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The Blagojevich Cornucopia
Jonah GoldbergThere are so many things to love about the Rod Blagojevich scandal its hard to know where to begin. . . . For starters, the folks at the Chicago Tribune are Christmas Pony Happy because Blago tried to strong-arm the Tribs owners to fire members of the editorial board. Instead, Trib editors will get to have a big tailgate party outside Blagos cell window. Newspaper people love that sort of thing. For the more historically minded, its a time for nostalgia. The past comes alive as Chicagos grand tradition of corruption is sustained for another generation. As the Chicago Tribune once wrote, corruption has been as much a part of the landscape as corn, soybeans and skyscrapers. . . . For partisans, theres the schadenfreude that comes with watching the Democrats self-proclaimed anti-corruption zealots in recent years explain why Blagojevich shouldnt be lumped in with Congressmen Charlie Rangel (cut himself sweetheart deals), William Jefferson ($90,000 in his freezer) and Tim Mahoney (tried to bribe an aide he was sleeping with not to sue him and you thought romance was dead) as part of a new Democratic culture of corruption storyline. Theres the enormous I-should-have-had-a-V8! moment as the mainstream press collectively thwacks itself in the forehead, realizing it blew it again. . . . Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. himself the son of a shakedown artist is alleged to have offered (through a minion) a half-million bucks for Barack Obamas vacant U.S. Senate seat. Jackson replaced former Rep. Mel Reynolds, who went to jail for getting jiggy with a 16-year-old campaign staffer and stayed in jail because of various fraud convictions. Reynolds, in turn, was the reformer who had replaced Rep. Gus Savage, the thug-congressman who groped a Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire while on a fact-finding trip. Savage held off Reynolds attempts to replace him for several years by claiming Reynolds was financed by racist Jews. Man, what isnt there to love about Chicago politics? It would be premature, not to mention un-festive, to discard any of these delicious immoral morsels from this cornucopia of corrupt crapulence. . . . But, there is a nice moral to the story here. For the last several years, weve heard a lot about new politics. We are going to start fresh and put aside the old politics and the old ways. So far, it looks like Obama did nothing wrong, and I hope that remains the case. But its worth remembering that there really isnt any such thing as a new politics. Politics is eternal because human nature is unchanging. Even Barack Obama, hero-saint light-worker Jedi Knight Messiah that he is, came from a political culture that would not be unrecognizable to Caligula. Hopefully, Obama will take away from this the humility that comes with realizing we are all even The One built from the crooked timber of humanity. Hence the genius of the Founders who built a government that took our imperfection into account. As James Madison said, If men were bleeping angels ... Posted by: Mike 2008-12-12 |
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