August 20, 2006
DNC In Chicago: Putting The "Blah" In Blah-gojevich?
Ask any IL Dem to explain why Gov. Rod Blagojevich faces a rocky reelection bid, and they'll reply that his troubles are self-inflicted, personality driven and, most importantly to them, not reflective of the state party's overall strength.
That response has always seemed a tad defensive ("it's Rod's fault, not ours"). But if the gov's performance at the DNC meeting in Chicago this weekend is any indication, that response is also spot on.
Blago started off his 8/19 a.m. performance by keeping a room packed with hundreds of Dem activists and donors waiting -- for 20 mins -- forcing a visibly irritated DNC Chair Howard Dean to stall. When he finally arrived, Blagojevich breezed through an apology and into a stock ice-breaker "joke" about riding in his motorcade and being mistaken for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley by a little girl. "And that's not because my last name's hard to pronounce," he quipped.
Ba dum bum.
Curiously, he then wandered into an unflattering, caricature imitation of Dem icon Bill Clinton and spoke glowingly about how flattered he was, "as a lowly nobody freshman congressman," when Clinton invited him to fly aboard Air Force One in '97. (For those Dems who didn't raise their eyebrows at his exaggerated Arkansas accent, he then recounted the advice his "mama" gave him when he called to tell her he was on AF1: "Don't let him get you in any trouble.")
Ah, but there's more. Blagojevich then told the DNCers about his "guiding political philosophy," which isn't something you learn by reading big fancy books in school. "In fact, most of those books, I read only as much as I needed in order to pass the tests," he explains proudly.
No, friends, he says, Blagojevich's guiding political philosophy is something his mama taught him when he was just a small child. "It's called the golden rule."
I kid you not.
Asked what she thought of Blagojevich's speech, one top DNCer replied monosyllablically: "Blah," she said. [JOHN MERCURIO>]
Posted at 05:53 PM
Comments
He almost always says it's a little African-American girl, not just a little girl when he tells that story. I'm curious if he left out her race this time or not?
rich miller | 08.21.06 02:23 AM
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As Rich Miller alluded to above, you missed the real creepiness of the Daley joke. It is weird and not funny.
This was pretty typical for Blago.
It is amazing that people keep voting for him, and says more about the weakness of the Illinois Republican Party than anything else.
Skeeter | 08.21.06 09:46 AM
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Blagojevich is known as a great campaigner, however, he has lately been shockingly poor. He has had to divide his limited time with his campaigning, what little governing he can do, but mostly with staffers and legal teams handling federal investigations into his administration.
The difficulties to doing three full time jobs simultaneously is what attendees saw this weekend.
However, that said, he is chronically late to nearly every function, and does not discriminate. He has been late to funerals, campaign stops, government activities, press functions and fund raisers since day one. We have discovered that he is a poor time manager, dithering easily away from tight schedules.
VanillaMan | 08.21.06 10:43 AM
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Rod Blagojevich is a major embarassment to Illinois. He is incredibly unpopular here. After 26 years of Republican rule, he has broken the mold for bad government in Illinois. It isn't just his ridiculous comments about his "mama" or his inferior intellect or his stupid Elvis references, replete with a bad Tennesse accent - its his policies. He was elected and came out swinging at everyone in public office and quickly alienated just about everyone in government. He even has had a public feud with his father-in-law, who engineered his gubernatorial win. He is listed as "Public Official A" by federal prosecutors and has several federal investigations of his office and administration in process. Don't worry about having to sit through another Blago speech at the national level too soon though. We are all expecting indictments against him soon. Illinois has sunk to a new low, from the City of Chicago, to the county of Cook, to state government. It is rotten and needs to be rooted out!
Embarassed Illinoisan | 08.22.06 02:14 AM
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