"Hot" Rod Blagojevich Not So Hot

On December 23, 2008 our former Governor, Rod Balgojevich was arrested on corruption including the attempt to sell President Obama's old senate seat. According to the Chicago Tribune, the former Governer was elected to end the corruption in Illinois that former Governor George Ryan started, who was convicted of corruption. Of course we know now that Blagojevich will be going to prison for 14 years. It does not sound like that Rod completed his goal. It sounds more like he made it worse.

According to the Huff Post, Blagojevich's trial first began on June 3, 2010. This ended up becoming a very long trial that lasted several months. Several jurors may have known the guilt of Blagojevich, but unless the information presented in court is enough for a guilty verdict, then Blagojevich remains not guilty. In my opinion, it would be a tough job for me, and probably for anyone, to be a juror for this trial. This is because we have been watching our former governor drag our state through hell and corruption through his terrible legacy as governor. That is something that many jurors cannot put behind them to make it a fair trial. Not to mention that throughout the trial, Blagojevich continued to lie and stick with his rediculous lies. The jury, for sure, knew how pathetic the words were coming out of the former governors mouth.

A blog by Natasha Korecki states the quote that Judge Zagel said to Rod Blagojevich. "In the United States, we don't much govern at gunpoint," Zagel said.

"We require willing ... participation. This happens most easily when people trust the person at the top to do the right thing most of the time and more important than that to try to do it most of the time. When a state senator takes a bribe, that's one person out of 59. You are not to be compared with those who hold lesser positions in government. You, as a governor are seen to control all of them, though I concede in practice you don't....When it is the governor who goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured and not easily or quickly repaired. You did that damage." 

It is certain with all of the problems in our state, that Mr. Hot Rod is just a typical Illinois governor along with George Ryan. When people are at high authority, they carry a great responsibility that is owed to the people. Wanting to be governor, or any leader of any sort, is wanting to make the people around you successful and give a guidance along the way to success. Mr. Blagojevich only destroyed the whole idea of leadership. He took the great responsibility that he owed to the people and used it to only benefit himself and his family. This is simply a sign of selfishness and irresponsibility. This irresponsibility and selfishness only led to his arrest and 14 years in prison.

It doesn't pay to lie, cheat, and steal. In fact it cost the former governor a lot of money and more importantly time. He loses 14 years of his life to spend taking care of his family and being a father to his daughters because he will rot in prison. The moral of Mr. Blagojevich's story is to never challenge the authority of the United States court system. The plea bargaining for a white collar crime like this were probably worth a lot less than 14 years in prison. A more important way to look at this is, what kind of shape would the state of Illinois be in if Blagojevich had never been elected? We will never know as we can't change the past, but people now realize to never fully trust the high power of our Illinois government. In this case, the criminal justice system worked well for our state. Future leaders of our state, and any other business, now know to not use their position benefit their personal life. Instead to fix the damage of our state and make it the prosperous state it should be.

What a Shame: Corrupt Governor Rob Blagojevich

Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, is, in my opinion, one of the stupidest people on the planet. It really makes me mad when people are corrupt, especially if it’s something so essential in our everyday lives like government. Our tax dollars pay for their salaries, we elect them, and put all our trust in them to run our state, and then they betray us.
Since 2005, the FBI has been investigating him for corruption. He got impeached by the Illinois General Assembly in January of 2009 as a result of his corruption. He and his chief of staff John Harris were charged by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Investigation continued, and he was found guilty in April of 2009. He was only found guilty of one charge out of his 24 charges, which he made false statements during his trial (lied to the government). Some of those charges were mail fraud, wire fraud, and soliciting bribes.

Not just that, but Blagojevich said the most shocking thing: “The government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me … I did not lie to the FBI. I told the truth from the very beginning.” How could he say such a thing? We know, with unreasonable doubt that he did lie, and he still says that he didn’t? The government had tapes of him talking about selling Obama’s seat in the senate, and tons of evidence besides that. When is he just going to give up and tell the truth? Lying is a sin, and everybody knows very well that he’s going to hell.

Then he said something so insane and racist toward Obama, that I just couldn’t stand reading it. He said: “I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up.” He just insulted the president! Not just that, but made a racist statement. He then stated that: “It’s a stupid metaphor to say I’m blacker than Barack Obama, that I apologize for,” he said. “It’s not appropriate for me, a white person, to stand out somehow and claim to be a black person, that’s just wrong … I was expressing frustration that the policies of this new administration still haven’t really been focusing on the great deal of inequities we have in our society.” He just claimed that Obama wasn’t focusing on inequities we have in our society, yet he had just made a racist statement the day before. This is completely nuts. If I I had the power to put him in jail for the rest of his life, I’d do it in a split second.
Something else I found interesting was, after all this happened, he appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, a show created by Donald Trump where people compete to gain a spot to work with Trump. Obviously he lost, but why would Trump want an idiot like Blagojevich on his show.





Can you believe he's still staying with his lie. Don't you think it's a little bit sketchy that they "wouldn't let the public listen to the phone conversations," as Blagojevich stated. He's got an excuse for everything, a tremendous liar, but you're always caught at one point, and he lied one to many times. I also found it interesting that so many government officials from Illinois are so corrupt. In my opinion, we should investigate a lot more than we are at this time.

Blagojevich, in my opinion, was beyond corrupt. He is a great liar, but was caught in the act with so much evidence that his lies didn't work anymore. In the video, he was stating that all of the government officials were corrupt except for him, which is almost impossible to believe, considering the word would've gotten out because someone would have found out and told. Blagojevich did do what he's saying he didn't, but it's an opinion of mine. What do you think?