Let Me Disabuse Everyone That Blagojevich’s Move Was Genius
Few who read AP regularly need any convincing, but a variety of national reporters and bloggers have suggested the Burris appointment is genius because it puts everyone else back on their heels since it’s a relatively clean black appointee and so white politicians have to worry about backlash from the black community.
That’s BS. Rod Blagojevich often makes a show and declares himself victorious, but tell me what he has actually gained from this manuever?
If the argument is that he is playing to jury pool, it’s a bit late. His approval rating amongst African-Americans (though note federal juries aren’t as imbalanced as state juries from the Chicago jury pool) was 32 percent before the indictment. Roland Burris isn’t a guy with a large following of African-American supporters and while Bobby Rush can carry his Congressional District, he is an abysmal failure when it comes to challenging white politicians. He barely got a majority of the black vote against Daley. He and Roland Burris cannot attract a big portion of the black vote. They have virtually no organization, little money, and few allies.
This leads to a close second point, Rod Blagojevich probably did appint a black man to help him in impeachment hearings as well thinking it would put pressure on African-American legislators or white legislators with significant black populations in their district. Simply not true. There is no movement supporting him by black legislators and some like Monique Davis want him out just as much as before. Those allied with Jesse Jackson Jr. have no reason to suppor the clown.
Rod Blagojevich always has a stunt to pull, but the not so secret thing about those stunts is that they almost never work. They worked for a couple years and then failed consistently since.
Distracting attention from him is a strategy to improve his standing, but the problem is there is no way to distract from a charge of trying to sell a Senate seat. He’s not improving his position at all. He will be impeached and removed from office sooner or later whenever the Lege decides they have pretended to deliberate long enough and he’s going to prison.
Will he get Burris in the US Senate? Maybe, but so what if he does? It doesn’t improve his political or legal situation regardless of how delusional he is that doing so will help him.
He can make this more difficult and he’ll probably a few more ways to do that along the way, but he’s going to lose–nothing he is doing changes that fundamental fact.
January 2nd, 2009 at
This is the same national media that thinks Bush is genius and spent weeks talking about 10 seconds of a pastor’s sermon from years ago, when the actual subject of the “reporting” (Obama) wasn’t even in a pew at the time.
Little more needs be said — of course they think this move by Blago is genius. They’d think the same thing of sending the Illinois National Guard in to occupy parts of Missouri (if only for the opportunity to privatize and sell off the revenue stream offered by all the gambling boats floating in Illinois’ Mississippi River… You’re next Iowa).
January 2nd, 2009 at
Once again we learn that “the more you know about something, the more you know how little the media know about that subject.”
(I have put it in quotes because I say it repeatedly)
The national people looking at this are profoundly ingnorant. The in-state reporters are smarter.
To say that this was some brilliant strategy is silly. Blago is flaiing around much like a fighter who has lost the first 9 rounds of a 10 rounder and needs a knockout for victory. His hope is that somehow Speaker Madigan and the legislature will let their chin get in the way of his fist. Given their ineptness it might still happen.