Ambassador Blagojevic? |
Photograph Source: Justin Newman – CC BY 2.0
Recently, President Trump pardoned disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and reportedly is considering him to be ambassador to Serbia.
On the surface when he was impeached in 2008, Rod Blagojevich may have just looked like the newest John Edwards/Eliot Spitzer flame out: an ambitious, corruption fighting politician on his way up, even to the White House, but undone by a Fatal Flaw no one knew he had. But he was also a standard issue Chicago Machine pol practicing the Precinct Politics that dictate you hire your brother-in-law’s contracting firm (brudder-in-law in “Chicaga”) in your first100 days in office.
For example, Bruce Dold and John McCormick former Chicago Tribune editorial writers—both on Blag’s hit list—recount that Blagojevich made a beeline to meet (and eventually marry) Chicago Alderman Dick Mell’s daughter Patti at a political mixer when he was an upstart politician—a move that could only help a bid to be guv. (She appeared as a contestant on the NBC reality show........