After the booting out of office of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a lot of the smarty pants reporters and pundits were lamenting their belief that the colorful and headline making public official would sink into some sort of oblivion. I predicted that he would continue to maintain high visibility as a celebrity in his own right. Well, one look at his post-ouster national media schedule and you can see that Blago is going to give Paris Hilton a run as the spotlight hog of the year. He even appeared on the David Letterman Show. That’s star status.
Frankly, I’m at a loss to see why so many reporters and columnists think the media tour is so stupid. What do they expect — that he will sulk at home until the feds carry him off to court for a quick trial before he is marched up to the gallows.
The media schtick makes perfect sense. He is getting a lot of criticism for what some think is an attempt to influence future jurors — you know, makes him sort of human, funny and maybe some of his protestations of innocence will be persuasive? And why not? What’s he got to lose.