Chicago Mag takes a bite out of Blagojevich
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Chicago Magazine’s article “Mr. Unpopularity” is now online. I’m quoted throughout the piece, but here’s my favorite…
The governor’s strange behavior has been fertile ground for local armchair psychologists. Last summer, the downstate newspaper the Peoria Journal Star declared that the governor was “going bonkers.” Privately, a few people who know the governor describe him as a “sociopath,” and they insist they’re not using hyperbole. State representative Joe Lyons, a fellow Democrat from Chicago, told reporters that Blagojevich was a “madman” and “insane.” “He shows absolutely no remorse,” says Jack Franks, the Democratic state representative. “I don’t think he gives a damn about anybody else’s feelings. He tries to demonize people who disagree with him; he’s got delusions of grandeur.”
Miller points out that people shouldn’t blame Blagojevich’s lousy governing skills on his personality alone: “You can be insane—totally whacked out psychologically—and be a good governor or a good president.”
* The reporter did a good job of capturing what’s going on…
The bitterness between Blagojevich and his chief nemesis, Michael Madigan, hit an all-time low in October, after the Blagojevich administration abruptly fired Bronwyn Rains—the wife of Madigan’s chief of staff, Timothy Mapes—from her job as a child psychologist at the Department of Human Services. Rains had held the contractual position for 24 years and had a clean record. Blagojevich’s office justified the firing by claiming that Rains didn’t meet federally mandated educational requirements. But no one was buying that, at least in Springfield. “Once you start firing people’s spouses, you’ve declared nuclear war,” says one leading Democratic operative from Chicago. “And once you’ve gone nuclear, you can’t get rid of the fallout.”
* And…
But Rich Miller says Blagojevich “believes so fervently he’s in the right that I don’t think he’s capable of understanding when people tell him he’s wrong.” If you don’t support his plan on, say, state-subsidized mammograms for women, then you’re for breast cancer. Or if you reject his education-funding initiatives, then you’re for dumb kids. “Rod has difficulty separating personal differences from the need to govern,” adds Fritchey, a former friend of Blagojevich’s who is now one of his loudest critics. “The role of governor is not that of the kid with the bat and ball who says, ‘If you don’t play by my rules, I’m taking my stuff and going home.’ That’s not how you govern. One does not govern by edict.”
A few people who work closely with Blagojevich’s office say they know that members of his staff have tried to get him to tone down the inflammatory rhetoric. But the governor shows no evidence of having a personality Plan B. “He can’t control himself,” says Miller.
* And…
“Something happened to him after he won the [gubernatorial] primary,” says a prominent Democratic fundraiser, one of Blagojevich’s former friends. “I wish I could tell you what it was—I don’t think anyone has figured out what happened. It was like a personality change.”
The problem may come in part because Blagojevich grew up on Chicago politics. “He wants to govern like Daley,” says Miller, explaining that Blagojevich wants a legislature that is a rubber stamp, as the city council has been for much of the Daley era. “But you can’t automatically govern like Daley.” Miller says it took Daley years to build relationships with council members and establish his iron-tight grip on the chamber.
Go read the whole thing. David Bernstein did a very good job. And he didn’t screw up any of my quotes, for which I’m thankful.
* I’m told I made this piece, too, but I haven’t seen it yet and it’s not online.
- Squideshi - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 8:02 am:
The appearance of so many works like this make it simply undeniable that most people are unhappy, no matter what the Governor’s press people may say.
- Levois - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 8:48 am:
That article was very thorough. Sounds almost like a cautionary tale.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:29 am:
An excellent and sad article.
It demonstrates that sometimes we all need to take a step back and realize the tremendous damage Blagojevich has done to Illinois.
If Obama is serious about being governor, he has a lot of work to do to clean up this mess. As you know, I have been critical of Halvorson for trying to leave Illinois at this time for Washington when she is needed here - the same goes for Obama. He isn’t ready for the White House, he is needed here.
In 2002, I said that the next governor needed to be a good one. One that was capable of cleaning up a fiscal mess before it became uncontrollable and put our schools in order. So when Blagojevich was elected, I had hope that the Illinois Democratic Party leaders would work with this guy and not let him burn down our house. Nothing worked out! Now the situation is even worse, and after Blagojevich, we have a general public forced into a level of cynicism that will not go away easily, which may dampen any quick remedies the next governor proposes. How long will it take to rebuild trust among State leaders? We need a healer - now. Blagojevich is ruining the situation today, and tomorrow.
And I am not even considering what negative impact Blagojevich will have if he is indicted and put through the public spectacle of a trial while in office.
The time has come to stop pretending that those concerned about this governor are just playing partisan politics. We don’t even have a decent GOP, (which is part of today’s problem), so partisanship? - to what? Blagojevich has to go.
- Michelle - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:32 am:
Miller points out that people shouldn’t blame Blagojevich’s lousy governing skills on his personality alone: “You can be insane—totally whacked out psychologically—and be a good governor or a good president.”
Then why not elect Alan Keyes?
- kevinfanning - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:34 am:
Is that a serious post?
- Bookworm - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:40 am:
Can you cite an example of an “insane” or “totally whacked out” person who actually did make a good president or governor?
If you mean that people with depression, PTSD or mental illnesses or addictions that have been overcome or managed to the best of the person’s ability can still be good public officials, then I would agree with you. But I would not consider such people “insane” or “whacked out.” I would apply that term to people who clearly have psychological issues AND have done nothing about them. Does any “good” or effective public official fall into that category?
- kevinfanning - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:45 am:
I think you could make a pretty strong case for LBJ. The guy would hold staff meetings while he was on the can. I would say that’s pretty insane. He passed almost all of his domestic agenda, and aside from escalating Vietnam is traditionally known as an effective legislative Prez.
- Bill - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:46 am:
Blagojevich is not going anywhere. As distasteful as it may be for them, legislators who want to acccomplish anything for the next several years are going to have to work with the governor. They won’t gain very much by slamming him and calling him names in the press. There won’t be any recall and he won’t be indicted.
He has been the only one standing between you and a giant increase in statewide income and sales tax hikes. Since he has little to lose popularity-wise he will be even more strident in his quest to improve the quality of life for poor and working people and senior citizens. If you want a capital bill pass the Senate initiative on expansion of gaming. If you want more money for education, negotiate with the governor to expand health insurance and to find alternate revenue streams like a modified GRT or employee head tax. Either that or try to pass the same old stuff with a veto proof majority. Good luck with that.
The other alternative is to stick with the status quo and just blame Rod when enraged citizens storm your offices.
- The Elderly Republican Tomato Farmer - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:48 am:
The draft-Obama-for-governor piece was a sidebar in the larger story, I realize, however I have to say that concept has never made a whole lot of sense to me. What would the governorship give him that he doesn’t already have? Obama has enough charisma and star power to transcend the historical skepticism that voters have for senatorial presidential candidates (he’s very much like JFK in that sense). I know that the national punditry (whose opinions are rightly scorned on this blog) is obsessed with a candidate’s “record,” however I shudder to think about what kind of gubernatorial record Obama would amass in having to clean up Blago’s mess.
- If It Waks Like a Duck... - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 10:08 am:
#
# Persecutory: People with this type of delusional disorder believe that they (or someone close to them) are being mistreated, or that someone is spying on them or planning to harm them. It is not uncommon for people with this type of delusional disorder to make repeated complaints to legal authorities.
- Bookworm - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 10:10 am:
Yeah, LBJ was certainly a piece of work at times… but I would consider him more eccentric than truly “insane”. He may have had habits that were unusual or crazy but he had enough of a grip on reality to work with Congress effectively, AND to know when to quit (by not running for reelection in ‘68).
- kevinfanning - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 10:15 am:
Agreed, but my interpretation of Rich’s quote was more along those lines than let’s say Unibomber insane.
- Fan of the Game - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 10:27 am:
- Bill - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:46 am:
Blagojevich is not going anywhere. As distasteful as it may be for them, legislators who want to acccomplish anything for the next several years are going to have to work with the governor….
He has been the only one standing between you and a giant increase in statewide income and sales tax hikes.
————————————————-
Bill,
That may be true, but the governor also wanted to enact the largest tax increase in state history with the GRT. I would much rather have a slight increase in sales or income taxes than the monstrosity of business killing that was the GRT.
In addition, the governor wants to increase spending greatly while “not raising taxes.” In Illinois, we are already deep in debt. Such increases would devastate our already depleted funds.
- just watching - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 10:51 am:
It is a sad article. While I am not an apologist for the Governor,the author puts too much stock in quotes from Fritchey or Franks — let alone narrates with so many quotes from people we are no allowed to know who they are. Fritchey was never friends with the Governor. They came out of the same orgnaization but he was always envious of the attention the Gov got. Franks went sour when folks began to look at his conflict of interest with the Health Facilities board. And, for him to say anyone other than he has illusions of grandeur or doesn’t care about anyone but himself is laughable. Isn’t this the same guy that became Co-Chair to Hillary’s State campaign efforts because he thought it would give him surrogate opportunities after using Obama’s picute on a fundraising piece. This guy will never win statewide but he hasn’t figured that out yet in spite of the fact the AFL-CIO wouldn’t even consider him for endorsement.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 11:25 am:
Bookworm, LBJ didn’t know when to quit. He thought he’d be begged to reconsider.
Which is my point…
- Jake from Elwood - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 11:25 am:
Newsflash:”alternate revenue streams” such as the GRT and “employee head tax” are the equivalent of taxes, as they are governmental monetary assessments on industry that are invariably passed on to consumers. UnBILLievable.
- Princeville - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 11:25 am:
—Blagojevich is not going anywhere. As distasteful as it may be for them, legislators who want to acccomplish anything for the next several years are going to have to work with the governor—
“The fights in my view are well worth it. It would be nice if the legislatures would approve these things without any struggle”
That doesn’t sound like working together and compromising, Bill.
“We’ll keep trying to work in as nice a way as possible. I’ll say this, if they don’t pass things for people I’ll keep pushing to do it other ways like we did with public transportation for seniors” [ both quotes from WEEK TV ch.25 Peoria, report by Jeff Muniz]
So the spring session, the overtime sessions and the never ending session coming up for 2008 invilving FY09 will be a repeat of this past year unless Blago gets his own way? Is that what you want, ‘my way or no way’ and the shape of the state be ignored?
So as the governor played in Peoria Monday to about 50 residents of Heartland independent living center. Sure, he might have got a few captured audience cheers, but with rides already at 50cents or 20 for $9 for both seniors and disabled, I hope he doesn’t think he truely won them over. Peoria you know is rated among the top best manners city repeatedly. They say hello, thank-you, then do as they please.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 12:51 pm:
“You can be insane—totally whacked out psychologically—and be a good governor or a good president.”
Calvin Coolidge suffered depression after his son’s unexpected death.
Abraham Lincoln and his problem is well known.
Ulysses Grant had depression and severe migrains.
Theodore Roosevelt was bipolar.
Winston Churchill called his depression hid “black dog”.
Franklin Pierce suffered from depression and shell shock.
Senator Thomas Eagleton was forced from the VP spot on the 1972 Democratic ticket when it was revealed he underwent electro-shock therapy.
Not just depression, but we’ve had political leaders with other mental illnesses who were capable of performing their role as a political leader, although they couldn’t handle life once in office.
James Forrestal and John Winant both committed suicide as has our own Illinois senator Joe McCormick after losing his re-election.
So, Rich is correct!
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 12:53 pm:
Coolidge’s link
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 12:54 pm:
Nuts!
One more time!
- Gregor Samsa - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 12:58 pm:
As far as LBJ, Johnson was famously a deal-maker and horse trader, not unlike George Ryan. And in those times, that skill served him very well in almost every case, as he was always able to find some point to negotiate on and make trades, over legislation over policy, etc.
The only time in his career that this failed spectacularly was in trying to deal with Uncle Ho. There are quotes of Johnson going nuts in the White House screaming, “why won’t this guy come to the table, what does he $%#$$# WANT!?!?!? He could not wrap his mind around the fact that Ho Chi Minh and the North Vietnamese wanted just one thing, a total communist victory and for all foreign troops to leave. Johnson had nothing that Ho wanted and Ho’s fanatical mindset would not allow an opening to make any kind of horse trades. It was like arguing with your pet fish.
Or maybe like the arguments between Rod and Speaker Madigan. You can’t buy yourself a deal unless the other guy wants something you have. And we have at least one fanatic in the Illinois scenario already.
This is why I think Rod can make no more progress on a capital bill, and the process must detour around him and marginalize him with veto-proof majorities if there is to be a hope of any bill. Rod will do his worst to make sure that if he can’t have the capital plan he wants, nobody will have one.
- Bookworm - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 12:58 pm:
LBJ was hoping the Dems would plead with him to run again? Wasn’t aware of that. OK, that is pretty crazy. I was only 4 years old in 1968 so I probably missed some of the details
- RMW Stanford - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 1:01 pm:
“Blagojevich is not going anywhere. As distasteful as it may be for them, legislators who want to acccomplish anything for the next several years are going to have to work with the governor. They won’t gain very much by slamming him and calling him names in the press. There won’t be any recall and he won’t be indicted.”
How about a bit of working with others on the part of the Governor? Since when has made an effort to find common ground with the General Assembly instead of trying to shove through unpopular bills, and in the case of GRT one that would have caused massive damage to the states economy, and then trying to demonize those that oppose him. Or by working with the Governor, do you mean they should just role over and approve what ever he wants?
- Bookworm - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 1:06 pm:
VM, I suppose it’s also true that genius and madness often go together.
- Anon - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 1:11 pm:
Rich has praise for the author, a sentiment I don’t share.
I have no problem with the substance of the article, everything seems accurate with the possible exception of some embelleshment by the Alderman in law, as is his custom. This is an easy article to write, the first Democrat elected in 26 years now has an approval rating lower than George Bush in a very blue state, the article practically writes itself.
My problem is with what you would call the (for the lack of a better term) ethics or integrity of the journalism. I’m not saying the author isn’t ethical or lacks integrity, but the necessary transparency isn’t there.
The author had access to inside information, people and gossip through much of the time written about in the article due to circumstances in his personal life. I have no interest in making his personal life public. But he did use those relationships to approach subjects for interviews. The calls he made to at least some people weren’t “hi I’m a reporter and I would like if you would give me some comments that I want to make public”, it was “hi remember me from our pre-existing acquaintance, isn’t that Blagojevich struggling”. Now I’m not saying that he used dishonest means to get quotes and/or that he didn’t ultimately disclose his intentions to everyone he talked to, it was just unseemly.
Also, there’s a lot of unattributed quotes or “some people say” in the article, which makes me question the editor. Are there really quotes to back up all of those assertions or are they things that he was aware of over the course of the last many years that he wanted to include for legitimate purposes but none of the sources exactly said. I have no problem if he wants to assert these things and I make no argument that they aren’t accurate, but if they’re your own thoughts disclose how you are aware of them and own them, or attribute them to someone. I just didn’t like the way it was done.
The story deserved more transparency. The manner of the story, not the substance of the story, seemed wrong.
- A Citizen - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 1:11 pm:
-Vanilla Man-
“…Nuts!…” Quite apt, VM, well said.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 1:39 pm:
Sociopath
–noun Psychiatry.
a person, as a psychopathic personality, whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.
Great.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 1:48 pm:
Creativity is the presentation of an object or thought previously unseen or thought of.
Those who suffer from an illness which forces them to create new processes to reach goals can be hailed as a genius if the new process is demonstratably superior to the traditional ‘rational’ process and if the new process hadn’t been previously known.
For whatever reasons, Blagojevich is choosing a ‘creative’ approach to governing. We almost always allow new office holders to customize and personalize their elected offices. We understand that each individual brings to their elected office personal strengths. Unfortunatley, Blagojevich has so far been unable to explain to us how his approach is rational, or how his style of governing works for either himself or for Illinois. This would be a big problem for any governor, since they need to build a following by uniting stakeholders with diverse views. Although he builds a plurality of voters, Blagojevich fails to unite teams in order to govern. So we can either see him as a failure because he cannot explain the rationality of his political decisions, or a failure because his political decisions lack rationality in the view of Illinois’ diverse stakeholders.
Whether it is madness or genius will depend on the end result. So far Blagojevich is unable to govern, although he has had some political results during his administration which permit his few supporters to hope that he is a genius. The rest of us are willing to make that decide when his administration ends, or have already given up and are calling him mad. That would be understandable.
- Bookworm - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 3:49 pm:
If this article’s account of Mell’s efforts to get Blago elected in ‘02 are accurate, that should quash the notion that Chicago votes alone were sufficient to ensure his election (at least the first time around). It’s easy to forget — and Blago’s probably forgotten it too — that downstate WAS key to getting him elected in the first place!
- Dirty Bath Water - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 4:08 pm:
- Anon - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 1:11 pm:
“Rich has praise for the author, a sentiment I don’t share.
I have no problem with the substance of the article, everything seems accurate with the possible exception of some embelleshment by the Alderman in law, as is his custom. This is an easy article to write, the first Democrat elected in 26 years now has an approval rating lower than George Bush in a very blue state, the article practically writes itself.”
Ahh, the “anon’s” show up again. How would this article be relevant if it was published in a magazine other than “Chicago Magazine”?
After all, Chicago is in Illinois and its a sad fact that Blago is the Governor of Illinois.
- Levois - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 4:21 pm:
Blago has also forgotten one thing, then man who got him in the dance in the first place. Yeah it was downstate but Ald. Mell helped him get there. There are a lot of things wrong with this governor. One of them is that he’s ungreatful!
- one of the 35 - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 4:32 pm:
Taking all that has been said into account, how can Blago possibly be reelected? His father-in-law and Mayor Daley won’t support him. Madigan won’t chair again. Downstate hates his guts. The business community will go all out to support his opponent. The collar counties have always opposed him. Where will he hope to have any support?
- Loop Lady - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 7:00 pm:
My husband who is not political showed me this article…a scathing indictment of why Rod doesn’t deserve another shot at the Governorship…all I could think of while reading this was the old adage that you shouldn’t turn your back on those that brought you to the dance…aka Dick Mell…
- Loop Lady - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 7:03 pm:
BTW…I totally agree with Vanilla Man that if Barack does not win the Dem Pres nomination he should come back to IL and run the ship of State…it’s his for the asking…we DO so very much need him at this point in time…
- Chicago Cynic - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 7:15 pm:
Anon 111,
I know the author and several people quoted in the article either anonymously or named. So far, none of the quoted people (myself included) have any complaints with either the accuracy, context or tone of the quotes. The reporter spent a lot of time and did a solid job on the article.
Unlike most journalism these days, Chicago Magazine still even has fact checkers to call up those used as sources on the article to make sure the substance and context were accurate.
And while I understand your call for transparency (something I generally applaud), I think it’s totally reasonable to grant sources anonymity when writing this type of piece about a vindictive guy that has made a habit of firing the families of political enemies.
- Wacker Drive - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 7:26 pm:
Hey Bill
There won’t be any recall and he won’t be indicted.
Wanna Bet?
- Two Words - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 8:29 pm:
Corrupt Fraud!
- Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:13 pm:
Good point Cynic. I was a bit “cynical” myself about Anon 1:11’s post which called out the author for in part hiding behind anonymity when the poster was, well, you know.
PS: Kevin: you are going to fit in here just fine. That LBJ line about the staff meeting reminded me of his second Secret Service code name (the one the agents used when off duty.)
“Bullnuts.” According to this book I read written by a retired WH correspondent, LBJ learned about the nickname and loved it…
- Six Degrees of Separation - Wednesday, Jan 23, 08 @ 9:26 pm:
Where will he hope to have any support?
Have you noticed his courting of the senior citizens and appearances at African-American churches lately?