Emperor Rod Blagojevich at this very moment, instead of defending himself before the Illinois Legislature as it proceeds with an impeachment hearing, is in the midst of making the national media rounds.
As Rex Huppke so ably noted in a story that appears in the Jan. 26 edition of the Chicago Tribune, Blah Blah Blago’s talk-show tour is much like the path blazed in November 2007 by that other notable Illinois creep, suspected murderer Drew Peterson, about whom I wrote a few months ago.
And though he is the Emperor Without Any Clues, Blah-Blah must surely know that he is simply the Freak Show of the moment, having just begun to tap into his 15 minutes of infamy.
He has even stated that he knows his days as Illinois governor are numbered (“the fix is in,” he self-pities). Left unsaid, but clearly understood, is that he only has so large of a window he can jump through before the media moves on to the next heel.
The Emperor’s PR team, which includes the same shameless publicity crew that is representing the aforementioned Peterson, may well be pleading with the staff of Oprah to let Rod on her show.
Considered Oprah for the U.S. Senate
Of course, Blah-Blah today divulged what he surely knew would reap headline play across this celeb-obsessed land. While appearing for an interview on Good Morning America, he let slip a slight smile as he told Diane Sawyer that he considered approaching Oprah Winfrey to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Obama.
Maybe the Emperor’s supplicants and enablers could propose tying in his Oprah appearance with the talk show titan’s hoped-for weight loss–as in, the state will be shed of Blago’s 180-extremely-odd pounds when he moves from governor to prisoner.
We can only hope that, like Sawyer, other national media types will have the sense to ask Blah-Blah the same tough questions that he’s been ducking by local reporters for years.
Among them:
Do you know how to spell “narcissist”?
With a 13% approval rating before the feds charged you in December with, among other misdeeds, plotting to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder, did you really think you had a shot at the U.S. Presidency in 2016?
How long have you been quoting Rudyard Kipling poems?
In any event, Blagojevich will eventually have to answer to criminal charges.
As I forecast when he was elected to a second term as governor, even then under a cloud of federal investigation, he very likely faces some significant time behind prison bars. If that comes to pass, he will follow in the shameful footsteps of his gubernatorial predecessor, the chronically corrupt George Ryan.
Can a Drew Peterson bid for governor be far behind?
Related Posts:
Client Sets Sights–And Shears–On Blago
Emperor Blagojevich’s Anti-Tribune Plot
