By Steve Rhodes
As the Rod Blagojevich Comeback Tour continues with the national media, we hope against hope that the dillrods who keep giving this guy a platform to taint the jury pool takes up its proper responsibilities and asks the former governor the questions prosecutors weren’t able to when he refused to testify on his behalf. And also some other questions prosecutors may have bypassed.
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1. Every member of your inner circle testified against you – including several not facing any charges and who hadn’t cut any deals with prosecutors. Is it all really just a conspiracy against you?
2. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan just said you lied the other day when you claimed you were about to appoint her to the U.S. Senate. Sure, she’s a political enemy. But Chicago political reporter Mike Flannery said the other day that if you didn’t lie to the FBI, they were the only ones in Illinois you hadn’t lied to. Even while you were still governor you were accused by state lawmakers and others in the system of being a liar. You were forced to sign “Memorandums of Understanding” with legislators who no longer trusted your word. Is everybody lying except you? Why do so many people think you’re a liar?
3. Did you really hide in the bathroom to avoid your budget director?
4. Did you really only work a few hours a week?
5. Was former deputy governor Bradley Tusk lying on the stand when he said he was basically running the state and even had to track you down at a bowling alley to get bills signed?
6. Before being indicted you were impeached and removed from office. Why would there be such a huge conspiracy against you? Couldn’t the political system just install someone else in the governor’s office if they didn’t like you? Is it possible this is all your fault?
7. You are once again threatening to call people like Valerie Jarrett and Rahm Emanuel to the stand in a retrial. They would be hostile witnesses, of course. Don’t you have any friends or allies who could testify in your defense? Not even one?
8. Describe the work Patti did to earn those fees from Tony Rezko.
9. Where did you get the money to pay for those suits? You weren’t thinking of your daughters’ college educations then, were you?
10. You are a former prosecutor. Where is the line between political horse-trading and criminal behavior? And the Senate seat may have been horse-trading, but how do you explain people like Children’s Hospital CEO Patrick Magoon feeling like they were being extorted? Just another pattern where everybody is wrong except you? Part of the conspiracy?
11. Why do you think the jury didn’t acquit you of a single count? Doesn’t that mean the government has a responsibility to retry those counts?
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Comments welcome.
Posted on August 24, 2010