The year that he went full speed ahead to try and get the GRT passed. It was the first time I remember seeing Speaker Madigan completely shut him down. Obviously the tension was brewing for a long time, but that was the first complete smackdown that I remember.
The ISBE shakeup ended up in a compromise, but the GRT was just war. Madigan never gave him an inch from that point on.
Having long loathed the man, the one memory that I have was the moment I realized that he is divorced from reality and utterly sociopathic with this line:
“Today, I think, was basically an up … I feel good about it.” … May 10, 2007, reacting to a 107-0 vote against his gross-receipts tax plan in the Illinois House
- basically an up day - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:19 pm:
house votes on GRT, 0 reps vote for it, and Governor proclaims it an “up day”.
Watching him stare into the camera, eyes blank as his brain ran through the possible answers as to how many other cash gifts he received on behalf of his daughters.
Priceless.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:25 pm:
The Gross Receipts Tax vote, especially Jay Hoffman’s vote against it.
Guys get thrown under the bus every day, but its not often the bus parks on their head.
- He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:28 pm:
There are many, but how about the first day when he fired 35 people, and one of them was the advance man he had set up the area for the Press Conference.
During his statewide bus tour to promote the GRT, he was met in Quincy by a raucous mob of angry protesters. They repeatedly tried to shout him down, but he actually goaded them several times.
For security reasons, the bus took him the block or so to the hotel we were all staying at. I walked over and waited for the bus so I could get my stuff.
Blagojevich walked off the bus with a huge grin on his face, which was lit up as if he’d been blessed by the Virgin Mary or something.
“Rich!” he said, pumping a fist in the air. “We need to do this every day!”
I’ll never get that image out of my head as long as I live.
Up early one morning in Wrigleyville helping with a commercial shoot. Rod comes jogging through, pumps his arms above his head shouting “tax breaks for everyone”, runs a few circles in the street and jogs away. True story.
Not a memory of Blago per se, but of his re-election:
I was listening to Roe Conn on WLS on election night 2006. He was live at the Alexi G campaign HQ downtown at a hotel and had two comments once it became clear that both Alexi and Blago won.
1) Reporting on background only, the guys all at the bar (i.e. guests at Alexi’s party) said they’d all be absolutely shocked if Blago actually made it all the way through his 2nd term without being indicted.
2) Conn also remarked how enlightening it was to see all of these financial contracting types “divvying up” the spoils of Alexi winning the state treasurer’s spot. Not that Alexi is/was unique in that regard, but Conn was surprised they were doing it so soon and so in the open.
Without a doubt, it was his quote the same day the GRT failed in the House by a vote of 0-107. Of course, Blagojevich later remarked, “All in all, I think it was an up day!”.
That was a defining moment for me. Of course, at this point he was well into his second term and everyone around the statehouse knew we were dealing with a “different” sort of person; but that quote, that made me realize it may be a lot worse than any of us thought.
July 16, 2008, Blagojevich tells Mayor Daley that violence in Chicago is out of control and he offered to lend state troopers and the National Guard to save our streets.
We still have the front page of the Sun-Times hanging in the office with Rod dressed up as a cowboy. The photos by-line offers apologies to John Wayne!
I was working recon for Topinka at Governor’s Day at the State Fair…Blago finished doing Madonia’s radio show. As he departed he attempted to speak with a few older ladies that were listening to the interview while eating breakfast at the adjcacent tables to the radio area they set up. One lady looked up at him and said “I will tell you what I am thinking…your an ass!” He looked up and started to jog off. Hilarious moment.
Dem day at the fair…He came out to the stage and sang “Im just a red blooded american boy and I can’t stop thinkin about Healthcare,Healthcare,Healthcare”….I’ll never forget it. I couldn’t belive it.
The jogging comment through Wrigley brings back a memory. I live in Uptown which is roughly 2.5 miles directly east of La Casa Blago. Some of you may have heard of Uptown. Our slogan is “hope dies first”. Anyway……..
Sometime after he was arrested I saw him jogging in my hood. It was a cop on a mountain bike. Blago running at a slowish pace. SUV. Finally a sedan and I think another car somewhere in the pack.
I exchanged a look with the State Trooper driving the SUV that was priceless. I sorta rolled my eyes and shook my head and he just lifted his shoulders and smirked.
One of a handful of times I encountered Blago jogging.
Thankfully I have yet to see him jogging since he was “stolen from the people” by those nasty legislators and their impeachment process.
For me, when I knew something wasn’t right with this guy was very early on when he leaked in Sneed that his ambitions were Presidential in nature. The quote was something to the effect of his fundraisers were telling people that he would run for President one day. It just struck me as odd. Shouldn’t he do something in IL first before he leaks this stuff to the Press? I didn’t like the guy to begin with, this just added to it.
The day was like any other December day for me. Finals were about to begin the next week and for some odd reason the Dark Knight came out on DVD. I was heading to Best Buy from UIS and I turned on WUIS to listen to the news. I had just awoken not to long before and I was looking forward to watch Batman deal with corruption in Chicago…I mean Gotham City. As the news came back they stated that Blago was arrested and I felt it fitting that the day the Dark Knight came out on DVD that Blago would be arrested. What a great date…
My 2nd place is tied with the GRT vote, the vote to convict him and the press conference where he read poetry to the national news media proclaiming his innocence.
A few days after he was arrested, the SunTimes ran a pix of him leaving his residence via the back gate/alley. Pictured squarely behind him on the gate was the Chicago Sanitary sign: picture of a rat in a circle with a slash through it. No rats. I fell on the ground laughing.
I’ve seen Rod jogging a lot around Chicago’s north side over the years. But one day during rush hour I was walking to work, I saw him jogging South down Ravenswood Ave, which is right near a Metra overpass, which kind of makes for poor visibility at nearby intersections, in part because the roads dip down and the lanes can be narrow.
Anyway, as he approaches Foster, a very busy road at rush hour, he doesn’t even slow down. Much like Frogger, he darts in front of a car, crossing one lane, jogs down the middle of Foster beneath the Metra overpass with dangerous fast moving traffic passing by, then crosses the other lane, again right in front of a car, and continues on. It was pretty stunning to see someone do something so risky and stupid — let alone a sitting governor — but as we know, such bold recklessness kind of defines the man.
Those stupid quotes he would rattle off by one famous person or another. He always had that stupid smirking grin like a little kid who just remembered his line for the school play. He was so proud of himself.
I also loved all the morons he brought in who actually thought he would be President some day. Some of them truly believed it.
A day or two before he was arrested (and it was clear they were closing in on him and probably had wired his closest associates> He was at that factory that was closing and he told the press”i have nothing but blue sky over my head”. Priceless
Chuck Goudie / ABC-7 did a piece about his too-big-to-believe security detail: the California wedding / fundraising trip and how many state troopers came with the Blagojevichs to the 2004 DNC (accompanying video of a trooper putting stroller into an SUV). That coverage was notable to me because I think it was really the first time that the Chicago media started seeing through his BS.
The day that Attorney General Lisa Madigan released a copy of her letter to US Attorney Fitgerald detailing that she would suspend her investigations of “indemic hiring fraud” to not interefere with any ongoing Federal investigations. The whole crapstorm was off the record but well known up until that point. When she put that letter out there - it made it all too undeniably real.
It was when our new governor showed up at a press conference with a list of recent state retirees and he used the moment to denounce everyone on the list, including a dead man. With the state of the economy at that time, to see him dawdling over something so insignificant and grandstanding over it was shocking. Then he went to Springfield to repeat the whole charade, making a bad joke over his inclusion of the deceased.
I will never forget how this exposed Rod Blagojevich as the shallow, stupid, insulting, mean, callow, arrogant, moron he is. I knew at that moment that this governor was a disaster as long as he was in office.
My favorite memory of Rod is the same as many above. Saw him jogging on Ravenswood Ave. two days in a row around 11 in the morning. He didn’t have a care in the world, waving at people one minute & “in the zone” the next minute. I remember thinking “who the heck is running this state while this guy goes for a jog?”
It cracked me up to see him on the news not long after he was arrested. The media loved covering him going for his daily jog — at that time through big drifts of snow. He looks like a goof when he jogs - lots of elbows flailing about & a slow paced gait (almost a walk).
When Dave Letterman told him, ” I wouln’t give your problems to a monkey on a rock”.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:52 pm:
A co-worker and I were listening to the radio after work on January 29, 2009, listening to the IL Senate removal vote roll call (following the impeachment trial). It was an eerie feeling, kinda like Nixon’s resignation speech. Even though the outcome wasn’t in doubt as each vote was read, the finality of the vote (I think the 30th vote made it official) kind of put a big bow on the whole 6-year “package”.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:57 pm:
Old Guard - My 2nd favorite blago moment, just a few days after his removal from office was described here. The famous “worst way” Letterman appearance.
I still think his 13 seconds of silence when asked if he had ever tried pot was priceless. (This was after, you might remember, MJM accused him of unnamed “indiscretions.”)
Not, as it turns out, all that significant of a story. I think once he was elected, he would have just blatantly lied. But instead, you could see him realize that, no matter what he said, his endorsement by the retailers was a non-story. The headlines the next morning would be about drugs. I don’t think he ever had another press conference in the blue room after that.
- CircularFiringSquad - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:00 pm:
How about Blagoof tossing the Nerf football to Star Witnesses SlickWilly Quinlan and Fumbles Harris, Illinois’ newest elecrician.
Now that is a scary thought
When he walked in late to an Evangelical church service in an African American neighborhood wearing blue jeans…this is his first election in 2002…he then proceeded to ogle good looking women with a smarmy smile on his face…my jaw just dropped…
A friend and I ran into him after the Lincoln Museum ceremony and he invited us to the lunch at the Mansion. I got to sit next to Pat Quinn. Nice guy but what a goof ball.
Reading this thread’s trip down Blago memory lane is certain to foment nightmares for many of us tonight. Yikes, Rich, this QOTD is almost as scary and dangerous to people’s well being as someone shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.
When the project manager on Celebrity Apprentice (Michael Johnson?) said “It’s really hard to find something for Rod to do that Rod can actually do.” Summed everything about him up nicely I thought.
- CircularFiringSquad - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:18 pm:
How about Capt Fax censoring all references to bowls of white powder in posts about the buscapade to Quincy
- Commonsense in Illinois - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:29 pm:
On a Thursday afternoon in February 2003 my agency director and I ran into Governor Blagojevich and (then) Chief of Staff Lon Monk at the north door of the capitol. My director reminded the Governor that they had discussed keeping me on…the Governor and Monk both agreed that was the understanding…no problem. I went home an opened my mail…my discharge letter signed by Monk. Inept from the very beginning.
The State Fair parades that he just couldn’t find the time to make. A lot of rotten tomatoes went unused that day.
- Ghost of John Brown - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:33 pm:
The best memory is the running bit from Vanilla Man as Rod was going to jump out of a building and the “Four Tops” trying to catch him - comedy gold!!!
His post-arrest press conference with a handful of people that he helped during his term of office were on stage with him. He proceeded to go through a list of good things he had done in office, ending each with, “Is that illegal?”
I just remember it so well, as I was expecting him to eventually mention things like breathing oxygen and eating food, and how oblivious he seemed. Like…. hey, jackass…. you do realize that to be charged, it’s not like every little thing you do has to be illegal, right?
And then he was gone, casting a wink toward reporters in the press box as he left the Senate chamber. He did not stay for the vote, choosing to use the state plane to fly home while it was still at his disposal.
“I know the truth of things and I have nothing to fear but the truth!” said to reporters while stopped at a gas station.
- Retired Non-Union Guy - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 5:16 pm:
A very telling moment … A couple of months after Rod first took office in 2003, after opening the employee health insurance bids, CMS (at an unknown someone’s direction) tried to toss out tried to toss out the central Illinois health care providers (who were like the number 3 and 5 scorers) and tried to replace them with high priced Chicago area providers (who had scored something like 13 and 17 if I remember correctly). One brave soul on the evaluation committee leaked it to the press, including all the bid scores. I knew then that administration was headed for trouble. After the story broke in the papers, several of us retirees sat around at breakfast one morning and joked that the new administration didn’t have a clue on how to legally rig bids! We even took bets on how long it was going to be before the Feds investigated … but the joke was on us because no one guessed it would take as many years as it did.
This memory is a little vague but I seem to recall Blago at the 2008 national democratic convention (please call me out if I got this wrong). I think the dems were trying their best to shun Blago and keep him out of the spotlight but he still was able to creep into several TV spots. Creep is the word. Blago’s tenure makes for a very real FarSide cartoon. Thanks to all of you who shared your very vivid, direct encounters of the weird.
Had a trial starting December 10, 2008…frantic last minute freak-out. I literally didn’t have time to follow the news. For about 24 hours, I was the only person in the State of Illinois who didn’t know what was happening.
- Moving to Oklahoma - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 7:09 pm:
I’m no fan of Rod. He is going to prison, and right fully so. However I will go on record with a positive memory. I think it was in 2007 when some Southeastern Illinois communities were devastated by flooding. Rod came to many small towns and walked through the flooded areas and really connected with some local residents in probably the most rural part of Illinois. Although he was and is a nut case, he did have the ability to charm and in that particular case I think it helped some people who lost everything to see the face of Illinois government in their small town.
- 32nd Ward Roscoe Village - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 8:05 pm:
When Rev. Senator Meeks says, “We have this thing called impeachment, and it’s bleepin’ golden” and the smile on Cullerton’s face when Meeks finished. Okay, those are the last moments of his term as governor, but those words summed up the whole thing.
Not defending him but it was his first or second State Fair Parade and as we entered the area around the main gate, a group of people were yelling insults at him, he walked up to them, sat down on the curb and asked them what the problem was? You should have seen the looks on their faces when they were faced with the Gov One-On-One instead of being able to hide in the masses.
Like his client, Adam has a flamboyant streak, and he’s found remarkable success as a criminal defense lawyer by following a basic rule: “A jury trial is a show, nothing but a show,” Adam said. “He who puts on the best show, he who entertains the most, he who can bring [his] point in the most effective way, wins. Hands down.”
That right there says it ALL about Rod and Sam.
As far as a memory of Rod, I will go with the time approaching reporters were swarming him with indictment questions at the main gate of the state fair. He was holding his younger daughter in his arms and she suddenly started crying. Rod claimed it was scary reporters and acted all puffed-up and indignant. I believe he pinched his daughter to create the diversion. He denies it, But I was there, about twenty feet away when it happened, and I’m convinced that’s what happened. Rod would use anything and anyone.
I know I’m way too late for this, but here goes just for therapy: the flu vaccine episode made it obvious he was a megalomaniac. And the business with the Air Guard fighters in Springfield confirmed it. OK, now he thinks he’s US secretary of state, commerce and defense. But the one thing I most remember is all the people I know who refused to vote him out of office when they had the chance. OK, JBT was no prize, but at least she was not Blago and we would not be in as deep a hole as we are.
So many choices… The firing announcement where Lynn R. was the advance man and listed among the fired comes to mind. Some reporter, I think Kinningham, asked the governor if he knew that he’d just fired the guy who set up his the podium and microphone for him, standing just ten feet away.
“He’s eligible to re-apply, if he wants to”. Said Rod. While never turning to look at him.
The absolute paralyzed, gobsmacked-ness of Rod as he was being asked by a skeptical reporter how often people gave his daughter $1500 birthday checks, how normal was that, and how much of a coincidence it was that that person making the gift got a state job a week later, without running the entire HR gauntlet.
There was the Elwood Blues “I was just BS-ing you” line where he referred, (thru his lawyers) to everything he’d said and promised and reneged on as “political puffery”, and thus not required to be factual….
But I’m going to go for the “Little Black Girl Mistook me for mayor Daley” story that Bernie liked so very much. Talk about running a story into the ground. And it stands to represent the massive basket of anecdotes he would deliver over and over everywhere. You could run a bingo card with call-outs to such Greatest Hits as “Electrocuted Elephant” “Brother in the stable” “Son of Immigrants”, “Clinton on Air Force one”, and “Mom says be good and ethical, but can you get your cousin a state job”.
I am also going to riff on this thread and post a link to my favorite iconic photograph, of the Rod Blagojevich years. From his tender yet loving relationship with Michael Madigan.
This was the photo from the state fair in 2007, after Rod’s GRT proposal had gone down in flames. I looked at this photo and thought, “My god, Rod is the boy king and Madigan is the royal court vizier, and we always know how this fairy tale ends; vizier wins, boy king loses his head.” This time the fairy tales were right.
that he was reelected. The fact that a majority of voters reelected this buffoon was the moment I realized things were going to get truely bad in Illinois.
- Retired Non-Union Guy - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 9:33 pm:
Bus Watcher … since I’d already bailed, I didn’t see it personally. So LR’s firing didn’t make my top memory … but he didn’t deserve that. He always worked with both sides and had set up that conference because the people supposedly running the show didn’t have a clue on what to do and asked him to do it … some of them didn’t know what was coming either. (full disclosure - Lynn is both a friend and a neighbor …)
“It was pretty stunning to see someone do something so risky and stupid — let alone a sitting governor”
I guess Pat Quinn should thank his lucky stars he didn’t have to become governor any sooner than he did
“A co-worker and I were listening to the radio after work on January 29, 2009, listening to the IL Senate removal vote roll call (following the impeachment trial). It was an eerie feeling, kinda like Nixon’s resignation speech.”
I was listening to it in a friend’s car. The moment Chief Justice Fitzgerald announced that Blago was “removed from the Office of Governor effective immediately,” both of us let out a cheer… even though my friend is about as dyed in the wool a Democrat as can be, she also despised him and couldn’t wait for him to be gone.
“The fact that a majority of voters reelected this buffoon”
Well, technically, that’s not true, Blago got just UNDER 50 percent of the vote; he won because the rest of the vote was split between Topinka (40 percent) and Whitney (10 percent).
When the legislatures were all stuck in Springfield because of his dictate and he was continually bashing them in the press. Meanwhile, I read on this blog that the big noon ‘all leaders’ meeting in Springfield would not be on time because a commenter had just passed Rod’s house at 11:45 to see him in his yard playing whiffle ball.
I remember getting in the car to go to lunch when WUIS broke from coverage of the arrest to go back to normal programming, and the first piece of classical music old Carl Scroggin cued up, without comment, was the final, bombastic part of the 1812 overture. Coincidence? I think not.
For state workers, it was like Bastille Day and Christmas and New Year’s. On Impeachment Day, we all went out and toasted with cheap champagne. The hangover has lasted till now,with a budget that never was fixed, along with so many Blago people still in charge of things. I don’t think this state can move forward, mentally, spiritually, until the trial is over and that fop is sentenced.
The day that we were laying the late Senator Vince Demuzio to rest, and watching his widdows face as the funeral start time kept getting pushed back. Seeing all of his collegues, former and present staff members, constituents, MJM, and all the “greats” of yesteryear, just standing there, waiting to put our beloved Senator to rest. When he finally came in, he was I believe over an hour late. Senator Deanna should have just gone on without him. A funeral is no place to make an “entrance,” meglomaniac or not…
What I remember is this: Everytime he delivered a budget address or state of the state speech, and every campaign speech, I heard him repeatedly say “…The hardworking people of Illinois…” Like he gave a rat’s XXX about us. It just sounded so completely and utterly phony. That comment, and the fact he was considered a joke by so many back in his days in the Illinois House.
During the dedication of the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library, he noted that his ACT score was something like 16. In essence,he was confirming what we already knew—he’s not too bright.
During his FY 2004 Budget Address, saying (in a slip up) that everyone would want to get their hands on John Filan. A twofer - Rod’s penchant to delegate, and who he delegated to.
- Siriusly - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:12 pm:
The year that he went full speed ahead to try and get the GRT passed. It was the first time I remember seeing Speaker Madigan completely shut him down. Obviously the tension was brewing for a long time, but that was the first complete smackdown that I remember.
The ISBE shakeup ended up in a compromise, but the GRT was just war. Madigan never gave him an inch from that point on.
- phocion - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:18 pm:
Having long loathed the man, the one memory that I have was the moment I realized that he is divorced from reality and utterly sociopathic with this line:
“Today, I think, was basically an up … I feel good about it.” … May 10, 2007, reacting to a 107-0 vote against his gross-receipts tax plan in the Illinois House
- basically an up day - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:19 pm:
house votes on GRT, 0 reps vote for it, and Governor proclaims it an “up day”.
Classic
- 47th Ward - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:20 pm:
Watching him stare into the camera, eyes blank as his brain ran through the possible answers as to how many other cash gifts he received on behalf of his daughters.
Priceless.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:25 pm:
The Gross Receipts Tax vote, especially Jay Hoffman’s vote against it.
Guys get thrown under the bus every day, but its not often the bus parks on their head.
- He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:28 pm:
There are many, but how about the first day when he fired 35 people, and one of them was the advance man he had set up the area for the Press Conference.
That showed me how classless he was going to be.
- ok - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:29 pm:
Remember, though, that Jay and Rod were telling all their supportive legislators to vote against the GRT resolution because the vote was too hasty…
All 6 of them.
- IrishPirate - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:29 pm:
The day I woke up to reports on the “google” that the Feds had arrested him.
Selling a Senate Seat?
Unfreakingamazingbelievable.
- @all - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:29 pm:
“…and I have nothing to fear but the truth.” Rod Blagojevich.
- wordslinger - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:29 pm:
47th’s memory was first for me. Second was holding up his crying daughter as a human shield to get away from reporters at the state fair.
No brains, no scruples.
CFC, feel feel to include your sociopath definition at any time.
- Rich Miller - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:30 pm:
===but how about the first day when he fired 35 people===
Wasn’t one of those people dead?
- Rich Miller - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:35 pm:
Here’s mine…
During his statewide bus tour to promote the GRT, he was met in Quincy by a raucous mob of angry protesters. They repeatedly tried to shout him down, but he actually goaded them several times.
For security reasons, the bus took him the block or so to the hotel we were all staying at. I walked over and waited for the bus so I could get my stuff.
Blagojevich walked off the bus with a huge grin on his face, which was lit up as if he’d been blessed by the Virgin Mary or something.
“Rich!” he said, pumping a fist in the air. “We need to do this every day!”
I’ll never get that image out of my head as long as I live.
- Lincoln Parker - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:37 pm:
Up early one morning in Wrigleyville helping with a commercial shoot. Rod comes jogging through, pumps his arms above his head shouting “tax breaks for everyone”, runs a few circles in the street and jogs away. True story.
- John Galt - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:39 pm:
Not a memory of Blago per se, but of his re-election:
I was listening to Roe Conn on WLS on election night 2006. He was live at the Alexi G campaign HQ downtown at a hotel and had two comments once it became clear that both Alexi and Blago won.
1) Reporting on background only, the guys all at the bar (i.e. guests at Alexi’s party) said they’d all be absolutely shocked if Blago actually made it all the way through his 2nd term without being indicted.
2) Conn also remarked how enlightening it was to see all of these financial contracting types “divvying up” the spoils of Alexi winning the state treasurer’s spot. Not that Alexi is/was unique in that regard, but Conn was surprised they were doing it so soon and so in the open.
- really? - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:39 pm:
His incredible fight to avoid JCAR and implement programs without rules therefore without any real authority but HIS own
- Jimmy87 - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:39 pm:
Without a doubt, it was his quote the same day the GRT failed in the House by a vote of 0-107. Of course, Blagojevich later remarked, “All in all, I think it was an up day!”.
That was a defining moment for me. Of course, at this point he was well into his second term and everyone around the statehouse knew we were dealing with a “different” sort of person; but that quote, that made me realize it may be a lot worse than any of us thought.
On December
- Levois - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:40 pm:
The day he got arrested.
- rachel - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:47 pm:
July 16, 2008, Blagojevich tells Mayor Daley that violence in Chicago is out of control and he offered to lend state troopers and the National Guard to save our streets.
We still have the front page of the Sun-Times hanging in the office with Rod dressed up as a cowboy. The photos by-line offers apologies to John Wayne!
- Mr. Ethics - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:48 pm:
2007 State Fair when he was singing “Can’t stop thinking about health care”
- State Fair - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:50 pm:
I was working recon for Topinka at Governor’s Day at the State Fair…Blago finished doing Madonia’s radio show. As he departed he attempted to speak with a few older ladies that were listening to the interview while eating breakfast at the adjcacent tables to the radio area they set up. One lady looked up at him and said “I will tell you what I am thinking…your an ass!” He looked up and started to jog off. Hilarious moment.
- Cooper - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:51 pm:
Dem day at the fair…He came out to the stage and sang “Im just a red blooded american boy and I can’t stop thinkin about Healthcare,Healthcare,Healthcare”….I’ll never forget it. I couldn’t belive it.
- IrishPirate - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:53 pm:
The jogging comment through Wrigley brings back a memory. I live in Uptown which is roughly 2.5 miles directly east of La Casa Blago. Some of you may have heard of Uptown. Our slogan is “hope dies first”. Anyway……..
Sometime after he was arrested I saw him jogging in my hood. It was a cop on a mountain bike. Blago running at a slowish pace. SUV. Finally a sedan and I think another car somewhere in the pack.
I exchanged a look with the State Trooper driving the SUV that was priceless. I sorta rolled my eyes and shook my head and he just lifted his shoulders and smirked.
One of a handful of times I encountered Blago jogging.
Thankfully I have yet to see him jogging since he was “stolen from the people” by those nasty legislators and their impeachment process.
- Red Ranger - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:55 pm:
For me, when I knew something wasn’t right with this guy was very early on when he leaked in Sneed that his ambitions were Presidential in nature. The quote was something to the effect of his fundraisers were telling people that he would run for President one day. It just struck me as odd. Shouldn’t he do something in IL first before he leaks this stuff to the Press? I didn’t like the guy to begin with, this just added to it.
- Publius - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:55 pm:
The day was like any other December day for me. Finals were about to begin the next week and for some odd reason the Dark Knight came out on DVD. I was heading to Best Buy from UIS and I turned on WUIS to listen to the news. I had just awoken not to long before and I was looking forward to watch Batman deal with corruption in Chicago…I mean Gotham City. As the news came back they stated that Blago was arrested and I felt it fitting that the day the Dark Knight came out on DVD that Blago would be arrested. What a great date…
My 2nd place is tied with the GRT vote, the vote to convict him and the press conference where he read poetry to the national news media proclaiming his innocence.
- tubbfan - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:56 pm:
He was supposed to rock the world on campaign finance, right?
- unclesam - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:56 pm:
Two memories:
1. Blago being arraigned in court in a jogging suit. He had plenty of time to choose his attire and he chose a jogging suit.
2. David Ellis’ closing at impeachment trial after Blago’s closing — the “two sides of Blago.” That defined Blago better than any picture.
- Never forget it - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:56 pm:
Waiting for his arrival in St. Mary & Joseph Catholic Church in Carlinville along with Vince’s widow and his children.
- lincolnlover - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:58 pm:
A few days after he was arrested, the SunTimes ran a pix of him leaving his residence via the back gate/alley. Pictured squarely behind him on the gate was the Chicago Sanitary sign: picture of a rat in a circle with a slash through it. No rats. I fell on the ground laughing.
- ILPundit - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:58 pm:
Two words:
“Testicular virility”
- PFK - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 2:59 pm:
I’ve seen Rod jogging a lot around Chicago’s north side over the years. But one day during rush hour I was walking to work, I saw him jogging South down Ravenswood Ave, which is right near a Metra overpass, which kind of makes for poor visibility at nearby intersections, in part because the roads dip down and the lanes can be narrow.
Anyway, as he approaches Foster, a very busy road at rush hour, he doesn’t even slow down. Much like Frogger, he darts in front of a car, crossing one lane, jogs down the middle of Foster beneath the Metra overpass with dangerous fast moving traffic passing by, then crosses the other lane, again right in front of a car, and continues on. It was pretty stunning to see someone do something so risky and stupid — let alone a sitting governor — but as we know, such bold recklessness kind of defines the man.
- Pat Robertson - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:02 pm:
His comparison of the General Assembly to drunken sailors. As a former drunken sailor, I have a very hard time forgiving that one.
- 47th Ward - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:03 pm:
Favorite quote: “Well I know the truth of things, and I have nothing to fear but the truth.”
- Stooges - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:06 pm:
The day at the state fair in his first year that he told Bernard Schoenberg that state workers are all lazy and don’t earn their pay.
- Jake from Elwood - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:06 pm:
Running in place…fetal position…running in place…fetal position…
- Joe from Joliet - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:06 pm:
“I will fight, I will fight…..”
Flush!
- dc - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:14 pm:
Those stupid quotes he would rattle off by one famous person or another. He always had that stupid smirking grin like a little kid who just remembered his line for the school play. He was so proud of himself.
I also loved all the morons he brought in who actually thought he would be President some day. Some of them truly believed it.
- Justice - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:14 pm:
The early morning hour he was arrested.
It was basically an up day and I felt really good about it.
- right side - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:17 pm:
A day or two before he was arrested (and it was clear they were closing in on him and probably had wired his closest associates> He was at that factory that was closing and he told the press”i have nothing but blue sky over my head”. Priceless
- Siriusly - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:20 pm:
I’ll add two more, even though you said ONE.
Chuck Goudie / ABC-7 did a piece about his too-big-to-believe security detail: the California wedding / fundraising trip and how many state troopers came with the Blagojevichs to the 2004 DNC (accompanying video of a trooper putting stroller into an SUV). That coverage was notable to me because I think it was really the first time that the Chicago media started seeing through his BS.
The day that Attorney General Lisa Madigan released a copy of her letter to US Attorney Fitgerald detailing that she would suspend her investigations of “indemic hiring fraud” to not interefere with any ongoing Federal investigations. The whole crapstorm was off the record but well known up until that point. When she put that letter out there - it made it all too undeniably real.
- Stooges - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:24 pm:
I also liked the time before his arrest that he dared anyone to tape record him, as long as they did so openly.
- VanillaMan - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:27 pm:
It was when our new governor showed up at a press conference with a list of recent state retirees and he used the moment to denounce everyone on the list, including a dead man. With the state of the economy at that time, to see him dawdling over something so insignificant and grandstanding over it was shocking. Then he went to Springfield to repeat the whole charade, making a bad joke over his inclusion of the deceased.
I will never forget how this exposed Rod Blagojevich as the shallow, stupid, insulting, mean, callow, arrogant, moron he is. I knew at that moment that this governor was a disaster as long as he was in office.
- dupage progressive - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:29 pm:
My favorite memory of Rod is the same as many above. Saw him jogging on Ravenswood Ave. two days in a row around 11 in the morning. He didn’t have a care in the world, waving at people one minute & “in the zone” the next minute. I remember thinking “who the heck is running this state while this guy goes for a jog?”
It cracked me up to see him on the news not long after he was arrested. The media loved covering him going for his daily jog — at that time through big drifts of snow. He looks like a goof when he jogs - lots of elbows flailing about & a slow paced gait (almost a walk).
- obamalac - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:42 pm:
That this guy was relected!
- He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:45 pm:
Rich, you are correct, one was dead.
I could give you others but not from Blago but his cronies that came down to the “patch” from the big city….but I will leave that to another QFTD.
- OLD GUARD - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:47 pm:
When Dave Letterman told him, ” I wouln’t give your problems to a monkey on a rock”.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:52 pm:
A co-worker and I were listening to the radio after work on January 29, 2009, listening to the IL Senate removal vote roll call (following the impeachment trial). It was an eerie feeling, kinda like Nixon’s resignation speech. Even though the outcome wasn’t in doubt as each vote was read, the finality of the vote (I think the 30th vote made it official) kind of put a big bow on the whole 6-year “package”.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 3:57 pm:
Old Guard - My 2nd favorite blago moment, just a few days after his removal from office was described here. The famous “worst way” Letterman appearance.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/02/lettermanblagoj.html
- Dan Vock - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:00 pm:
I still think his 13 seconds of silence when asked if he had ever tried pot was priceless. (This was after, you might remember, MJM accused him of unnamed “indiscretions.”)
Not, as it turns out, all that significant of a story. I think once he was elected, he would have just blatantly lied. But instead, you could see him realize that, no matter what he said, his endorsement by the retailers was a non-story. The headlines the next morning would be about drugs. I don’t think he ever had another press conference in the blue room after that.
- CircularFiringSquad - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:00 pm:
How about Blagoof tossing the Nerf football to Star Witnesses SlickWilly Quinlan and Fumbles Harris, Illinois’ newest elecrician.
Now that is a scary thought
- Loop Lady - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:01 pm:
When he walked in late to an Evangelical church service in an African American neighborhood wearing blue jeans…this is his first election in 2002…he then proceeded to ogle good looking women with a smarmy smile on his face…my jaw just dropped…
- Ronbo - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:05 pm:
A friend and I ran into him after the Lincoln Museum ceremony and he invited us to the lunch at the Mansion. I got to sit next to Pat Quinn. Nice guy but what a goof ball.
- Responsa - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:05 pm:
Reading this thread’s trip down Blago memory lane is certain to foment nightmares for many of us tonight. Yikes, Rich, this QOTD is almost as scary and dangerous to people’s well being as someone shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.
- Rich Miller - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:07 pm:
Responsa, yeah, it’s kinda like imposing a case of PTSD on everybody. Sorry.
- OneMan - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:09 pm:
My daughter getting us into his office so he could avoid questions about Tony Rezko
- Belle - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:11 pm:
When the project manager on Celebrity Apprentice (Michael Johnson?) said “It’s really hard to find something for Rod to do that Rod can actually do.” Summed everything about him up nicely I thought.
- CircularFiringSquad - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:18 pm:
How about Capt Fax censoring all references to bowls of white powder in posts about the buscapade to Quincy
- Commonsense in Illinois - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:29 pm:
On a Thursday afternoon in February 2003 my agency director and I ran into Governor Blagojevich and (then) Chief of Staff Lon Monk at the north door of the capitol. My director reminded the Governor that they had discussed keeping me on…the Governor and Monk both agreed that was the understanding…no problem. I went home an opened my mail…my discharge letter signed by Monk. Inept from the very beginning.
- Anon - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:33 pm:
The State Fair parades that he just couldn’t find the time to make. A lot of rotten tomatoes went unused that day.
- Ghost of John Brown - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:33 pm:
The best memory is the running bit from Vanilla Man as Rod was going to jump out of a building and the “Four Tops” trying to catch him - comedy gold!!!
- DRB - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:43 pm:
You ain’t seen nothin yet - from the 2nd inaugural address.
- TJ - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:43 pm:
His post-arrest press conference with a handful of people that he helped during his term of office were on stage with him. He proceeded to go through a list of good things he had done in office, ending each with, “Is that illegal?”
I just remember it so well, as I was expecting him to eventually mention things like breathing oxygen and eating food, and how oblivious he seemed. Like…. hey, jackass…. you do realize that to be charged, it’s not like every little thing you do has to be illegal, right?
- Michelle Flaherty - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:50 pm:
My favorite memory is this passage:
And then he was gone, casting a wink toward reporters in the press box as he left the Senate chamber. He did not stay for the vote, choosing to use the state plane to fly home while it was still at his disposal.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=268031
- Steve - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 4:52 pm:
When Blago hired Dan Stefanski.
http://nalert.blogspot.com/2008/12/blagojevich-hired-chicago-mob-linked.html
- Kevin Highland - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 5:13 pm:
“I know the truth of things and I have nothing to fear but the truth!” said to reporters while stopped at a gas station.
- Retired Non-Union Guy - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 5:16 pm:
A very telling moment … A couple of months after Rod first took office in 2003, after opening the employee health insurance bids, CMS (at an unknown someone’s direction) tried to toss out tried to toss out the central Illinois health care providers (who were like the number 3 and 5 scorers) and tried to replace them with high priced Chicago area providers (who had scored something like 13 and 17 if I remember correctly). One brave soul on the evaluation committee leaked it to the press, including all the bid scores. I knew then that administration was headed for trouble. After the story broke in the papers, several of us retirees sat around at breakfast one morning and joked that the new administration didn’t have a clue on how to legally rig bids! We even took bets on how long it was going to be before the Feds investigated … but the joke was on us because no one guessed it would take as many years as it did.
- Vole - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 5:28 pm:
This memory is a little vague but I seem to recall Blago at the 2008 national democratic convention (please call me out if I got this wrong). I think the dems were trying their best to shun Blago and keep him out of the spotlight but he still was able to creep into several TV spots. Creep is the word. Blago’s tenure makes for a very real FarSide cartoon. Thanks to all of you who shared your very vivid, direct encounters of the weird.
- Park - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 6:51 pm:
Had a trial starting December 10, 2008…frantic last minute freak-out. I literally didn’t have time to follow the news. For about 24 hours, I was the only person in the State of Illinois who didn’t know what was happening.
- Moving to Oklahoma - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 7:09 pm:
I’m no fan of Rod. He is going to prison, and right fully so. However I will go on record with a positive memory. I think it was in 2007 when some Southeastern Illinois communities were devastated by flooding. Rod came to many small towns and walked through the flooded areas and really connected with some local residents in probably the most rural part of Illinois. Although he was and is a nut case, he did have the ability to charm and in that particular case I think it helped some people who lost everything to see the face of Illinois government in their small town.
- 32nd Ward Roscoe Village - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 8:05 pm:
When Rev. Senator Meeks says, “We have this thing called impeachment, and it’s bleepin’ golden” and the smile on Cullerton’s face when Meeks finished. Okay, those are the last moments of his term as governor, but those words summed up the whole thing.
- please... - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 8:18 pm:
When Sen. Mike Jacobs threatened to kick Blago’s tail end!
- Give Me A Break - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 8:40 pm:
Not defending him but it was his first or second State Fair Parade and as we entered the area around the main gate, a group of people were yelling insults at him, he walked up to them, sat down on the curb and asked them what the problem was? You should have seen the looks on their faces when they were faced with the Gov One-On-One instead of being able to hide in the masses.
- Some Guy - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 8:57 pm:
From the Sam Adam story in this thread:
Like his client, Adam has a flamboyant streak, and he’s found remarkable success as a criminal defense lawyer by following a basic rule: “A jury trial is a show, nothing but a show,” Adam said. “He who puts on the best show, he who entertains the most, he who can bring [his] point in the most effective way, wins. Hands down.”
That right there says it ALL about Rod and Sam.
As far as a memory of Rod, I will go with the time approaching reporters were swarming him with indictment questions at the main gate of the state fair. He was holding his younger daughter in his arms and she suddenly started crying. Rod claimed it was scary reporters and acted all puffed-up and indignant. I believe he pinched his daughter to create the diversion. He denies it, But I was there, about twenty feet away when it happened, and I’m convinced that’s what happened. Rod would use anything and anyone.
- Excessively Rabid - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 9:08 pm:
I know I’m way too late for this, but here goes just for therapy: the flu vaccine episode made it obvious he was a megalomaniac. And the business with the Air Guard fighters in Springfield confirmed it. OK, now he thinks he’s US secretary of state, commerce and defense. But the one thing I most remember is all the people I know who refused to vote him out of office when they had the chance. OK, JBT was no prize, but at least she was not Blago and we would not be in as deep a hole as we are.
- Excessively Rabid - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 9:09 pm:
Yes, we would still be in a deep hole. But not this bad.
- Bus watcher - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 9:09 pm:
So many choices… The firing announcement where Lynn R. was the advance man and listed among the fired comes to mind. Some reporter, I think Kinningham, asked the governor if he knew that he’d just fired the guy who set up his the podium and microphone for him, standing just ten feet away.
“He’s eligible to re-apply, if he wants to”. Said Rod. While never turning to look at him.
The absolute paralyzed, gobsmacked-ness of Rod as he was being asked by a skeptical reporter how often people gave his daughter $1500 birthday checks, how normal was that, and how much of a coincidence it was that that person making the gift got a state job a week later, without running the entire HR gauntlet.
There was the Elwood Blues “I was just BS-ing you” line where he referred, (thru his lawyers) to everything he’d said and promised and reneged on as “political puffery”, and thus not required to be factual….
But I’m going to go for the “Little Black Girl Mistook me for mayor Daley” story that Bernie liked so very much. Talk about running a story into the ground. And it stands to represent the massive basket of anecdotes he would deliver over and over everywhere. You could run a bingo card with call-outs to such Greatest Hits as “Electrocuted Elephant” “Brother in the stable” “Son of Immigrants”, “Clinton on Air Force one”, and “Mom says be good and ethical, but can you get your cousin a state job”.
- ZC - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 9:13 pm:
I am also going to riff on this thread and post a link to my favorite iconic photograph, of the Rod Blagojevich years. From his tender yet loving relationship with Michael Madigan.
This was the photo from the state fair in 2007, after Rod’s GRT proposal had gone down in flames. I looked at this photo and thought, “My god, Rod is the boy king and Madigan is the royal court vizier, and we always know how this fairy tale ends; vizier wins, boy king loses his head.” This time the fairy tales were right.
http://www.sj-r.com/photo_galleries/x403284157/Gov-Rod-Blagojevich-Photographic-History?img=5
- cousin ralph - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 9:27 pm:
that he was reelected. The fact that a majority of voters reelected this buffoon was the moment I realized things were going to get truely bad in Illinois.
- Retired Non-Union Guy - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 9:33 pm:
Bus Watcher … since I’d already bailed, I didn’t see it personally. So LR’s firing didn’t make my top memory … but he didn’t deserve that. He always worked with both sides and had set up that conference because the people supposedly running the show didn’t have a clue on what to do and asked him to do it … some of them didn’t know what was coming either. (full disclosure - Lynn is both a friend and a neighbor …)
- Bookworm - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 9:47 pm:
“It was pretty stunning to see someone do something so risky and stupid — let alone a sitting governor”
I guess Pat Quinn should thank his lucky stars he didn’t have to become governor any sooner than he did
“A co-worker and I were listening to the radio after work on January 29, 2009, listening to the IL Senate removal vote roll call (following the impeachment trial). It was an eerie feeling, kinda like Nixon’s resignation speech.”
I was listening to it in a friend’s car. The moment Chief Justice Fitzgerald announced that Blago was “removed from the Office of Governor effective immediately,” both of us let out a cheer… even though my friend is about as dyed in the wool a Democrat as can be, she also despised him and couldn’t wait for him to be gone.
“The fact that a majority of voters reelected this buffoon”
Well, technically, that’s not true, Blago got just UNDER 50 percent of the vote; he won because the rest of the vote was split between Topinka (40 percent) and Whitney (10 percent).
- Cincinnatus - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 10:18 pm:
My favorite memory of Rod is whatever he does next…
- Quizzical - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 11:18 pm:
When the legislatures were all stuck in Springfield because of his dictate and he was continually bashing them in the press. Meanwhile, I read on this blog that the big noon ‘all leaders’ meeting in Springfield would not be on time because a commenter had just passed Rod’s house at 11:45 to see him in his yard playing whiffle ball.
- M. La Farge - Monday, May 17, 10 @ 11:21 pm:
I remember getting in the car to go to lunch when WUIS broke from coverage of the arrest to go back to normal programming, and the first piece of classical music old Carl Scroggin cued up, without comment, was the final, bombastic part of the 1812 overture. Coincidence? I think not.
For state workers, it was like Bastille Day and Christmas and New Year’s. On Impeachment Day, we all went out and toasted with cheap champagne. The hangover has lasted till now,with a budget that never was fixed, along with so many Blago people still in charge of things. I don’t think this state can move forward, mentally, spiritually, until the trial is over and that fop is sentenced.
- Downstate Commissioner - Tuesday, May 18, 10 @ 7:18 am:
His ugly Hair!!!
- Way Way Down Here - Tuesday, May 18, 10 @ 8:15 am:
The “Fitzmas” parties in Springfield bars the night of the arrest. Everyone was so happy.
- Secret Square - Tuesday, May 18, 10 @ 8:49 am:
The Cap Fax thread a few days before the arrest which consisted almost entirely of “Fitzmas carols.”
- My Opinion - Tuesday, May 18, 10 @ 8:56 am:
The day that we were laying the late Senator Vince Demuzio to rest, and watching his widdows face as the funeral start time kept getting pushed back. Seeing all of his collegues, former and present staff members, constituents, MJM, and all the “greats” of yesteryear, just standing there, waiting to put our beloved Senator to rest. When he finally came in, he was I believe over an hour late. Senator Deanna should have just gone on without him. A funeral is no place to make an “entrance,” meglomaniac or not…
- nickname - Tuesday, May 18, 10 @ 9:53 am:
What I remember is this: Everytime he delivered a budget address or state of the state speech, and every campaign speech, I heard him repeatedly say “…The hardworking people of Illinois…” Like he gave a rat’s XXX about us. It just sounded so completely and utterly phony. That comment, and the fact he was considered a joke by so many back in his days in the Illinois House.
- amused - Tuesday, May 18, 10 @ 9:54 am:
During the dedication of the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library, he noted that his ACT score was something like 16. In essence,he was confirming what we already knew—he’s not too bright.
- Sheridan Road - Tuesday, May 18, 10 @ 1:12 pm:
The Illinois Tollway’s “WrongFul Terminations” lawsuits against Rod Blagojevich and the Illinois Tollway.
- Smitty Irving - Tuesday, May 18, 10 @ 3:53 pm:
During his FY 2004 Budget Address, saying (in a slip up) that everyone would want to get their hands on John Filan. A twofer - Rod’s penchant to delegate, and who he delegated to.
- Laura - Tuesday, May 18, 10 @ 6:15 pm:
The Daily Show interview in Feb. 2006.