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In entertaining reads today…

Jill

This piece on Blago is pretty amazing. I have an odd fascination with Blagojevich, maybe because we share similar roots — we have Serbian-American families; he is the son of and I am the grandchild of immigrant steelworkers; he grew up in a small home in Chicago and my parents grew up in the same place the same way; etc etc. Blago even looks a little like my uncle on my mom’s side (who is incidentally Polish/ish and not Serbian at all).

So I’m interested in Blago, even though he’s a crook and seems to totally lack self-awareness or any sense of his own failings. Or maybe that’s why I’m interested in him — who knows what this guy is going to do or say next? But even if you are not, like your blogmisstress, a connoisseur of fine Blago-related articles, you will want to check this one out.

8 thoughts on In entertaining reads today…

  1. Maybe its having grown up in Chicago about three blocks from where he and his wife live, but I just don’t find Blago that interesting. He’s an arrogant, racist, entitled thief who has used his family connections to arrange careers for himself and his friends. Most of the flubs he makes (like the whole blacker than Obama thing) revolve not around a lack of self awareness but a painfully ordinary mind not being able to keep track of “public speaking” versus “what white people say behind closed doors on the north west side.” Or maybe familiarity has just bred contempt.

  2. It’s the hair.

    Ya know, he’s got a mind control hypnosis device hidden in his hair, don’t look at it, or you’re done for.

  4. William has it almost right, except for the part about ‘behind closed doors.’ My experience has been that a certain class of white folks in Chicago isn’t all that reticent about making blatantly racist comments. Mostly because they don’t think of themselves as racist and therefore believe that nothing they say could be racist.

    A lawyer I used to know who worked for the city of Chicago described Blagojevich pretty much like he comes across in this article, and said basically the same thing about how Blago seems genuinely convinced of his own innocence. It’s really not so much that he denies doing what he’s accused of doing–he just really doesn’t understand how what he did could possibly be wrong.

    And now that I’ve written that I notice a weird sort of similarity between my two comments . . . Something about how some types of people resolve cognitive dissonance by admitting that they are flawed people and made mistakes, and trying to do better. Others convince themselves that the mistake was not, in fact, a mistake at all, and therefore they have no problem.

  5. Ugh, ugh, ugh. This guy makes me ashamed to live in Illinois. I’m even more disgusted with myself for having voted for him. Twice.

    What really kills me is that I happen to have been personally acquainted with his opponent in the last election. I wrote a newspaper profile of her, years ago, when she was first elected to the state legislature. A very likable woman. But I ended up not voting for her because I was afraid that her much-vaunted “frugality” would translate into starving social programs.

    What a dope I was. Now Illinois is running a $10-billion-plus deficit with no relief in sight. The current governor (I profiled him long ago, too) is a perfectly nice guy who’s in over his head and doesn’t have the political will or capital to cut spending. And of course, the Republican candidates are falling all over themselves with their “no, no, no, never, never, never” approach toward tax hikes.

    What a mess. I’m thinking of moving to Wisconsin.

  6. William has it almost right, except for the part about ‘behind closed doors.’ My experience has been that a certain class of white folks in Chicago isn’t all that reticent about making blatantly racist comments. Mostly because they don’t think of themselves as racist and therefore believe that nothing they say could be racist.

    I think the issue with Blago isn’t so much that he doesn’t think he’s a racist, but that he doesn’t see anything wrong with being a racist and sometimes has trouble predicting what might offend others as a result. I definitely agree that theres a certain class of white people in Chicago who don’t think they’re racists and say racist things as a result, but theres also a whole sea of people living in neighborhoods like Sauganash who are aware that some people think racism is wrong and as a result moderate their language when they’re in public.

  7. You know, Blago kinda reminds me Sarah Palin: self-aggrandizing, in denial to the last, insisting that everyone else is out to get them…

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