My End or Yours?

THE QUESTION: WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY?

Jen of All Trades: Um....no

Moments ago (as I was writing this), the Illinois Senate unanimously voted to remove sitting Governor Rod Blagojevich from office. I watched live as each senator cast their vote. Now, I hate the damn guy. I think he is as crooked as a politician...err...wait...

Anyway, as I watched the votes roll in, one dude really pissed me off. I wish I knew who it was, but as he said his "yes" he gestured the thumbs down sign. Was that really necessary? These are our elected officials conducting official SERIOUS business in our state's capital and he is doing playground hand gestures? Isn't that for the rest of us to perform as we watch in our livingrooms (radio studios) with our popcorn (hot tea) watching the circus unfold? You know, those of us not wearing suits representing the people of this already embarassed state. We look so much better than everyone else now, don't we?

The votes are cast in the way I felt they should have been. But I have never been the kind to want to kick a man when he's down. Blago put himself there at the bottom and he will have to live with the consequences for the rest of his life. And now, state senator-whose-name-I-don't-know, so will you. You will forever in my mind be the guy who shamed himself by acting like a child when this state made unfortunate history.

Becky Boop: It was both necessary and appropriate

If as Jen says, the people in Springfield are “elected officials conducting official SERIOUS business in our state's capital,” then I think Blago most of all missed that memo. How else to explain the one man media blitz conducted by our now former Governor in recent weeks? A man who ought to have been worried about the future of his political career, his upcoming criminal defense, and putting food on the table for his painfully embarrassed children (wife Patti recently lost her job as a fundraiser as well), instead went about the “serious” business of painting himself as a political martyr, displaying the unmitigated gall to compare himself to Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi without cracking a smile.

Am I alone in noting that Blago relished this whole ordeal and the circus of it? Eliot Spitzer, the other disgraced Governor of 2008 (we’ll leave Palin alone for now) couldn’t wait for it all to go away, but Blago courted attention and shock value every step. I don’t think he cared about being Governor (as those tapes themselves clearly suggest – being “stuck” and all). He really envisioned himself as some sort of media darling, a newfangled Harvey Milk political martyr. Minutes after his formal dismissal by the legislature, he was planning his next press conference - already tasting that book deal, eventual screenplay and speaking tours (hopefully wearing stylish accessory ankle monitor). The guy obviously loves opportunism and riches, and he might not be wrong that ironically, getting thrown out of office is his ultimate ticket to fame and fortune. He doesn’t care a fig about the people of Illinois or anyone else. He took every chance this week to add more theatrics to his “legacy” This makes me hate him more than I do for the crimes he probably committed. I have never seen such a bald faced user in my life.

So as for this unnamed Senator who gave Blago the thumbs down? If this man is truly the elected voice of his district, I can only hazard a guess that his gesture, if considered immature for the advanced workings of the Illinois State Senate (I will purposely pause for laughter here), is nonetheless reflective of the group opinion of his constituents. In another words, Blago was lucky not to receive a gesture of the more obscene kind from those who decided his ultimate fate.