Blago's Lost It

As the Illinois State Senate proceeds with Day 2 of the impeachment trial of Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D? - Crazytown), Blago himself is nowhere near the trial that will claim his job and career by the end of the week. The governor has been in New York, appearing on just about every television show possible, from Good Morning America to Larry King to The View. Watching this carnival sideshow yesterday, I truly began to feel sorry for the man.

I never knew Rod Blagojevich to be a particularly normal man; he was never anything short of weird in my interactions with him, but up until his arrest I never pegged him as completely delusional. He is, and it's sad. On The View yesterday I watched a very sick man who has lost any grip on reality, and I watched a man who has had a rather successful career and who has a great deal of talent throw everything away (not that he had anything left). Much like a sociopath, he seemingly is unable to grasp that he has done anything wrong. In his delusional mind, he's still the governor who was re-elected in 2006.

I can recall last March feeling a strange sort of sympathy as I watched then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) resign. Here was an even brighter man with more talent (and quite honestly, more integrity) who was not only resigning from a job, but letting go of a life spent pursuing a career, and for that I felt genuinely bad for Spitzer, despite the fact that he brought upon his own demise. I don't feel bad for Rod losing his career, I feel bad for him losing his mind.

And somewhere in that very sick head of his, I think he believes that yesterday was the first day of his political comeback. He is a difficult man to read, but all I can possibly surmise may be his motivation is that Blago somehow believes that he will one day be vindicated and return to the political scene and be elected to office once again. That's the only explanation I can come up with, but, then again, I'm looking at the situation as a rational person. Rod Blagojevich has clearly lost all ability to think rationally. And when the Senate removes him from office either tomorrow or Thursday, he'll lose his pension, too.