Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Way to go, Blago!

I am not at all a fan of the foul mouthed former governor of Illinois, but I must confess to feeling a certain amount of empathy for Rod Blagojevich. After all the fanfare and a twenty four count indictment at the conclusion of an investigation that had ended rather abruptly and prematurely, Patrick Fitzgerald managed to get a guilty verdict on one and only one count of “lying to the FBI”.


Perhaps Blago’s attorney said it best: “"This guy Fitzgerald is a master at indicting people for noncriminal activity,"



It is ironic that the only count on which Fitzgerald managed to win a guilty verdict is very similar to the only conviction won on the last case that made him (in)famous. After months of investigation, millions of taxpayer dollars and jailing reporters for refusing to reveal their sources--when he already knew full well who had leaked the identity of not-so-covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, Fitzgerald managed to win a conviction against the Vice President’s Chief of Staff for apparently contradicting himself in the midst of hours and days of interrogation. “Scooter” Libby did jail time before President Bush commuted his sentence to time served, one of the very few “pardons” he issued just prior to leaving office.

As suggested in my previous tongue-in-cheek post, perhaps Fitzgerald would have done better in the Blago case if he had pursued it with the same ferocity as he did in the Plame-gate political witch hunt. Perhaps if he had not abruptly ended the investigation just when things were starting to get interesting, things would have turned out differently.

In the mean time, Fitzgerald is planning to re-try and Blago is planning to appeal the one conviction. Stay tuned.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/08/14th-day-for-blagojevich-jury.html

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As always, you have the right to remain silent.

Except to the FEDS.
Paul

feeno said...

Hello Crusty, thought I'd come by and let you know that 8 Italians took me for about 55 bucks last night in a vicious game of Texas-hold-em. I tried to get even by eating a bunch of their pizza and drinking a lot of their beers.

I also agree with you about Blago. I was rooting for that nut the whole time.

see you there, feeno

The Maryland Crustacean said...

Thanks for dropping in Feeno. Do any of your Italian friends play "TRE SETTE", "BRISCOLA" or "SCOPA"?