Yikes. Blago is floating out there in the ozone 'Free-As-Bird and Guilty as Sin,' as Chicago's Distinguished Professor and Unrepentant Crony, Billy 'The Bomber' Ayers might say.
Yep, Ed Genson who was Jimmy 'The Bomber'Catura's mouthpiece back before Mr. Catura shed his mortal husk - with help to be sure, has already tied the Illinois Legislature in knots; Fitzy, it seems to me, might have pulled the trigger on Blago too soon; SEIU is getting more attention than they really care to have; everyone but Mike Hughes's dog has 'demanded - demanded, I say!' that Governor Sunshine vacate the Office of Illinois Chief Executive; POTUS-E Obama has 'as I've said so many times;' and Illinois has become the Jon Burge Political Corruption.
Now, the Socialist Workers Party, that played so nice with Howard Dean and Dave Axelrod and Rahm Emmanuel and Jan Schakowsky and SEIU is getting ready to make war on the Democratic Party over Milorod Blagojevich and his busy-beaver buddies and Pay to Play!
The Blagojevich scandal is also a reminder that the Democratic Party is one of the main institutions that systematically incorporates organizations of working people into a corporate-dominated system of horse trading and political favoritism.
This was illustrated when the Feds' tapes apparently captured some dealings of "Union Official A" (who has since been identified as Tom Balanoff of Service Employees International Union)--who, it appears, Blagojevich's staff was trying to enlist as a go-between for the governor to Obama's staff. The tapes also caught Blagojevich proposing a scheme whereby he could make up to $300,000 running a lobbying organization for the SEIU-sponsored Change to Win federation.
All of this may prove to be nothing more than idle talk, yet it is the kind of thing that the labor movement doesn't need. Unfortunately, it's too common in a labor leadership that in recent years has proven itself more attuned to Democratic Party deal-making than to grassroots mobilization.
Lance Selfa, the author, ( Reds and Rose-hued Barricade Stormers always have cool names) sure seems to have a grip on Patrick Fitzgerald's modus operandi:
If Fitzgerald's record is any indication, he will find something provable with which to prosecute Blagojevich--and it's likely to be something a lot less sensational than the charge that the governor was selling Obama's senate seat. Blagojevich may end up joining Ryan in the penitentiary, but the charge will likely be some penny-ante corruption of which any number of mainstream politicians could be accused.
It must have been this sort of behavior that Frederick Engels, Karl Marx's collaborator, was considering when he described American political parties in 1891 as "two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends--and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians, who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality exploit and plunder it."
Well, I guess it's a pay check, Lance. Stay frosty.
Gee. And the DNC and Reds played so nice together to bring Change We Can Believe In. Looks like more Change is Blowing in the Wind - not blowing up Billy - blowing in - like Lightweights in American politics. The Crab Barrel is Full of Them!
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