his eventual appointee, Roland Burris (who I met and questioned on his policies toward Arabs, and who I consequently dislike immensely) is not honored as senator, Illinois is also Senator-less (aside from Durbin). I can't wait to be back in Chicago next week!