Will Blagojevich be one of President Trump’s holiday season clemencies?

The name “Rod Blagojevich” has been all over the place this weekend – what with the fact that Sunday was the 10^th anniversary of the day that FBI agents showed up at the governor’s Ravenswood Manor neighborhood home to arrest him.

40892-424: From days when he was gov

Thereby beginning the saga that resulted with the governor’s impeachment and removal from office, followed with his incarceration at a federal correctional center in Colorado – where he remains to this day.

THERE ARE THOSE who would prefer to forget that Rod ever existed, and would probably hope there is some way his incarceration can be extended beyond his prison term that currently has a 2024 scheduled release date.

But I couldn’t help but notice a Chicago Sun-Times story, quoting one-time Illinois first lady Patti saying she’s holding out hope that her husband will be free and back home with the family for this year’s Christmas holiday.

Which ties into that freakish statement made back by Trump earlier this year where he hinted that he’s inclined to grant some form of presidential clemency on Blagojevich’s behalf.

Remember how much of a stink that stirred up? It was seen as more evidence of how unfit Trump was to be president that he would think Blagojevich was worthy of any form of early release from prison.

ADMITTEDLY, WHEN TRUMP made the statement, he had just done a few other clemencies and pardons – and the feeling then was that Blagojevich could be released from prison any day now.

That part didn’t come true. Blagojevich remains in the suburbs of Denver incarcerated. No one has said or done anything to indicate that activity on Blagojevich’s part is imminent.

At least not publicly. Patti Blagojevich claims she’s heard some things privately. But those could be vague tidbits that her wishful thinking is exaggerating into word of his imminent release.

TRUMP: Is he preparing a pardon?

My gut feeling? Back then, it was that Trump was making outlandish statements related to Blagojevich because he sensed it would “tick off” the Chicago political establishment that dumped all over the former governor and was glad to see him pushed out of the way.

WHY SHOULD ANYTHING have changed?

It may well be that Trump is waiting for a moment when he needs to distract attention from himself and his own activities – something so bad that he needs everybody to “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” and think about someone else, instead.

Someone such as Blagojevich, whose actions are going to forevermore be pondered by our political establishment as to just how venal they truly were.

Did he really try to solicit bribes in exchange for political appointments? Was it all just the realities of politicking – extended to a higher level? Or was it just the usual petty political poop; performed by a man who had managed to alienate those who should have been his political allies.

WHICH IS WHY they were more than willing to see him carted off to prison!

All of that is now a decade in our past, although some of us are determined to want to see eternal punishment. I’m not kidding when I say there will be those who will get all upset some six years from now when Blagojevich’s prison term expires. They’ll want to see it extended for whatever excuse possible. Some people are just overly bitter.

BLAGOJEVICH: Wants her husband for Christmas

Patti Blagojevich may well be the only person who cares personally about her husband’s fate. If she led a larger group capable of offering support to Trump to guide him through all the upcoming calamities he’s going to endure, he probably would rush to grant clemency.

But she’s only one. The idea of messing with the minds of Chicago by granting clemency may turn out to be not worth the hassle Trump would get from taking such actions.

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