Blagojevich -- the two-tiger theory
Wednesday, 24 December 2008, at 0011 hours
Central Time -- Nashville, Tennessee, USA
News reports recently revealed the details of clandestine audio recordings by the FBI of deal-making conversations in the political scandal du-jour involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his alleged attempts to sell the US Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Here's where it gets strange.
One of the people named as a possible Obama replacement is Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. She is the one prosecuting Blagojevich for corruption and possible impeachment. (And, in a truly bizarre twist, Blagojevich recently asked her to appoint his defense lawyer as a deputy attorney general.)
This reminds me of a children's story with a now-politically-incorrect name. The story had a moral that applies. A young boy is confronted by tigers, who demand his clothes as extortion in return for not eating him. He gives up the clothes. But, then, the tigers fight among each other. They chase each other around a tree -- faster, faster, faster -- until they turn into melted butter. Then, the boy picks up his clothes and walks away.
Questions have come up regarding the timing of the original news conference that revealed the Federal investigation into the Blagojevich-Obama scandal. Now, the tapes reveal that the state's attorney general was one of the people being considered to replace Obama in the US Senate. Certainly, the United States Attorney for the Chicago area would be well acquainted with the Illinois Attorney General. Some have questioned whether the revelation of this investigation -- prior to the inauguration, and prior to any seat-sale deal being consummated -- was timed to protect Obama. But, with the new revelation that Attorney General Madigan was being considered to replace Obama, one must wonder whether one powerful government attorney might have pulled the lid off the investigation before another powerful government attorney got caught by a mousetrap in the cookie jar.
And, will this new fact enable Gov. Blagojevich to watch all the government lawyers chase each other around a tree, and turn to butter, so that he can pick up his "emperor's new clothes" and walk back into the governor's office without a scratch?
