Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Another thought on Blagojevich

Reading the indictment, one ought to quickly become aware of the fact that the apparent motive for Rod Blagojevich's alleged attempt at getting a bribe was to ensure his financial well-being. Knowing that exactly the same motive seems to have been behind the Clinton family's mis-adventures in Blackwater, cattle futures, and such, I wonder what voters would have found if they'd taken a look at Blagojevich's financials.

I'm guessing that observers would have found that Mr. Blagojevich had not been a good steward of his finances, and that hence, it wasn't a good idea to put him into office. Just like the Clintons, just like Joe Biden, and just like Barack Hussein Jackson Blagojevich Ayers Rezko Daley Pfleger Wright Khalidi Obama.

Here is an article about his compensation. If he couldn't save money on that income, he had some very serious problems. I dare suggest that qualification #1 for political office is the ability to handle money. As pastors say, if you want to know where a man's heart is, look at his checkbook.

3 comments:

Benjamin Seghers said...

Are you trying to suggest that there have been no attempts at profiteering within the current administration? Or are you deliberately ignoring those cases?

Bike Bubba said...

Perhaps you ought to try reading what I actually wrote instead of "reading into" what I wrote. Either party could do a lot to clean up politics by taking a look at candidates' finances.

One GOP counter-example to my claim would interestingly by George Ryan, who was quite prosperous before becoming Governor, but yet succumbed to bribes. So handling money well is certainly no panacea against bribery. However, I've got to believe that it helps.

Anonymous said...

All one needs is a nodding familiarity with the small-time secretary/accountant embezzling scandals that crop up now and then and make the local news (we seem to average about one a year around here) to see that getting into debt has a lot to do with personal corruption. Sometimes these situations are created foolishly and sometimes as a result of reverses such as health issues or personal disasters, but there's a strong tie between financial desperation and white collar crime. We just had a locally grown federal judge convicted of insurance fraud after a nasty divorce.

OTOH, there are lots of just plain greedy rich people with few worries, just lust for money. But that doesn't eliminate the pattern you point out, completely.