Blagojevich Appears At Chicago Comic Con 171
theodp writes "Earlier this week, a federal jury convicted Former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich of lying to the FBI and deadlocked on 23 other charges. Still, that didn't stop Blago from connecting with his 'loyal supporters' Saturday at the Chicago Comic Con, where the ex-Gov charged $80 for each photo taken with him and $50 for autographs. He even hob-knobbed with celebrities like Adam West and Richard Roundtree. 'I met Batman. I met Shaft, and I know something about getting the shaft,' Blagojevich said."
Getting the shaft? (Score:4, Insightful)
WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't be the only one who is wondering what the fuck this guy is doing at a comic book gathering. Are comic books becoming circus acts and carnivals now?
My childhood is at risk here, fellas.
Re:Is a party switch coming up? (Score:4, Insightful)
which generally isn't in the playbook of the party he ran under - although it is very much in the playbook of the other party.
What other party? Trying to draw a meaningful distinction between the lying democans and the lying republicrats is the joke.
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, a former state employee from Chicago voted not to convict the former state governor from Chicago. Shocking? No. This is Chicago we're talking about. She probably also voted for him four times in each of his two elections for governor in the first place.
If they want a truly fair trial for him, they need to move it to another federal district. If they want a sure conviction, they should move it somewhere in Illinois south of Interstate 80.
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:3, Insightful)
Blago is your standard corrupt Chicago politician.
Remember, this is same the city where the dead rise to vote on a yearly basis.
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Did you read the comments from the lone juror holdout? Who "just happened" to be a state employee, "just happened" to have worked on Blago's campaign, and was probably guaranteed a spot on someone else's campaign staff in the future as payoff for hanging the jury?
This is just typical Chicago corruption as usual.
Re:Corruption threatens "soul and fabric" of U.S. (Score:5, Insightful)
I heard on NPR that the judge declared a mistrial with regards to the remaining 23 accounts and has ordered a retrial. Of course, going into that with wide-spread public knowledge of the other conviction, plus constantly pulling stunts like this, isn't really going to help him. Although, I think the big question is, who would pay $80 to get their picture taken with this greasy douchebag?
"loyal supporters" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Is a party switch coming up? (Score:1, Insightful)
I dunno, there does seem to be a real difference:
Democrats lie during the process, bringing in dead voters and tampering with elections, voter intimidation, and whatnot, then carry out the Democratic agenda when they get into office.
Republicans lie about their intentions, getting elected on the false pretense that they're for smaller governemnent, and whatnot, then carry out the Democratic agenda when they get into office....
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't understand the mentality of straight-party-ticket voters.
It doesn't matter what THEIR guys do, only what the OTHER team's guys do. The attitude is, "Well, he might be a crook but he's OUR crook".
I've been involved in state politics. It's unbelievable. I've seen guys with FELONY FRAUD CONVICTIONS get re-nominated time and again for their state House of Representative seat because they have the weight of the local political machine behind them (and, presumably, because they've got dirt on somebody higher up).
It happens at the national level, too. The only thing that can come up with that explains Michael Steele's continued tenure at the helm of the GOP after strippergate and all the other scandals is that he's got the key to a closet full of skeletons.
I'm ashamed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:4, Insightful)
While I generally believe you, and I don't doubt that Steele knows some stuff, I suspect a better explanation for him is that Republicans have no idea how to cope with race.
For the longest time, the right has complained bout 'racial quotas' and stuff, and I though they were just ginning up anger, but they're serious.
They simply cannot judge people of other race based on their merits, on their skills, on, as MLKj put it, the content of their characters. They look at a black person and they don't see 'good leader' or 'bad leader', they see 'black person'. If they are forced to hire black people they will, indeed, select them randomly.
With Steele, they managed to do that to their boss, which is just outright hilarious.
Of course, it didn't help that the pool of black people willing to work for the Republicans was pretty low to start with.
I don't doubt that there are a lot of skeletons in various closets, but I suspect that they wouldn't let Micheal Steele have access to them that fast. (OTOH, he did apparently know about the lesbian strip club.)
PAYING for autographs and photos? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry, what? I cannot imagine anywhere here in Australia ever willingly handing over money to a politician for a photo or an autograph. Is that a normal thing for an American politician to do?
I can understand people paying actors, celebs, writers, artists etc at a ComicCon for that sort of thing. I personally wouldn't do it (and I say that as a pretty avid comic fan), but I can understand why people would. But politicians?
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:3, Insightful)
Dude, you do realize we were actually complaining about the job performance of a black person, right? And wondering how the hell he got in charge of the RNC.
You know, the guy who recently said Afghanistan is a war of Obama's choosing? Which is an...odd position for the head of the RNC to take.
If it wasn't something to do with race, then the Republicans are just simple idiots for hiring Steele.