OK, more Blagorama. Here's a doozy of a quote, noted by Time's David Von Drehle:
He recalled the sacrifices of a sainted parent, recounted the struggles of the humble voters for whom he worked night and day, acknowledged and apologized for his ultimate offense — the crime of caring too much. "Charge it to my heart," he said, adding at another point, "Sometimes I get too frustrated. Sometimes maybe I get too impatient with the process."
And don't miss this sketch of Blago's last hours as governor by the NYT's Monica Davey, who was allowed to shadow him for the day. It contains the seeds of a new defense - it was Chicago made me do it:
“I come out of the alleys of Chicago politics,” said Mr. Blagojevich, 52, who entered Democratic politics in 1992, first as a state representative, then a United States representative. “That’s a tough place. The politics there is not motivated by idealism or high purpose. It’s nuts and bolts, and you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. I came up that way."
Agree that the NYT article was excellent - but what it loses online is the impact of the photo, which is on the front page of today's paper: http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=NY_NYT&ref_pge=lst
'Rod R. Blagojevich readying his defense for Illinois legislators on Thursday, before both he and Elvis left the building' - already on my shortlist for caption of the year.
Posted by: DC Diary | January 30, 2009 at 07:57 PM
Thank-you, DC Diary. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.
Posted by: Ian Leslie | January 31, 2009 at 10:31 AM