Stignorpid People

In the first post of this blog I wrote my first "heresy", based on this section:

Where has the scorn for politics gone? How can one guy, on his own, purify the industry that employed Jesse Helms, Ted Kennedy, Strom Thurmond, Robert Byrd, James Traficant, Kwame Kilpatrick, William Jefferson, and Larry Tapdancin' Craig? Especially since he himself (Obama) has Rezko's in the closet? As it must be reiterated, it seems, daily: Obama is a politician from Chicago. CHICAGO!!!

It might be one of the most lasting thoughts this blog will ever hold. Obama might be great going forward, but for one to believe that he went through the Illinois system lily-white and untouched is just...just...I don't have a word to describe how ignorant or stupid that would be. Stignorpid. It'd be stignorpid.

Peep this story from the Tribune about Blagojevich. For those keeping score at home, I found mentions of:

- Gov. Blaggy offering important jobs to union's choice candidates in exchange for an important union job for himself. (Gettelfinger says there's nothing to see here, nothing to see at all, so move along, citizen. MOVE IT!)

- Blaggs offering to help the Tribune Co. sell the Chicago Cubs if the Tribune will just, you know, fire a few Chicago Tribune editorial board members who were critical of the governor. Nothin' much.

- I'll let U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (of Scooter Libby fame) spell out the next one:

"[The federal charges] allege that Blagojevich put a 'for sale' sign on the naming of a United States senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism."

Nice.

- In an interview with the Tribune, Blaggy said, "whether you tape me privately or publicly, I can tell you that whatever I say is always lawful and the things I'm interested in are always lawful." That sounds so innocent. Because we all know someone who is 100% above the board all the time.

Read the whole thing, and ask yourself "Could a state that had this kind of Governor and this kind of state political machine, could a state that has a long history of vast and deep-seated corruption produce a truly clean politician?" Don't be stignorpid.