The Rod Blagojevich saga seems to have run down to its “logical” conclusion, a judge sentencing him to 14 years in prison. Some jurors at his second trial thought this was “fair,” although at least one was reportedly surprised by its harshness, since there was no evidence that Blagojevich had “hurt” anyone, had ever received money or benefitted from his scheme to “sell” the Barack Obama senate seat. Why residents of Illinois are surprised by the behavior of their governors is a mystery. Otto Kerner, governor from 1961-69, was convicted and sentenced to a mere three years in prison on bribery charges related to a horse race track; the owner of the track was mystified by the charges, since she believed that bribery was an “ordinary and necessary business expense” in the state. Dan Walker, governor from 1973-77, was convicted of using a savings and loan that he had an interest in as his “personal piggy bank,” according to the judge in his case. Although Republican Jim Thompson (governor from 1977-1991) was never charged with a crime, he was not above illegal political hanky-panky, ordering a hiring freeze of state employees so that they could be vetted for politically correct party loyalty; the U.S. Supreme Court eventually struck down his action as unconstitutional when applied to low-level employees. And then there was George Ryan—whose sentence of 6 ½ years was thought by the above-mentioned juror as a “just” punishment Blagojevich’s case. And he may have a “case.”
Amongst the smorgasbord of racketeering, bribery, extortion, money laundering and tax fraud charges faced by Ryan at his trial, there was the accusation of having an indirect hand in the 1994 death of six children who were burned to death after a metal brace dislodged from a flatbed truck struck the car they were riding in, causing the gas tank to explode. As Illinois Secretary of State at the time, Ryan—or his subordinates—was responsible for the issuing of commercial licenses, and it was revealed that at least 80 people paid bribes in order to receive such licenses illegally; the driver of the truck involved in the accident was one of these people. Dean Bauer—a close associate of Ryan—pleaded guilty to obstructing an investigation into the accident, and destroying documents. Few people thought that Ryan did not have some knowledge of what was going on, and he was eventually charged with obstruction in that case. Ryan was convicted of steering state contracts to friends and associates, handing out campaign funds to family members for personal use, using those funds to pay for his own personal expenses, and various counts of perjury and of “gift”-taking for favors. Perhaps because of his “advanced” age and other personal considerations, Ryan received a relatively lenient sentence, although he still maintains he did nothing wrong.
I have had my doubts about the Blagojevich case from the beginning, especially after listening to “progressive” radio and television commentators gleefully beat on and lampoon him endlessly. It was a matter of relativity for me. After all, former vice president Dick Cheney continues to roam free. We can tip-toe through the minefield like Factcheck.org did on the issue, but the fact remains that Halliburton provided Cheney with a $34 million “golden parachute” when he “quit” the company before becoming vice president, and why is so hard for some to believe that Cheney showed his “appreciation” by helping to steer those no-bid contracts to his old company—doubling not just the company’s business, but its political contributions in just four years, most of which, of course, went to Republican candidates . Last year, Cheney was charged with bribery by the Nigerian government in relation to $6 billion in engineering contracts during the period he was head of the company in the late 1990s. Cheney denied everything, but he still required the intervention of powerful pals like H.W. and James Baker—along with $250 million in fines paid by Halliburton—set everything “right.”
Blagojevich, on the other hand, was an amateur at the game. He was good at “colloquial” terms and ear-popping bluster, and he appealed to constituents who themselves felt under assault by “polite” society. But his biggest problem was that he rubbed the wrong people the wrong way. His crimes were frankly pedestrian compared to Ryan’s. Basically, Blagojevich had big ideas about his future prospects, which of course might include bigger paychecks to fund his shaky personal finances. And for this he needed campaign cash, and virtually all the charges against him had something to do with horse-trading for campaign contributions; there was no suggestion that Blagojevich acquired money for his personal expense accounts—like his predecessors did—despite his financial difficulties. He worked for his paycheck. In the end, according to his defense team’s pre-sentencing statement, “His family is close to bankruptcy. He has suffered every kind of public ridicule and humiliation imaginable – to the point that foreign tourists can often be found posing for photos on the outside staircase to his family home.” But that wasn’t enough, and he suffered the further humiliation of being sentenced for far longer than at least one more guilty former governor.
The judge and prosecutor claimed that they wanted to make an “example” of Blagojevich, father of two young daughters. Their “point” is at least 40 years too late. Now it only seems like a spiteful settling of scores against a man the “intelligentsia” detested and wanted to take down.
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