We've asked you what the best -- or worst -- parts of the criminal complaint are against Gov. Blagojevich.
Now, we want you, clever BackTalk readers, to put on your Perry Mason caps and tell us what creative defenses you can come up with for our governor when he has his day in court.
Insanity -- as some have suggested?
He was just "talking tough" as one must in Illinois politics, but really didn't mean what he said?
Or...what's wrong with looking out for your family?
Granted, we may be stretching, and that's why we want to hear from you.
Shoot us your suggestions.
This blog brought to you by the Sun-Times editorial board (click on names to read bios):
By Chicago tradition , if no money changed hands , there is no crime .
His best line of defense is I am the governor and I have the absolute right to pick anyone I want to be Senator. I have the right to explore other jobs in the future, I never formally requested a quid pro quo. The tough talk was posturing.
His defense should be that it was all talk. I think the US Atty may have jumped the gun on this one. I read the complaint and other than profanity laced big shot talk with his advisors (none of which were candidates for the senate seat) there didnt appear to be any overt act that would constitute an "attempt." The govt should have waited until they got the other party in agreement on the wire and then moved in. What was the rush? They could have taken him down before he named the new Senator. If this is all they have, then this IS NOT a slam dunk...look for a superceding indictment in the near future.
He should sing like a little bird and flip on a bigger fish.
The governor KNEW that his phone was tapped:
1. He was just joking around for the amusement him and his staff.
2. He was set up. He was told that he was part of a sting to expose corrupt officials, while in reality the
corruptors were setting a trap.
Blago ought to use the same line that the Clintons used again and again. I don't recall. He also should say that he was joking about selling Obama's seat. Democrats are dumb, they would accept that answer.
He needs to take a long foreign vacation. Serbia is too risky these days; Zimbabwe might be getting that way too. North Korea seems good; both Blogo and Kim love their hair -- and they might find a space to share in some alternate reality.
No defense-plead guilty to treason.
INSANITY
HEY BLAGO.......PLEAD INSANITY,,,,THEN RESIGN AND MOVE TO IRAQ,AND DONT FORGET TO TAKE SEWER MOUTH PATTI WITH YA..
The first time comments sound good to me!
His best defense will be to roll on the people who wanted to buy the seat--the same way Rezko is rolling and give up Rahm and Obama who are just as dirty as he is. Chicago politician is a synonym for corruption.
Where in the world can he get a fair trial? No defense will be good enough, not even for a case that is built on a house of cards. The Feds should have waited until Blago made good on the attempt, then they would have gotten at least a two for one. After all, this is some sordid attempt to bring down some other people too, not just Blago.
plead guilty while sobbing like a frightened infant and throw himself on the mercy of the court in sentencing.
No defense is necessary. We are all picking on him. He is right, the world is wrong!
his best strategy is to turn evidence against john harris. harris was mayor daley's o'hare chief, budget chief and former depy. police supt. fitzgerald wants daley most of all, and harris is the key to that prosecution. blago should serve harris up on a silver platter to get patti and his brother off the hook, then plead guilty to a reduced charge of official misconduct.
This guy has no defense, and you fools at the Sun-Times, Chicago's most useless newspaper, shouldn't be trying to help him out by soliciting ideas from the community. He should enter a guilty or no contest plea and get it over with. He's going down.
His defense should be that this was all just talk. Tapping the home of even a public official is even going too far. I suppose the Governor is not allowed to think out loud is what this message is saying. I am certain Obama and Jackson home lines have all sorts of interesting information to offer, let alone George Bush. There is NO "attempt" at anything here -- this can only fly in the witch-hunt court of public opinion, not law. He crossed the unspoken political line, not the legal line. If he burns, so will a lot of other people, including Jackson, Daley, and yes, even our shiny new (dirtbag) President-elect, Mr. Obama. Obama is going down with this one -- Blago will do to him, what Rev. Wright, Ayers and Rezko couldn't do.
I can not tell a lie. I did not do it. Now I must go and pray.
Elvis made me do it should be his defense!
We seem to have more political corruption in Chicago. So what else is new and different in the world?
sing,sing,sing ten thousands notes. leave no one out. rat on everyone. be a fink. daley said publicly, "he should do what`s best for himself, his family and the state". there`s a reason "family" was mentioned. get the hint rod?
Fitzy only released the tip of the iceberg. Blago's goin' down like a rock.
Attention Sun-Times: I can't wait until the Chicago Tribune tells its readers how it blew Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation forcing the feds to prematurely arrest Blago before they caught him red-handed selling the Senate seat. Read about it in the Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post. Great job Tribune. Will Sun-Times cover this too?
In defense of Blogojevich...and perhaps others...
http://falseflagrag.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/in-defense-of-the-hair/
Listen to his attorneys after they see what the government has and take a plea if it lets his wife slide. Although it is a shame that out of state tollway users finally have learned to pronounce his name. Maybe part of the plea could be a bill changing I Pass to I Take
Moral/Ethical Retardation. The second he was sworn in, his moral/ethical compass seems to have went on a sabbatical.
Show up everyday to court in pajamas like Vinny "the Chin" Gigante.
Hey, Mr. Iacullo and the Hindsdale Maintenance Facility of IDOT-Illinois Department of Transportation-I mean, whatever your salaries are it's to damn much! Why aren't you filling those horrible potholes all along the stretch of Archer Ave. from 5500 South at Harlem and Archer, to 6300 South, 63rd Street and Archer Avenue; also 79th Street as it goes due West past I294 and connects up with LaGrange Rd., North and Southbound connections to LaGrange Rd. and back to 79th Street-I call these spurs. Well, these 'spurs' as I'm calling them have many very, very bad potholes, especially with our first week of winter cold spat; things just seem to have opened up! And, Mr. Iacullo, your maintenance facility in Hindsdale haven't gotten a handle on things on these routes, even before the recent cold spell! Yes, I'm saying it; these routes that I've mentioned above have been bad since last fall/winter season of 2007-2008! This is nothing new! Now, I know what we need is for the State Legislature to get off of their duffs and do their jobs and appropriate a road rebuilding plan for many of these aging roadways, but in the meantime you get your crew out and do more than just a shovel full of asphalt filling-earn your public pay Mr. Iacullo and just do your job! Oh, yeah, while your out filling those State roadways, take care of another one, 63rd St. from Harlem Ave. on the East to Archer Ave. on the West-you know, through Summitt, IL, 63rd St. is a State roadway also!
Is the Constitution a Defense?
Let’s strip Gov. Rod Blagojevich of his office and hang him out to dry after a quick and easy one-witness trial, that one witness being the governor himself, and let’s shift the burden of proof to the accused, so advocates former-federal prosecutor James R. Ferguson. (“Streamline the road to impeachment,” Chicago Tribune, 1/2/09)
Happy New Year, Governor.
After all, an impeachment proceeding is not a criminal proceeding so in all fairness to the public trust, Blago has no right to a presumption of innocence, no right to confront his accusers, no right to cross-examine witnesses, no right to call witnesses, or even subpoena persons or evidence that the U.S. attorney wants to “save” for the criminal trial and public show of righteous indignation.
The Illinois Constitution provides no definition of “impeachable offenses,” Ferguson observes, arguing that the senate can try (the witch) in a “flexible framework,” apparently over a hot fire. If the governor won’t talk in this one-witness trial and since the 5th Amendment is inapplicable in a civil impeachment proceeding, Ferguson presses, the FBI-affidavit supporting the criminal complaint should be taken as true without the need for accusers to present any evidence whatsoever. Judge Roy Bean, a streamliner of justice from way back, might heartily approve this “trial by affidavit” where no questions are asked.
If a constitution permits public official ouster from office by an impeachment proceeding where the Ferguson-suggested flexible standard of “breach of the public trust” is inferred, then the eviction of Blagojevich from office is already a fait accompli.
The trouble is that such a standard could embrace not only some really bad stuff, it could also embrace a lot more: (a) a broken campaign promise (“Read my lips: no new taxes.”), (b) an unpopular act of governance (presenting an unbalanced budget, facilitating the import of Canadian drugs, or penning executive-ordered child healthcare), (c) a policy of questionable legality (water-boarding, suspending habeus corpus, approving billion-dollar, no-bid contracts to companies with close connections to friendly public officials), or a campaign contribution to a high public official from a company with a state contract (e.g. MSI). If this is the post-infraction, newly-drawn constitutional standard, then the U.S. could be short a president, vice president, secretary of defense or unindicted former Illinois governor to conjure just a few applications of the supposed standard.
Is Katrina incompetence a breach of the public trust? Is withholding information about the credibility of a WMD-informant on the eve of war? Is deregulating the financial industry that precipitated a trillion-dollar market meltdown? Is advocating the privatization of Social Security an inchoate breach the public trust?
With much yet to happen in the Blago story, it would be well for Illinoisans and fellow Americans to remember that we elected these characters to office, and we bear some responsibility and complicity for the choices we made. Therefore, we should not streamline impeachment proceedings to the point where such proceedings are in derogation of other honored constitutional principles such as due process of law, fundamental fairness, and predefined standards of conduct without succumbing to overzealous pre-trial prosecutorial pontification that risks making “Guantanamo justice” the law of the land.
James E. Gierach is a semi-retired municipal attorney, former Cook County prosecutor, primary candidate for governor in 1994, and the youngest delegate elected to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention.
James E. Gierach, drugnews1@yahoo.com
1.2.09
They are so eager to impeachment the governor why dont there impeachment the five people on the list too. But it bad nobod try to impeachment President Bush for all the thing that happen unger is leadership.
-Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this is Illinois, the birthplace of organized democratic shannanigans. Enough said!
I typed letters/numbers correctly, you just didn't want a pro Blago comment and a negative Fitzpatrick comment. Why don't you go to the archives and look him up and you will see for yourself.