Can you believe the world's dumbest and most corrupt politician? Not Mugabe - he is just the dripping essence of evil. Not someone other than Mugabe who could illustrate bad but who, other than Mugabe, I can't think of as illustrating really really bad other than Mugabe. Except Mugabe had the idea to create a massively and miserably corrupt and ideologically blind (yet arbitrary) tyranny in which he can operate and play out his evil. No, to be a real leader in the world of dumbness and corruption as a politician you really have to work within a democracy yet act like you own the place...like Mr. Blagojevich, the soon to be former Governor of Illinois and soon to be bestriped and a-rock-hammering who spake the following words:
“I’ve got this thing,” Mr. Blagojevich said on one recording, according to the affidavit, “and it’s [expletive] golden. And I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I’m not going to do it. And I can always use it. I can parachute me there.”
Where is my copy of Dante's Inferno? What particular circle, what Malebolge of Hell does the corrupt politician who sells offices sit? If you are unclear about such matters as the fine lines of sinning, this is civil simony or "barratry." Barrators actually sit two Malebolges - or "Evil Pockets" - of hell lower than those who committed simony, two steps closer to Satan where one receives this sort of welcome in pits of liquid tar:
That one sank under, and came up back uppermost, but the demons that had shelter of the bridge cried out, "Here the Holy Face avails not; here one swims otherwise than in the Serchio; therefore, if thou dost not want our grapples, make no show above the pitch." Then they struck him with more than a hundred prongs, and said, "Covered must thou dance here, so that, if thou canst, thou mayst swindle secretly." Not otherwise cooks make their scullions plunge the meat with their hooks into the middle of the cauldron, so that it may not float.
Immersed in pitch. That sounds just about right.
Comments
seanie - December 10, 2008 10:08 AM
Channeling Mel Blanc: "Wadda Maroon"...
Ben (The Tiger) - December 10, 2008 10:40 AM
Idiot.
Everyone does it, but no-one can say it aloud.
Why couldn't he stand by the social contract? Or just appoint himself -- Illinois senators have a better record than governors do at avoiding jail.
Oh, wait...
(Still, it's pretty awesome when you can say, "Two of our last three governors are in the clink.")
Alan - December 10, 2008 10:53 AM
To be fair, everybody does not do it. You hear the refrain from those who are caught and those who do not want to know but everyone does not do it.
seanie - December 10, 2008 11:01 AM
Not EVERYONE does it, but non-competative hiring for governmental circles, from municipal to federal, for non-union positions occurs all over the place. THis is because for non-union jobs, the system has ways and means of ensuring the manager can hire staff they know that they can work with and can do the job adequately, without having to go through the whole process of sitting through interview after interview with dweebs who have the schooling and experience, but would be nightmare employees.
Ben (The Tiger) - December 10, 2008 11:54 AM
Some states -- Arizona, for one -- have a system that involves presenting the governor with a number of choices from a given political party.
Others -- like Alaska -- have governors appointing their own children to the Senate.
Ben (The Tiger) - December 10, 2008 11:57 AM
I stand corrected re Illinois.
If Blagojevich goes to jail, it'll be the last two governors there who are in the clink.
TRex - December 11, 2008 3:38 AM
This will get very messy as Blogojevich has no intention of stepping down and will quite likely drag anyone close enough to him over the event horizon into oblivion. I don’t care which party he belongs to, this is the side of politics that needs to be exposed more often.
And I hope it was Rahm Emanuel who stuck the fork in this guy, it might keep the troops in line.
Ben (The Tiger) - December 11, 2008 11:25 AM
Oh, corruption is a bipartisan endeavour, though the Chicago machine is definitely a donkey enterprise.
Blagojevich is a Democrat, but his immediate jailbird predecessor, George Ryan, is a Republican.
So the jailed Illinois governor count will now be even.
Jay Currie - December 12, 2008 3:40 AM
Call me crazy but I would rather be #18 for free on the Harper list than have to pay for it in Illinois.
"Never paid for it in my life" as the boys say.
And for the Senate seate I might just call off Plan-B. Maybe.