Has a fool for a client, right? Apparently, this phrase was never heard by the former governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich. Anyone who listened to his "closing statement" during the impeachment trial that ended with his conviction yesterday could see that Blago - a former criminal prosecutor - made several silly and specious arguments.
One argument he made is that some of the counts or charges against him dated back to the first of his two terms as governor. He asked why charges had not been brought against him earlier if he had truly done something wrong? Well, the senators present were clearly aware that there is no statute of limitations when it comes to impeachment. And this argument sounds more like an admission than a denial... Imagine the drug dealer, for example, who asks why he was arrested this particular week when he's been selling for months or years! It hardly sounds like the argument of an innocent person.
Of course, the impeachment proceeding was examining the totality of his record of service as governor, a point that Blago was trying to obscure. He also argued in his comments that the process was not fair, comparing the impeachment proceeding to a criminal trial, which it is not. It would have been far more honest for him to acknowledge that this was a political process and rest his defense on political grounds and political arguments.
An excellent point made by a news commentator is that when Blago finished his overly-dramatic 45-minute statement, he simply walked off of the stage... refusing to answer any questions. Wouldn't most "in his shoes" (one of his fave phrases) have stood there for hours answering any questions that the state senators - the very people about to decide his fate - chose to ask? Would this really have been so humbling for the king of the Beatles wig cut?
Guess what, in the federal criminal trial, Blago will be asked questions that he'll have to answer and answer under oath, under penalty of perjury.
Perhaps the saddest part of Blago's dramatic presentation was when he brought up former President Nixon and the Watergate tapes. Yes, for six weeks now the media has been making this comparison and so Blago elected - how cheeky! - to bring up the comparison himself, while stating that he was not like the president who resigned in disgrace.
This, of course, likely made the senators present think back to the night before Blago was arrested... That was the night he dared anyone to tape his conversations; likely knowing that the feds were already doing so. There was something about this guy that made him dance close to the edge, some kind of political death wish. (This also brings to mind Nixon who hated his career in politics so much that some have wondered if he engineered his own downfall.)
All in all, it's a huge shame that this man with obvious speaking skills elected to literally leave on the heels of such a tawdry performance. He might have served his state or community extremely well for decades as a talented prosecutor. We'll just have to assume that his argumentative skills were much better when he was a younger man. Fade to black...
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