Bluh-GOY-uh-vich

Yesterday may as well have been national Blagojevich day, as far as I'm concerned, because I could focus on nothing else (not even new pictures of Suri wearing a coat!). Today, John Cass of the (flailing) Chicago Tribune writes an op-ed on the matter and basically talks about how, while this debacle and the the associated Clay Davis-style corruption doesn't come as a surprise to Chicagoans/Illinoisans who are used to these sort of local polischticks, the national media and the general public must be stunned—and a little bummed—that Chicago isn't actuuaaaallly the fairy tale-ized place they saw on the teevee on Nov. 4. He says:

"So though Illinois isn't surprised—this is after all the home of the Chicago Way—the national media must be shocked.

They've been clinging to the ridiculous notion that Chicago is Camelot for months now, cleaving to the idea with the willfulness of stubborn children. It must help them see Obama as some pristine creature, perhaps a gentle faun of a magic forest, unstained by our grubby politics, a bedtime story for grown-ups who insist upon fairy tales. But now the national media may finally be forced to confront reality."

But the issue with this idea that exposing Camelot's dark alleys negatively affects Obama is that—from everything we know right now—Mr. President Elect's hands are clean. Sure, Chi-town is looking a hell of a lot less shiny right now, but that almost plays into the fairy tale notion of Obama's perfection: He managed to be the anti-politician in a place that is full of the worst, dirtiest crooks out there. Rather than come out smelling like shit, he's looking like the flower who used the dung as fertilizer.


Clay Davis (of The Wire...I'm sorry) and his infamous "sheeeeeeiiiiiiiit"