PEORIA -- "Abandon hope all ye who enter here."
The supposed inscription at the entrance to Hell fron Dante's Divine Comedy.
That's the way I felt as I watched the Fitzgerald news conference on Dec. 9 outing Gov. Rod Blagojevich's darkest fantasies about profiting from the US senate appointment and ousting his detractors on the Chicago Tribune's editorial board.
Fantasies? Where is the proof for all this, aside from talk on the phone?
Have checks been written, cash exchanged? Apparently not.
There's no indictment, only a criminal complaint. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said he had to stop Blago now, before he could collect from the senate appointment. But who was going to pay?
So we have a preventive arrest? Like a preventive war?
This from the prosecutor who lacked the guts to go after the really big target, Karl Rove, on the CIA leak case. Fitzgerald could have brought Bush down, and saved lives and bank accounts. He didn't.
But a day after Blago stands up for workers against the Bank of America, he's arrested.
And the piling on begins. Everyone hates Blago, apparently. It's likely he'll be impeached or sent to prison over what may be only phone fantasies.
Be careful what you say -- words can be a crime of conspiracy in the US.
Words also will bring down a politician, even if no crime is committed. Blago is fatally ruined politically.
He's said what everyone knows but doesn't want to admit: that politics is about money for most politicians, though not all of them.
Some journalists say Illinois residents pay a hidden corruption tax. That's bad, of course, but can be balanced against the skill with which a state or city is run.
Are those lovely planters in Chicago worth the Daley machine's machinations? Which incidentally don't seem to bring indictments.
The best case scenario now is that Blago resigns quickly in exchange for a no-prison-time plea agreement, and is allowed to rat out others in the pay-to-play world of Illinois politics.
Then Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn can appoint the next Illinois Senator, a Democrat.
Sen. Dick Durbin's idea for a special election for Obama's seat is a terrible idea. Expensive, not enough time to organize, and likely to produce a Republican winner.
Voters who basically don't understand politics will punish the Democrats for Blago's fantasies.
So they also punish themselves.
Even worse would be a Republican governor. Good bye reproductive rights, gay rights, and perhaps even labor rights and pensions, all targets of typical modern Republican candidates.
So Illinois has even more unwanted babies among the poor, even more low income workers, and turns itself into the Latin American model: the rich and everyone else.
As I said, "abandon hope..."
-- Elaine Hopkins
UPDATE, Dec. 12, 2008: Blago has become the laughingstock of the nation, and must go, of course, sooner rather than later. Lisa Madigan has filed a motion with the Illinois Supreme Court to remove him as unable to govern.
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn likely will become governor, and has promised to roll back all those irrational Blago moves, from closing state parks to shipping Department of Transportation employees to southern Illinois.
He also will appoint the next US Senator. That's a good move, given the delay and risks of a special election.
Will voters forgive the Democrats for this mess if Quinn steps in and governs competently?
That's the party's only hope now.
-- E.H.
UPDATE, Dec. 13,2008: Here's a great photo from the Chicago Sun-Times: Blago peeping out into the alley behind his home next to a sign warning about rats. The sign has now vanished.
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