Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Blago Planning Tell All Book?

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is the gift that keeps on giving. Today, he was sharing stories about the infidelities and drinking habits of state lawmakers while away from their families down in Springfield. The Sun-Times reports on the former governor's latest appearance on WLS' "Don and Roma" show:

"This is how the system in Springfield works, where a bunch of these lawmakers go down to Springfield," Blagojevich said. "Nobody even knows who they are. They're away from their families. It's a whole different world down there. A bunch of them are cheating on their spouses.

A lot of them drink in excess. Very few of them know what's going on. They just take their marching orders from legislative leaders, and then the legislative leaders have to do things for them to keep them happy,"Blagojevich told WLS-AM's "Don Wade and Roma Show."

In one instance, Blagojevich said, he was approached by a legislative leader for help in diffusing a marital crisis that faced a rank-and-file lawmaker. The ex-governor did not name either official. That leader "came to us because one of his members was sleeping with his secretary. And then the wife found out and she wanted that secretary fired. But this guy was in love with his secretary so he goes to the legislative leader. They come to us. They want us to hire this woman so that we can keep that guy happy and then, you know, hope they might work with us on some issues," Blagojevich said.

"I don't want to be too judgmental. But these same guys get up and they get holier than thou on their soapboxes, and there they are doing that sort of thing, promoting that kind of thing," he said.

"And, yeah, people are human, and they make mistakes. But cheating on your wife and sleeping with your secretary, that's the wrong thing to do," Blagojevich said.

Blagojevich also took a shot at Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) for driving around in a Jaguar. Having worked for the state legislature in Springfield for six years, I can attest to the fact that Blago is telling it exactly as it is. Cheating by legislators on their spouses was rampant in Springfield, and sometimes the secretarial pool appeared more like an on-site brothel at the State House for legislators than a staff of professionals. And he's right about the drinking, but then again, there wasn't much else to do in Springpatch during after hours other than cruise around White Oaks Mall, or as the locals called it, "White Folks Mall".

I'll never forget the Chicago lawmaker who made a living working vice for the Chicago Police Department when he wasn't down in Springfield. He brought down a lady of the night from the Windy City whose limousine would pull up in front of Play It Again Sams, a local watering hole owned by another Chicago legislator across the street from the State House, and legislators would take turns with her as her limousine cruised around the city. That lawmaker even brought his lady friend on the floor of the House as his personal guest, all dressed up in a leather get-up. We had an attractive female on our staff who was a serial victim of sexual harassment, all by legislators. One of them was a legislative leader who would get drunk and call her up at home in the middle of the night while she was in bed with her husband. I could go on and on. The place was unbelievable. To my original point in this post, I can't help but wonder if Blago isn't planning to pen a tell all book to help pay for his legal bills. Didn't the ex-governor of New Jersey do something similar?

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