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Author Bio:
Feminist advocate Susan Estrich works in many fields: as a lawyer, professor, political operative, author, and news commentator. She was educated ...
Read more about Susan Estrich.
Feminist advocate Susan Estrich works in many fields: as a lawyer, professor, political operative, author, and news commentator. She was educated ...
Read more about Susan Estrich.
Crazy Like a Fox
Susan Estrich
As the weeks pass since Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was publicly
drawn and quartered by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the man has
simply refused to give up. The Energizer bunny has nothing on this
guy. I can't say he's earned my respect -- respect would definitely be
the wrong word -- but he's proved that some of the oldest, and worst,
rules of politics still hold true. Hang in there long enough and you
can survive anything. Anything. Poor Eliot Spitzer. He would still be
governor of New York.
It is far from clear that Blagojevich is actually a criminal, as opposed to an accused criminal. His mouthing off on tape about what he could "get" for Barack Obama's Senate seat was stupid, offensive, tasteless and inappropriate. It was unbecoming any public official -- far, far worse than the former New York governor's tasteless stupidity in traveling to D.C. to meet up with a hooker barely older than his daughter.
But Spitzer's activity was a betrayal of his wife, not his constituents. Blagojevich was playing with the public trust. Whether he broke the law is another question.
Of course it's against the law to sell a Senate seat. But Blagojevich didn't sell the seat -- he might have, but he never got that far. In our system, you can think anything you want and say almost anything you want. It's what you do, as opposed to what you say, that can get you in trouble.
There's no law against talking about selling a Senate seat, as long as you don't enter into an agreement, explicit or implicit, with someone else to do it; that's a conspiracy. An agreement to do something wrong and any overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy (contacting one of the potential candidates, for instance) by any of the conspirators can turn all of them into federal felons.
The way prosecutors usually deal with guys like Blagojevich, who say things they shouldn't but can't be prosecuted for, is to drag them in front of a grand jury and ask them if they ever said what they know they said. Then, when under oath, if they deny ever saying it, they're guilty of perjury. Think Scooter Libby.
Public officials are particularly bad about shutting up in these circumstances; only professional criminals understand that the embarrassment of looking like a criminal is nothing compared to the reality of being punished for committing an actual crime. Indeed, even without the grand jury, which gets you to perjury, you can turn a person into a felon if they simply make a false statement to a government official -- no oath required.
But there's no evidence that Blagojevich did either of those things. Because of the leaks and impending public disclosure, U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald was forced to move on Blagojevich before he had a chance to do to him what he did in his Valerie Plame investigation: get everyone in front of a grand jury where they could say that they never said what they actually did say. Which means that there is a chance, a very real chance, that Blagojevich could beat this.
He knows that. That's why he's going nowhere. He also knows that if you just hang in there and make some smart moves, you can make other people almost as uncomfortable as you are about what you've done wrong.
That's what he did this week by sending Roland Burris, a decent and honorable man who would have been the only African American in the Senate, to be turned away by the Secretary of the Senate. Lucky for the rest of us, Barack Obama is the president-elect, and so those who would turn Burris' rejection into a racial affair are having a little more trouble than they otherwise would. But it hasn't stopped the effort. The Congressional Black Caucus is not the only group in town saying that it is wrong to turn away the one black member of the Senate, and the drama will continue to play out in coming weeks.
Maybe Burris can get the signatures he needs back in Illinois. Maybe the Senate in D.C. will cave. In the meantime, Blagojevich is going to work every day, and Fitzgerald has his work cut out for him. It's very hard to get a guy who can stand the heat out of the kitchen.
Illinois may be short a senator, but Blagojevich is still cooking with gas.
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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Copyright 2009 Creators Syndicate Inc.
This news arrived on: 01/07/2009
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Posted Comments:
01-08-2009 13:14
bigbrown821 wrote:
tempest in a teacup
seat the man already and get on with the real pressing issues in the country
the real problem for the democrats is they want to retain the seat, and fear that Burris is not electable come the next election cycle. They may be right-but that's for the people of Illinois to decide when it's time.
seat the man already and get on with the real pressing issues in the country
the real problem for the democrats is they want to retain the seat, and fear that Burris is not electable come the next election cycle. They may be right-but that's for the people of Illinois to decide when it's time.
01-08-2009 13:12
JCE wrote:
People don't seem to care about facts. They project their own sick and twisted thinking onto Blago, never considering for a minute that he has made his own sick and twisted thinking clear. He knows Obama can't and won't save him. Nor can Burris. The senate will be angry with him, so will most if Illinois. But he will make money of the whole thing yet, and while he will probably get impeached, he will still not be broke, and may avoid jail. Still, he hasn't bought off the people like Stevens did. There is, on tape, Stevens admitting that he knew it was wrong, that he could go to jail, yet he has the money and the power, and he is a republican, so he will probably get off light. Republicans will, on the other hand, want to nail Blago, and democrats want their cooperation. The politicians at least have a madness in their methods. The voting public seems to just have a major case of madness, as in clinical.
01-08-2009 12:19
Nancy wrote:
Blago only appointed a black man in hopes to get forgivness from Obama and crew to take the heat off himself. And to aggravate J.Jackson Jr. He plays his 40 something tricks like we can not see or figure. This new one could go on the antique road show, wonder what he's worth?
01-08-2009 11:31
HHJ Again wrote:
Blago, smoked but did not inhale, or maybe he could take another line from former President Bill Clinton "I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT GIRL"
01-08-2009 11:23
HHJ wrote:
Susan, you really crusified poor ole blago. The same liberal rheotric , boys will be boys. I wonder if he had been republican what you and the media would have said. If McCain had the associations that Obama had he would have been lenched to the nearest tree. I would be willing to bet my pay check that if Obama had run on the republican ticket for president with the same platform he would have got beat as much as he won by. In conclusion it must say something for the party that elected him. In my oponion Blag will walk and keep his governorship that also go along with his party affiliation.
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