We’re in the procedural part of the Blagojevich saga. While we wait for the former governor’s sentencing, there are those people who are getting all worked up about the fact that the Pepperdine University Law School graduate is about to be disbarred.
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| BLAGOJEVICH: Ex-atty? Or inmate? |
Somehow, I suspect that Milorod is more concerned about the fact that his sentencing was delayed than he is about the fact that he soon will no longer be able to call himself an attorney.
THEN AGAIN, HE was always more interested in being a government official than he was in being an attorney. Being able to have the ability to influence public policy was more intriguing to him than fully comprehending the intricacies of “the law.”
Law school was just a ticket to public policy, rather than his intended destination. He hasn’t actually worked as an attorney since the days he represented the Lincoln Square and Ravenswood neighborhoods in the Illinois House of Representatives back in the early-to-mid 1990s.
Which is why, in some ways, I respect the political people of the old days who had their careers running taverns or funeral parlors. There was less of a hypocritical nature to their rhetoric. They weren’t about to claim that they were engaging in any high-minded business.
They were the ones who came up with the phrase “the people’s business” to mock the idea that they were concerned that much with balancing interests. Not that I approve of such attitudes, but at least we comprehend where they’re coming from.
MY POINT IN bringing this up is to take down some of the reports coming up these days about the efforts to disbar Blagojevich.
His disbarment became an inevitable outcome on the day that he was found guilty of that lone criminal charge last year. It was only enhanced when a jury in his second trial piled on all those other criminal convictions.
So learning that the state’s Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission has filed the paperwork with the Supreme Court of Illinois to suspend the law license of Rod Blagojevich is just a step that must happen.
It won’t matter what Blagojevich and his attorneys come up with in response (there is an Oct. 11 deadline). Unless he can eventually convince an appeals court to overturn all his convictions, then get acquitted on re-trial (you know prosecutors will try again, if they have to), his law license will be suspended.
THEN, HE WILL be disbarred. Although it seems that Blagojevich previously was willing to give up the law license voluntarily – if there could have been legal language used that would have avoided the word “disbar.” He just thinks that the term carries too much of an overtone of guilt, which he’s still not willing to admit.
The real events that people should follow if they’re that concerned about the Blagojevich saga is his sentencing – which was supposed to take place on Thursday.
We finally were going to learn whether there was any legitimacy to those people who were arguing that Blagojevich somehow qualified for a federal prison term of “30 years to life.”
But one of the other people who also faces federal charges of government corruption has his own trial beginning Monday, and U.S. District Judge James Zagel conceded a week ago that it won’t be possible to sentence the former Illinois governor if he has to devote so much attention to the trial of William Cellini.
HE’S THE SPRINGFIELD business executive who, because of his fundraising ability, has had influence with state government officials for the past few decades. He appears to be a Republican, but he’s also one of those GOP types who is more interested in getting things done and is willing to work with Democrats as well.
Even though his political ties were to long-ago Gov. Richard Ogilvie (the first secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation and also director of the state Public Works and Buildings department), he was willing to be a prominent fundraiser when Blagojevich ran for governor in 2002 and 2006.
The fact that Cellini could upstage the Blagojevich sentencing probably is the best evidence of who was really in control of things in Illinois state government.
So now, Blagojevich has to sit and stew a few more weeks (possibly a couple months longer) to learn what his fate will be. Prison for a couple of years, or some draconian sentence?
OR DOES BLAGOJEVICH somehow convince “da judge” that nobody really lost anything due to his conduct in office and he should get nothing more than probation?
I believe the additional weeks that he will have to wait for that outcome will hurt Blagojevich more than the thought of losing his law license.
And in the end, I don’t think that even Sammy Davis Jr. as “da judge” from Laugh-In would be willing to buy Blagojevich’s argument!
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