TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Blagojevich: Corrupt Madman Or Psychopathic Genius?

ADVERTISEMENT

By JAMES BENNETT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 27, 2008

Guest columnist

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and I ran into each other at least once a month while he was campaigning for re-election in 2006.

My impression at the time: He was either a corrupt madman or a psychopathic genius, with no middle ground. Now it appears my instincts were correct.

The Democrat, who's fighting for his political life after being charged by the feds with trying to sell President-elect Obama's U.S. Senate seat, was hot and bothered and wanted to meet me after I wrote a glowing column about a political rival of his in January 2006.

Blagojevich flew from Chicago to Southern Illinois, where I was editor of the region's largest newspaper. We had a frank conversation for two hours. The no-holds-barred meeting started my relationship with the governor, which basically consisted of me criticizing or prodding and him pretending to listen.

Blagojevich wanted me to know how he was planning to build schools and roads for the region. He wanted me to know how he was fixing the state's financial crisis; how he wanted to lease the state lottery to an independent contractor to raise money; he cleared state funds to build a minor-league baseball stadium in the area; and that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald would find nothing in the "pay-for-play" investigation of his administration.

And throughout the conversation, Blagojevich made it clear he did not appreciate me giving props to his opponent for the Democratic nomination, a former Chicago alderman and educator Edwin Eisendrath. The governor was disillusioned, erroneously thinking he had the power to persuade the press beyond his public policy. He had about as much chance of pressuring me as he did of having The Chicago Tribune fire its editorial board, as Fitzpatrick recently alleged Blagojevich tried to do.

The governor went to extreme lengths to ignore Eisendrath in public. In private, the governor monitored Eisendrath's schedule and sent aides behind him, announcing economic development and infrastructure grants shortly Eisendrath appeared in various places. He was using his power as governor to buy the election, but Blagojevich figured voters would never trace his footsteps.

In our first conversation, I asked Blagojevich, if he won the primary, to commit to debating his general election opponents in Southern Illinois. It would've been the first gubernatorial debate in the region in more than 20 years. The governor didn't need rural, conservative Southern Illinois to win, but he remembered it provided his margin of victory in the 2002 Democratic primary. He felt guilty, or he felt this need to pay back his debt. Blagojevich agreed with the wave of his hand, then floundered, recommitted and pulled out before the election.

To be frank, I think Blagojevich and his advisers were hoping the newspaper would guarantee him an endorsement if he agreed to debate. Of course, that was not going to happen. We pushed him to debate until the final week of the campaign, when his advisers copped out, saying they could not work it into his schedule.

In reality, Blagojevich was afraid of unpredictable Republican state Treasurer Judy Barr Topinka and sharp Green Party candidate Rick Whitney. He thought they'd expose him as corrupt and as an emperor with no clothes. He knew Whitney would eat into his liberal support around the state.

Around Labor Day, Blagojevich came to Southern Illinois for two weeks to stay in DuQuoin, a quaint little town and home of the annual State Fair. I challenged him, while he was in the region, to stop complaining about crumbling schools in the state and to tour one of the worst, in nearby Carterville. He came to the school and seemed moved by what he saw. He answered questions from the audience and media. He even joked with my youngest son, Zach, who asked the governor the toughest question of all in Southern Illinois: "Cubs or Cardinals, Governor?"

Then, true to Blagojevich's track record of pandering to any audience, he moved ancient Carterville High School to the top of the state's well-established school construction list. Good for Carterville, but bad for everyone else on the list. The losers all screamed foul and accused Blagojevich of trying to buy votes.

A friend of mine, Lindsey Mastis, worked as a television anchor and reporter in Southern Illinois. She wrote on her blog last week that Blagojevich's cronies tried to pressure her TV employer into firing her for asking tough questions. The problem started when Mastis worked for the student newspaper at Southern Illinois University.

"My first encounter with the governor was in Anna, Ill.," she wrote on lindseymastis.com. "I was a newspaper reporter for my college paper, The Daily Egyptian. I don't recall the question I asked, but I'll never forget what happened afterward. The governor didn't know the answer to my question and said he would have to research it and get back with me. No problem, I'd wait. About 30 seconds later, members of his press team warned me that I was to get permission from them before I could speak to the governor. They said all my questions had to be pre-approved. That was at the beginning of his first term. Obviously, he only got worse."

The pattern and culture kept deteriorating. Prosecutor Fitzgerald was taping Blagojevich because he knew it would be impossible for the governor to cover his tracks every time. Who knows? Fitzgerald was so hot on Blagojevich's trail, he probably checked eBay regularly, expecting the governor to put Obama's seat up for sale.

Blagojevich met his match in Fitzgerald.

"The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering. They allege that Blagojevich put a 'for sale' sign on the naming of a United States senator," Fitzgerald said. "(Blagojevich) involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target."

Most analysts expected Blagojevich to fold under the pressure and resign. But in his warped world, I think he secretly enjoys the attention. He thinks he's going to be exonerated, then run for president in 2016. He's going to explain what he really meant when he said about the Obama transition team's unwillingness to pay for a favorable appointment, "They're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. (Expletive) them."

On Friday, the governor defied his critics. By continuing to push ahead, he's undermining the start of the Obama administration. Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was chatty friends with Blagojevich, even though Obama and the governor literally hated each other.

"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," Blagojevich said Friday.

I'm not sure what Blagojevich is trying to accomplish, but he went off the deep end in quoting "If" by Rudyard Kipling on Friday.

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you ...," he said (to muffled laughter in the room, no doubt).

The next time the governor and I converse, it could be via letter from a federal correctional institute. I wonder if he'll offer to sell interviews from behind bars.

For the record, Mr. Fitzgerald, I'm not buying.

James Bennett, managing editor of the Independent Tribune in Kannapolis, N.C., can be contacted at jbennett@independenttribune.com or (704) 789-9150.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT