Blago: It Just Keeps Getting Stranger

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 5:36 PM on January 9, 2009.

Did you happen to catch Rod Blagojevich's event this afternoon? Did you notice that the governor appears to be stark raving mad?

Josh Marshall wrote:

"Okay, fine, Blagojevich is clearly insane. I'm sitting here at my desk, listening to him chatter on in the background about the impeachment vote. And he's going on about how his policies let someone get a liver transplant, and should he really be impeached for that? It's like some bizarre performance art. Now he's quoting Tennyson."

Quite right. The governor talked at some length about the various policy initiatives he's launched in recent years, and all of it sounded utterly bizarre. There was no talk about selling a Senate vacancy, or any of the many crimes alleged in the criminal complaint that led to his arrest.

The problem, though, is that Blagojevich was actually responding to issues raised in the impeachment report (PDF), which pointed to, among other things, Blagojevich "expanding health care without legislative approval, spending state money on useless flu vaccines, refusing to release federal subpoenas and other government information to the public, widespread hiring abuses and pay-to-play activities in which big contributors often wound up with hefty state contracts."

So, responding to impeachment, Blagojevich decided to host a press conference to talk at length in defense of his health care initiatives, topped off by Tennyson.

It made for a hopelessly bizarre event.

Tagged as: corruption, chicago, illinois, gov. rod blagojevich, corrupt establishment