Harshness

You know over the weekend I wrote about Blagojevich's feud with his father-in-law. I said that I couldn't stand Blagojevich for that, but I don't personally know the man and most likely never will. It probably wasn't correct for me to say that about him. Most of the things I view as negatives about him comes from primarily the news.

If I got anything from those charges that was announced by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald it's that Blagojevich has proven himself to be not only greedy but very vindictive. All you have to do is see what he did in holding up some money for a children's hospital when an adminstrator didn't cough up a campaign donation or his attempt to hold up any state help for Tribune Company because he didn't like what their editorial board was writing about him. Sounds like a guy who plain doesn't take criticism or disagreement very well.

Check out this piece from Eric Zorn and here's another instance of vindictiveness from Gov. Blagojevich:

In his nine-page memorandum to the Illinois House committee that heard impeachment charges against Gov. Rod Blagojevich, former Blagojevich senior adviser Bob Arya wrote the following:

I think one of the most disturbing things I witnessed in (the area of commutations and pardons) was the day I brought a letter written to Rod to then chief-of staff John. Harris. The letter was from Sen. John. O. Jones seeking to have the record of a constituent expunged so she could advance her nursing career. Like most waiting for help from the governor’s office, this individual made a mistake as a youngster, but could not advance her career because of changes in the reporting of crimes (background checks), etc. She had changed her life, went to school and never had another brush with the law. I handed the letter to John Harris who began reading it when Rod walked into the office. He took the letter from John and looked it over. After realizing it was written by a lawmaker who did not see eye to eye with the governor on some administration priorities, Rod took the letter and said, “[bleep] him!” then cast the letter aside toward the garbage can. That was it. Her life would remain on hold and not even receive a fair consideration simply because Rod had an issue with the Senator. I think you need to understand that this is rule when it comes to how Rod does business. Not the exception. If you were in favor or good standing with him, you will get what you want (perhaps funding for half a bridge). If you were on his bad side or the wrong side of the vote, you will not (the other half of funding for the same bridge).

Read the rest of Zorn's post.

This should offend a lot of people. He was willing to cast aside doing the right thing because the man requesting it didn't see eye-to-eye with the Governor. This man just plain didn't have a very agreeable temperament for that job and he wonders why he's about to be removed from office.

Oh and this is coming from a former adminstration aide. I can only imagine that it has to be a nightmare from which he eventually left. At least there are those in the administration who had some semblance of a conscious while there are others who mindlessly went a long.

See there has often been speculation that his own staff couldn't reason or control the Governor. Someone should have said this isn't right of course the next step would have been termination from their duties with the administration. Especially if that's the Governor's M.O. His antics are hurting a lot of people.

Let me just say that it's not so much that I can't stand the man, I just don't like the way he's doing his job. If I blogged about him frequently and most of the posts convey that. There is certainly a need for a new direction in Illinois.