Crazy Rod's Senate Auction

Looks like Obama is calling on Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resign after he was caught trying to sell the president elect's Illinois Senate.

For those uninitiated, this is politics as usual--especially in the rough and tumble world of Illinois politics. Gov. Rod Blagojevich didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Politicians use favor and sweetheart deals as their currency. Crazy Rod was just open about it.

Political power and influence, of course, is bought and sold in a dizzying multitude of ways. This instance is merely noteworthy because of how brazen Crazy Rod was, and how ironic it is that the Messiah of Change's Senate seat was the commodity. I wonder what the president elect's seat would have gone for?

Locally, it looks like our resident neoconservative embarrassment in the Senate, Norm Coleman, is also looking at the FBI investigating his possible part in corruption charges. A campaign contributor was allegedly trying to get around the stupid campaign laws by setting up fake contracts with Norm Coleman's wife, though it's doubtful the Colemans actually received the money.

In the old days, big campaign contributors just gave the politician money and it wasn't a big deal. Businessmen gave crooked politicians protection money, just like any other gangster transaction. The political machine was grungy, smelly, and ugly, but it was scum that percolated to the surface. The way you knew the politician was corrupt was by the fact that he was drawing breath. It was an evil you knew.

Now, the same transactions happen--albeit, less organized--but the whole thing is driven deep underground to the point where only the occasional ambitious government agent looking to eventually swap places with the politician--see the career of Rudolph Gulliani, Spitzer, etc.--and good journalists can uncover the dirt.

Now the muck is rooted deep, and hard to find. Plus it's a monumental pain in the ass to even attempt to pull up without an endless cauldron of taxpayer dollars to back the investigation.

Worse yet, there's this whole hokey air of propriety that's unvarnished the dirty business of politics. The gullible booboisie actually have begun to think some of these assholes aren't Neanderthal. I can see the infatuation with 'respectable' gangsters that tote guns and talk with slathered-on machismo, but politicians?

Politicians are mostly the bad debate team nerds from high school. (No disrespect to debaters out there.)