Chicago Argus: A waste to time to bash Blago

Gregory Tejada puts some things in perspective:

THE FORMER GOVERNOR’S name took two hits in the General Assembly in the past two days, which makes me sad. Not that I care about the public persona of Milorod.

But it just seems to me that at a time when our state faces financial problems of historic proportions, problems that threaten to impact the schools and local governments that rely on their state funding to provide needed services for the public, we have geeky legislators who are more interested in taking pot shots at Blagojevich.

What a waste of time, energy and brainpower!

That is what I honestly think of the fact that some members of the Illinois House of Representatives last week not only said it wanted to do a financial audit of the “Blagojevich era,” they also want to deny Rod his official portrait at the Statehouse in Springpatch.
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WHICH, WHEN YOU think about it, [boosting his ego] was Blagojevich’s biggest political sin. He enjoyed the public spotlight associated with being governor, and often based his actions on the premise that nobody ought to have the ability to stand up to him or be considered his equal.

Not even those people associated with his own political party. That ultimately is why Democrats were so eager to lead the fight for impeachment, and are probably more overjoyed than their Republican colleagues to see him gone.

Which is why political people are so eager to vote against the official Blagojevich portrait. Specifically, they approved a measure saying that political people in Blagojevich’s circumstances cannot have the cost of creating the portrait reimbursed with state funds.,

That means if Blagojevich wants his portrait to hang at the Capitol, he’s going to have to pay for it himself – or come up with a fundraising committee or some private donor to pay for the cost.

AS FAR AS I am concerned, the fact is that Blagojevich was elected to two terms as governor. His portrait belongs there. Any political person who voted for this measure so they could keep him out is being ridiculous. Nobody ever said that every single politician ever immortalized in oil on canvass or in marble was a noble human being.

Found this via the CapFax morning shorts. There were also links regarding Blagojevich's official gubernatorial portrait and his appearance on The Apprentice. As a matter of fact former baseball star, Darryl Strawberry, took a fall for Blago according to one of the articles after Ousted governor was proven to be a weak link on that show.

Frankly, Blagojevich was a frequent target around these parts. Although these days he doesn't get much press here. Every now and again I might have nothing but things to say about him. It's usually because he's often in the news for one reason or another. Sometimes it might be because of something he did a few years back that still affects us, such as transit.

BTW, Illinois Channel is fundraising right now. They bring up Blago in that the General Assembly appropriated money to the IL Channel, however, he instead chose to veto those funds to that network designed to provide "gavel-to-gavel coverage of Illinois state government and public affairs event across Illinois". I suppose in keeping with the points made by Tejada, Blago believe no one should have the ability to stand up to him!

I think here at least I wrote about whether or not he should get his portrait. To be fair he should. I mean there are other Governors who have their portraits hanging at the state capitol, including currently incarcerated former Governor George Ryan. Therefore why shouldn't Blagojevich.

There are others of note who have either been on trial for corruption or have actually been convicted of corruption or even incarcerated for crimes after they left politics who have their gubernatorial portraits. Otto Kerner was convicted of bribery related to his time in office as Governor. Len Small, Illinois' governor from 1921-29, was indicted while in office on embezzlement related to his time as state treasurer.

I do understand the anger towards Rod Blagojevich. His ego and his activity has just made politics in this state a dirty business right now and who knows how long it'll take to clean it up. The anger needs to be put aside for a moment and commission this portrait. Then we need to get to work on the pressing problems of this state, which is more important than whether or not Blago gets his portrait!