Blagojevich

The more I read about this thing, the more it bears similarities to the Duke Lacrosse case. Seriously. Here is are a few excerpts:

The tapes purport to show Blagojevich extorting a campaign contribution from a horse race track owner in exchange for Blagojevich signing legislation favorable to the race track. But all the tapes actually show is Blagojevich's chief of staff urging Blagojevich to pressure the race track owner to pay up on a previously promised campaign contribution, and Blagojevich trying to confirm that the payment will be made. Nothing on the tapes states that Blagojevich would refuse to sign the legislation, already passed by a substantial majority in the legislature (including many of the Senators voting on impeachment), if there were no payment. You may be able to make the connection, but these tapes don't do it. We would need much more evidence to show extortion or even conspiracy to extort.

and

Although not the first time I noticed this, when hearing the affidavit read out loud it became clear that much of the "evidence" against Blagojevich is double and triple hearsay based on questionable witnesses. Something along the lines of "John Smith, who is under investigation and trying to cut a deal for himself, testified that Mary Jones told him that Rod Blagojevich wanted a campaign contribution in exchange for ...."

The media and the public with them, jumped to convict this guy before any evidence was presented against him. The same way the media and Duke jumped to convict the Lacrosse players. And none of it is actually about guilt or the crime. It all has to do with a sense of frustration with the system(s). Clearly, with the Duke case, the rush to guilt was a reflection of a racially and economically divided space - where kids of privilege can hire a poor black women to perform sexual acts at their behest. This narrative fit neatly into the privilege (white) vs. underprivileged (black), this-system-is-all-fucked-up-story we are told is the TRUTH. Never mind that it wasn't.

The Blagojevich issue is somewhat different. Most Americans are purposefully naive about how politics work. They don't like the notion of backroom dealings and paying-to-play. Never mind that in their own lives and work they participate in similarly gray spaces, whether it be taking advantage of tax loopholes, participating in office politics to achieve promotions, using nepotism and favoritism to assist their families/friends, or get their kids into the "right" schools or some playing time on the soccer team. All of that, is simply "part of the game." But with our elected officials we expect pure intentions and pure dealings even though we know the world isn't that way. The Blagojevich scandal just hit at the wrong time for Blagojevich. The public is immensely frustrated with their 401ks and houses losing value and freaked out about their lost jobs or potential for lost jobs. They see this being the fault of those corrupt "other" people in power - Wall Street or politicians - or whoever. It is just someone with lots of money and power's fault. Not theirs. So the rush to judge and the public outcry against this corrupt official swells. It's not important whether he's guilty or what he did was illegal or even outside the norm. It is enough that he was accused and charged. And being the buffoon that he is, doesn't help.

One last thing - the man does not behave like a guilty person. He has not tried to sweep it under the rug and hasn't budged one inch on his proclamations of innocence. He has carried on "as if" there wasn't an unfair charge against him. This makes me think he isn't guilty of a crime because it's also clear that he's too stupid and inelegant to pull off such a stance if he were guilty. (note a difference with Bill Clinton who puffed up his chest and declared he did not have sex with "that" woman and tried to assassinate her character and tried to make the problem go away any which way he could...if the charge were untrue, would he have had a press conference or just carried on with his day-to-day?)