By Patrick Appel
Marc:
The most powerful person in Illinois politics is not David Axelrod. Not Valerie Jarrett. Not either the Daleys. Not either of the Madigans. Not Patrick Fitzgerald. It’s the person who dropped a dime on Rod Blagojevich, and it’s all the people who have information that Fitzgerald might be interested in. Someone dropped a dime on the Senate seat matter. Someone got fed up with the pettiness and went to the U.S. Attorney
by Chris Bodenner
FamousDC conjures Rahm Emanuel’s inbox.
by Chris Bodenner
"I have a hard time pronouncing his name. I just call him the idiot," – David Gergen, on the soon-to-be-former IL governor.
By Patrick Appel
A reader writes:
I write to disagree with you on Jonah’s Makin Award today. Save for the gratuitous reference to Dan Rather, which is the sort of thing I expect from the Corner, I think Jonah’s reaction is pretty much what I’m feeling. If anything, Jonah is too kind.
I found myself smirking if not laughing at the quotes from Blagojevich. As serious as trying to sell a Senate seat is, and if the web is wider I hope they bring down whoever responded, this guy is laughable in his thinking. Though the Corner would never do it, I think it’s the same sort of logic that you would apply to large swaths of the Bush administration when things like the US Attorney scandal and the Valerie Plame leak came to light: "Everyone gets what they deserve — at least so far — and all of the guilty parties are all the more deserving of punishment because they don’t quite understand what the big deal is…" It doesn’t happen enough, but when it does, it is quite satisfying.
Another reader adds:
I have to say, even as a guy that thinks Jonah is just an intellectually disgusting person, he generally catches the small feeling of schadenfreude that you get listening to the Blago case. It’s very much like watching a Tom and Jerry episode, and Blago is the witless cat that should know better than to mess with a mouse with an impeccable win/loss record. You laugh at the cat for thinking of trying, you laugh at the cat’s plan of action, you laugh at the inevitable result.
And he’s also right that this story comes in a no-fuss/no-muss package (K-Lo said the same thing, and she was generally right, too). No explanations, no complications, no back-story: Stupid person got beat for being stupid, so stay in school, kids.
Jonah’s only fault is for taking a non-sequitur dig at Dan Rather. That alone is not worth a Malkin Award.
By Patrick Appel
Maybe not.
By Patrick Appel
A paragraph from Roger Cohen’s piece in Sunday’s NYT magazine:
…if the embargo had come down then, back in 1989, I doubt the [Castro] regime would have survived. But the grudges were too deep, and a mistake was made. Today the policy makes little sense. The United States dislikes Chávez but maintains diplomatic relations with Venezuela. I think Obama should add to the measures he has already announced by offering to open full diplomatic relations with Cuba immediately.
Jake Colvin thinks the time is ripe.
by Chris Bodenner
Dee Dee Myers unloads on Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau:
It’s an act of deliberate humiliation. Of disempowerment. Of denigration. And it disgusts me. … The press, the pundits, and the public could say things about her (“She’s a shrew!”) and to her (“Iron my shirt!) that were over-the-top sexist—yet got almost no reaction. Imagine how different the reaction would be if an important aide to John McCain had been caught in similar picture featuring Michelle Obama? Or if the picture had shown a cutout of Barack Obama and, say, a white hood?
By Patrick Appel
Hilzoy proposes:
…it’s clearer than ever to me that Obama and the Congress should give Patrick Fitzgerald the job of investigating the Bush administration’s war crimes. Give him complete freedom from interference, and let the chips fall where they may.
By Patrick Appel
A reader writes:
Corey Scholibo has a point, but he’s not entirely correct. The Onion AV Club did a 3-page interview with Neil Patrick Harris back in September. Tasha Robinson, while not exactly invoking the "gross" factor, did ask if it was "weird." Here’s the quote:
AVC: Does it feel weird now, as an openly gay man, to be playing so many roles where the character’s complete focus is getting with a woman, or a series of women? In Dr. Horrible, it’s a romantic quest, and in Harold & Kumar and How I Met Your Mother, you play sex fiends. But in all cases, it’s all about the women.
NPH: No. I don’t know that that’s necessarily true. I guess so with NPH and with Barney Stinson—they’re both horndogs. But in most films and roles, the guy is after love, and trying to find the woman, or has been scorned by the woman. I think that’s just the way parts are written. I guess I’m glad that I’m not only being asked to play the effeminate gay guy. I’m not making a conscious effort to play the womanizer role. The Harold & Kumar stuff came at me without my seeking it. Barney Stinson is just—he’s crazy. I don’t know. It’s certainly not a concerted effort on my part to play those roles. But I acknowledge the irony.
by Chris Bodenner
Very:
A rising Chicago pol, [Blagojevich] occupied the Congressional seat of powerful Dan Rostenkowski after he was convicted of mail fraud. He then became the Illinois top dog following Gov. George Ryan, who is now in prison for accepting bribes. … If Blagojevich is convicted he will become the fourth Illinois Governor in 40 years to go to jail. Other than Ryan, former governor Dan Walker took fraudulent loans to repair his yacht. Gov. Otto Kerner (as in Kerner Commission) was convicted of taking bribes while in office.
And of course:
Blagojevich ran as a reformer framing his Democratic Party credentials against the out-going corrupt Republican Ryan.
The Dish 