Due Process: Why I Love Blago

The Senate seat “is a f*cking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”

Blago’s hair was on a news interview tour de force the past several weeks. For us, the viewer, it was nothing short of surreal and somewhat unsettling to suddenly view the man on our High Definition Screens sitting next to the likes of Larry King and David Letterman.

Even comedian D.L. Hughley “broke the news” with Milorad “Rod” Blagojevich on CNN.

I like Blago for two reasons. First, the obvious: his wonderful hair has provided countless hours of entertainment.  Second: He’s easy to disparage in a time when people are livid about their lives and the world around them. With the loss of 600,000 jobs in January alone and the world economic meltdown, Blago is a large hydraulically filled punching bag.

“All I ask for is an opportunity to be able to address these allegations and show my innocence”, Blago told Larry King, on Jan. 26th, adding, “Snippets of conversations taken out of full context is unfair.”

As much as Blago disappointed everyone by reminding us of the true face of American politics, one important fact can be gleaned from Blago’s fantastic TV interviews: with the aid of the “drive-by” news media, we are very efficient at sentencing people to life imprisonment in the formidable court of public opinion. Blago is scummy.

But there is an “inconvenient truth” that we must deal with called the United States Constitution, and particularly, the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which deals with the pesky belief that everyone deserves due process:

“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Blago was impeached and convicted on January 29th by a Senate vote of 59-0, but impeachment is a political, not a criminal conviction. Blago still faces federal indictment charges in the future, unless he changes his plea to guilty or nolo contendere, enters into a plea agreement, charges are dropped, or President Obama pardons him (yeah, unlikely).

I love to hate Blago too; it’s purely delightful. However, perhaps we should respect the Fifth Amendment and consider … oh, nevermind, who made it into the Top 36 on American Idol this week??