Editorial: Rod Blagojevich, Superstar? Not in our good book

The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune on Feb 14, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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Back in early 2009, Chicago’s storied Second City comedy theater created a satirical musical spoof of a former governor of Illinois, “Rod Blagojevich, Superstar.” “My party, my party, why have you forsaken me?” sang the title character in the opening number. “Machine, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Such local flora and fauna as the Illinois state bird, Gibson’s steakhouse, Tony Rezko, former Ald. Richard Mell, former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and, memorably, the former U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, by then a Blagojevich appointee, all made appearances.

“Pay to Play” was one of the better musical numbers. The leading character’s lines included such gems as, “Since when is breaking a few laws illegal?” And in one of the more inspired comic moments, “Blago” told the character of Burris that his unique idea of being Black just for the purposes of courting the African American vote in Illinois was a stroke of genius.

The show was surreal, not least because Lisa Madigan, whose own father (as we write) now awaits a jury’s verdict on federal corruption charges (he’s denied them), was in the audience. And so, eventually, unsurprisingly, was Blagojevich himself. On the stage, too.

Critics at the time thought the show would have a short shelf life because it was assumed that the former governor was an ignominious footnote in Illinois history. Later that year, he was impeached and removed from office by the Illinois General Assembly, then convicted and incarcerated on federal charges of public corruption relating to how he went about appointing a replacement for the Senate seat that had belonged to the ascendant President Barack Obama.

Those reviews did not age well. The show merited a reprise run in 2020, just as the former governor came home from federal prison in self-described triumph after President Donald Trump, apparently charmed by a man who shared both his potent sense of self and love of the spotlight, commuted his sentence.

And now, five years down the road, here Blagojevich is in the news yet again after that same White House benefactor decided that commutation was just not enough for this fine man and that he merited a full-blown pardon.

Perhaps the additional goody bag for Blago has something to do with a reportedly imminent plan to make him the U.S. ambassador to the lucky nation of Serbia.

Trump has been railing against those he deems “DEI” candidates. But convicted felons as diplomats? No problem, apparently, after Trump wields his pen of mercy. How ridiculous.

Full disclosure requires us to note our own history with the man.

As an FBI wiretap revealed in court in 2008, the former governor once was attempting to leverage possible Illinois Finance Authority assistance with the rehab of Wrigley Field (at the time, Tribune Co. owned the Chicago Cubs).

His price? “Fire all those f—-ing people” (us),” “get ’em (us) the f— out of there” and “get us (him) some editorial support.”

Nobody was fired from this board and the desired editorial support was not forthcoming any more than it is now for this absurd pardon. Commutation was one thing; a full-on pardon is entirely another.

It’s tempting to see the Blago affair as an old joke. We have had our laughs and we’re sure the good people of Serbia will be similarly entertained, should the projected scenario come to pass.

But as a recent Tribune series pointed out all too plainly, the culture of corruption long has been systemic in the state of Illinois and many hardworking federal prosecutors and ordinary jury members have toiled long and hard over the years to ensure that those in the state’s highest offices don’t make a mockery of the laws of the state they are sworn to protect. Those are the real superstars.

As time went on, and given that he had spent almost eight years behind bars, most of us could stomach the commutation that Blagojevich engineered for himself and could wish him and his long-suffering family well in the future. Whether or not you agreed with the decision, you had to admire the man’s chutzpah.

But a pardon? An ambassadorship? That’s rich. Golden, you might say. Only for one deeply flawed man.

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