Interview With Myself : Part Two

Good news, everyone. I have been able to reach myself for comment, and have agreed to continue to talk to myself about former governor Blagojevich, heretofore in this blog to be referred to as Mr. Blagojevich.

HRM: Helen, before we begin, I must ask you, what are you wearing? Yesterday you wore that lovely individualized egg designed muu muu. Today you seem to be wearing a dark blue pantsuit. What gives? Don't I warrant getting gussied up for any more?
Helen: Of course you do, HRM. This is not a pantsuit. This is a velour jogging suit. Sweat pants and a sweat shirt, if you will. In velour. I do love velour!
HRM: But why? I don't plan on making you sweat. These questions are not that hard. And we certainly weren't going to go jogging in cyber space! I miss your original designs!
Helen: Yes, I am more comfortable in my designer muu muus, but mom's visiting nurse is going to visit today. Whenever she sees me in one of my designer originals, she always asks me if I am sick. I thought I would head her off by wearing something almost as comfortable, if not as creative.
HRM: I see. Well then, let us begin. You must be thrilled that Gov....I mean Mr. Blagojevich was impeached yesterday. You were urging his resignation since early December.
Helen: Thrilled is not the word I would choose. Relieved is more like it. I can't be thrilled. It pains me that this was even necessary.
HRM: Really? How so? Yesterday you said that you thought he was unfit from the beginning due to his pro choice position.
Helen: Yes, I did say that. I am not sure what Governor Quinn's position on abortion is, so it is a little early for me to feel camaraderie with him in that regard.
HRM: Still, you seem kind of sad for someone who just got rid of a lying, swearing, cheating...
Helen: Hold on there, please. He has not been convicted as a criminal yet.
HRM: But his impeachment...
Helen: Was merely about whether or not he was fit to govern, not his actual guilt. This is America, and he is innocent until proven guilty...
HRM: Wait! So you mean you agree with that nonsense he was saying on the View and everywhere else?
Helen: Not exactly. He was suggesting that his impeachment trial was unfair because it determines his guilt without allowing him to confront his accusers. I agree that in America, we have a right to confront our accusers before being labeled guilty. But hs impeachment wasn't about guilt or innocence. It was about fitness to govern. Some Senators may have stepped over the line and talked about guilt, but guilt wasn't the point. Fitness to govern was.
HRM: Huh? That was about as clear as the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day! *****
Helen: Okay, let me put it another way. When those transcripts came out on December 8, his voice is heard saying lots of bleepable stuff, and more or less offering the Senate seat for a price.
HRM: We all know that!
Helen: Yes, we do. But still, he needs to be tried in a court of law in front of a jury, with an opportunity to defend himself by questioning his accusers and bringing forth witnesses who can at least cause reasonable doubt before he can be called a criminal. But this impeachment trial was not a criminal trial. It was a trial to determine whether he could still do his job, or if he should be fired.
HRM: But doesn't saying he should be fired equate with him being a criminal?
Helen: Not at all. If I was accused of selling narcotics to students on the playground at a school I taught at, the principal would be within her rights to suspend me pending trial.
HRM: So Blagojevich is suspended?
Helen: No, he is fired. I don't believe the Illinois constitution provides for suspending a governor, and just as people would have little confidence in me as a teacher if I was accused of selling drugs to my students, people feel little confidence in Mr. Blagjevich due to the accusations against him. A person needs to be respected at their job in order to be successful in it.
HRM: So then if Blagojevich is not found guilty, he will have been ousted through no fault of his own.
Helen: In a way yes. But then, if a Supreme Court justice becomes senile, he or she can be impeached because he or she can't so his or her job. No one finds the defendant guilty of senility, just unable to fulfill the requirements of the job. I believe that Mr. Blagojevich lost the trust of the legislature and the voters (really, you wonder why Judy Barr Topinka wasn't governor since you can't find a single person on the street who admits to voting for Blagojevich). How can he govern without the people's trust?
HRM: And this makes you sad?
Helen: Very.
HRM: Why?
Helen: Mr. Blagojevich is accused of some horrible things that is very sad if it is true. And, he did improve health care for the elderly and working poor. In Illinois, we have a system called Circuit Breaker that helped the elderly with a few things, especially paying for prescription drugs. This was a few years before Medicare Part D. Prescription Drugs are very expensive. It was hard for many elderly people to get the drugs they needed. The Circuit Breaker was a Godsend for many. Then there is the help that some families get to pay for the medical needs of their children. These are good things. While I don't agree with him that these good things should give him a free pass to do bad things, he really was not a bad Governor for a while. Or at least he didn't seem to be.
HRM: I heard a rumor that during the sales tax and public transportation issues, you actually felt the media was picking on him.
Helen: Yes, a bit. You see, in the six years he was governor, he never lived in the Governor's mansion in Springfield, but in his Chicago house. The media made a big deal about the cost of this during the public transportation discussions.
HRM: So you think he was right to not live in the Capitol?"
Helen: No. I think that was ridiculous. But, if the media had issues with it, they should have reported it before his reelection, since that was the case all through his first term. It seemed fishy to me that the media got a bee in their bonnets over it when they did. Of course, now that there are allegations of him trying to get journalists fired, it all makes sense.
HRM: One more question. Ryan wants to know why we park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
Helen: Because people love paradoxes. If we are not drawn to the paradoxes that is God, we create our own paradoxes. Which reminds me of Open Road Tolling, another Blagojevich contribution...
HRM: Thanks, but not now. It is now time for us to go yell at the View. Let's go!
Helen: Right behind you!


******For those of you that do not know the river is dyed green every year on St. Patrick's Day. Please don't blame the Irish. I doubt that they do such silliness there. I do believe that in Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is a holy day where they celebrate the coming of Christianity to their lovely island. Pip, if you would like to add anything, or fell that I have expressed myself poorly about St. Patrick's Day, please clarify in the comment section. There will be no hard feelings. I wouldn't want to misrepresent my faith.