another one bites the dust

here's the thing about the latest political scandal. and when i say latest i really mean literally the latest because maybe i am just paying closer attention, but it seems like there is a 'scandal of the day' as of late. every time i turn around someone is being forced to resign or indited or unseated in shame and i know that politics is supposed to be corrupt but what good is corruption if it is so common that it becomes a given? it's like the nasdaq falling - oh again? quelle surpise...
in some ways that is what bothers me most about this whole rod blagojevich thing (aside from the fact that there is a perfectly amazing name, tarnished now and no doubt soon forgotten - what a waste). it is just such a total cliche. not only is he a politician, he is a chicago politician! there is no greater expectation of a political corruption than from a chicago politian. it seems so lame - lacks creativity and pizazz. it doesn't carry any of the seedy glamour that corruption can, when it is coming from the most obvious source. any hack writer or blockbuster movie producer could have come up with this one. i do have to give him a little credit for the ballsy move of trying to sell a senate seat. that certainly jazzes things up a bit. i mean, selling an office is nothing new but something about selling the newly elected president's former senate seat adds that je ne sais quoi that is missing from this otherwise typical scandal.
this does bring me to the other area of my annoyance - do these guys honestly think they will get away with this kind of crap? ( i use the word "honestly" very loosely here). you have to be seriously ego maniacal or seriously stupid (or both) to think that you can auction off a senate seat, the appointment of which has sparked national interest, in this day and age and think that no one is going to catch onto your little scheme. you've got to be kidding me. even if he hadn't been tapped or bugged or whatever, i have the foresight to see how this would all come to light: you whore around the position. a bunch of sleazoids are interested. you, the greedy bastard that you are, drive up the price and string people along until someone finally sweetens the pot. super, seat sold. but then you are left with the peanut gallery - the group of people you tried to manipulate and then left hanging. if they are low enough to try to buy a senate seat they are certainly low enough to blow the whistle and sell you out. that's what happens when you put a bunch of people together who are all looking out for number 1 and have no shame in trying to get what they want. i know this. how does this guy not know this?
i can't say that i share the fbi's "repulsion", shock and disgust over this, it seems like the are being kind of oversensitive pussies about it. you're the fbi! i know you've seen much shadier stuff, sorry this senate seat thing has given you the vapors. get a grip. for me this situation is irritating because this guy did the most obvious and expected thing a chicago politician could do without seemingly having considered the most obvious and expected results of such an action. sure it's wrong and corrupt and all of that but it is also just fulfilling the oldest and most expected cliche in the book and frankly, rod, you could have done better.