The Blago Mess was not of Blago’s sole making. It took several cooks to make this stew. Fitzgerald and his crew of censorious crime stoppers were given license to hold a kangaroo court in full view of the media and effectively helped to skewer the Governor. The constitutional provision that one is innocent until proved guilty in a court of law was still in effect, but Fitzgerald declared Blago’s guilt as a certainty.
That Barack Obama did not intercede strongly on behalf of the Constitution was a red flag, signaling that this could become more than a matter-of-fact crisis. It could, as it has, morph into a three-ring, ongoing circus, which does nobody any credit.
The first mistake was the one from which all other mistakes flowed. By condemning Blago in advance, with no trial, the way was closed to a transparent negotiation between the Obama forces and the Governor.
I always figured that Blago would survive up to and through a trial, with all the perks of his office. That is how things work. But, with unseemly haste, the proactive mantle was given away by the Obama forces. All Fitzgerald had to do was cough to control the capacity of Obama to react.
That I have no particular brief for Fitzgerald should be obvious. I had none for Ken Starr either. I think these characters deserve a hefty dose of popular skepticism. They are fallible and they fall prey to the same ambitions, enthusiasms and errors as anyone else. All we need to do is remember the trajectory of the career of J. Edgar Hoover.
When I figured Blago would survive, despite all the righteous indignation, I also figured that he would make a Senate appointment, so I immediately offered the best choice — Diane Nash.
ALL DIANE NASH ARTICLES ON THIS SITE
And now my story becomes personal. I am among the lesser bloggers, but I do have HuffPost power. I put my Diane Nash suggestion up not once but twice. The problem is that HuffPost does not generally feature the posts of lesser bloggers. Posts about Barack’s pecs and Alaska births rise. So far most of my efforts have largely sunk to the bottom. Diane Nash suggestions included.
So what has happened? Blago made the less salient appointment of Mr. Burris. And now people are caught in the mud bath they have created.
Diane would have been a choice to trump the unseemly Fitzgerald virtue parade and even to elicit from Obama a statement that the choice is a brilliant one.
But no.
The only option I see now is for Obama to come out and say that Blago has the constitutional right to make this appointment and that the Senate should confirm it. Either that or have Blago withdraw it and appoint Diane Nash.
Barack can resolve this now. But to do so he needs to say something mildly penitent about the way everyone fell in line with a kangaroo court sort of process.
I am of course wrong, according to most right thinking people who feel the process has been tainted so that nothing Blago does should stand. Fine. Then watch this keep unfolding, preempting everything else, a cacaphony of horrendous cable coverage that will merely accentuate the errors of judgment already committed. This dominant reaction is the best reason for Barack to arrive at a nuanced and salient resolution of this ill-formed conundrum.
This was framed wrong initially and we are now the ones who are being framed.
