Rod Blagojevich is still delusional – wants to know “What happened?”

Rod Blagojevich (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

What happened is that something finally, triumphantly, penetrated that Teflon hair and attitude of yours Blago. After deliberating for 9 days, a jury found the former Illinois Governor guilty on 17 corruption-related charges. The charges include trying to sell President Obama’s former Senate seat. NBC reports:

Blagojevich had faced 20 charges, including the Senate seat allegation and that he schemed to shake down executives for campaign donations. He was convicted on all charges regarding the Senate seat. According to Chicago Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair, Blagojevich turned to his wife Patti and whispered “I love you” after the verdict was read. Patti kept shaking her head and remained seated as the jury exited the trial room. Blagojevich is reportedly “stunned.”

Blagojevich, who’s spent the past two years proclaiming his innocence to anyone who would listen and trying his hand at reality TV, says he’s “stunned” by the verdict.

Immediately after it was read, Blagojevich turned to his attorney and asked “What happened?” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald knows what happened. He had this to say after the verdict, “The jury sent a loud and clear message that Governor Blagojevich committed very serious crimes shaking down a children’s hospital, trying to sell a Senate seat and demanding cash campaign contributions in advance before signing a bill.”

Read the full recount of the verdict and Blagojevich’s reaction here. Catch up on our love-hate relationship with the former governor and other RBB politicians here.

Kilpatrick out on parole, but maybe not for long…

Remember infamous sex-ter and former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick? Kilpatrick is a favorite here at RBB because he makes it so easy. Here’s a little rundown of the reason Kilpatrick is in the RBB Hall of Fame:

Embarrassing text  messages between Kwame Kilpatric and former mayoral chief of staff  Christine Beatty (not his wife) were made public yesterday. First he cheated, then he lied about cheating, then he lied about lying. Then he got busted through the release of a series of explicit text messages sent to the very chief of staff he’d sworn he wasn’t having an affair with. After weeks of vehemently denying the affair, perjuring himself in court  and refusing to resign even though EVERYONE KNEW HE WAS LYING, prosecutors revealed the existence of  the text messages that would ultimately seal his fate.

But about a year after receiving a sentence of up to five years, Kilpatrick was released from prison on parole last Friday. He now faces a federal corruption trial that could potentially have him headed to prison for years. Check out this video that provides a timeline of the case against Kilpatrick and his trail of lies…

The meanest member of the House?

If the average length of stay for a chief of staff in the U.S. House is close to 7 years and you’ve gone through 11 in 11 years, it might be that you’re the meanest member of the House.

That’s what folks have been saying about Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) for years. She regularly appears in Washingtonian Magazine’s list of the “Best of Worst of Congress” and boy do her aides have the stories to back that ranking up.

One aide shared a story about her parents coming to the congressional office for a visit only to witness Jackson Lee “screaming” at their daughter and calling her a “stupid idiot” for a scheduling snafu. The Huffington Post also shares this story…

Yet another staffer remembers requesting a meeting early on in her tenure to ask how best to serve the congresswoman. Jackson Lee’s response: “What? What did you say to me? Who are you, the Congresswoman? You haven’t been elected. You don’t set up meetings with me! I tell you! You know what? You are the most unprofessional person I have ever met in my life.” With that, Jackson Lee hung up the phone. According to the same staffer, Jackson Lee “would always say, ‘What am I a prostitute? Am I your prostitute? You can’t prostitute me.’”

Jackson Lee is also apparently fond of referring to select members of her staff as “stupid motherf****ers. Classy.

Since I’ve never met a horribly bad boss who was willing to admit how lousy he/she really was, it comes as no surprise that Jackson Lee issued a statement that says her staff works hard and has fun. So do sadists. But I wonder if she’d consider, just for a moment, that she just might be a horrible boss. Maybe? Possibly? What are the odds that all 11 of your aides were “stupid mother****ers”? I mean that annoying dude, maybe. And the young woman who could never quite get it right, possibly. But all 11? All of them??

I’ve always maintained that it is possible to be a stern, all-about-business boss without being rude and condescending. Snarky, controlling, verbally abusive bosses are often incompetent people with few discernible management skills and even fewer social ones.  Too bad they’re always the last to know – or care. Read more about the meanest member of the House here, and check out her “stupid m-effer” rants here.

4 minutes

In the wake of mounting calls for his resignation and after first denying he sent dirty pictures, then admitting he sent them, and then us finding out he actually sent quite a few, Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress yesterday. It took four minutes, and thankfully, his pregnant wife was not standing (at least literally) by his side.

As only New Yorkers can do, Weiner’s four minute speech was punctuated by hecklers, including the witty, “Is it really seven inches?” Classy.

IMHO, it wasn’t so much the texting and the pics as it was the lying. His willingness to throw a fictitious Twitter hacker under the bus, along with his heartfelt denials of something he knew to be true, in the end, proved to be too much.  Here’s, hopefully, the last four minutes we’ll see of Weinergate for a while…

 

Weinergate escalates

Soooo…

After repeatedly denying that this was him, New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner confessed today that that was him ( a part of him anyway), and so is this.  And he’s ashamed. And he’s not quitting.

Weiner admitted hat he had, contrary to previous ranting denials, tweeted a picture of himself … his shorts exactly… to a woman. He also admitted that he’d been involved in “inappropriate” exchanges with several women before and after getting married.

In a press conference today Weiner said he was deeply ashamed, that it was “a dumb thing to do” and of course, reminiscent of another political confession, wept.

Radar online is now reporting that a woman claims to have 200 sexually explicit messages from Weiner, sent through a now inactive Facebook account.  So why deny all this in the first place, when there’s photo evidence in the blogosphere?  I’m not sure if we’ll ever know, but  check out Weiner’s teary-eyed press conference here

Horrible Bosses: So bad they made a movie about it…

Hollywood is banking on the fact that zillions of Americans hate their bad bosses enough to fork over the $10+ price of admission to see Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day plot the ultimate demise of their respective bosses played by Kevin Spacey – a white color schmuck -, Jennifer Aniston  – a sexual predator – and Colin Farrell – a drug addicted, fiercely-combed-over pig. The movie opens July 8th and I have a feeling that these bosses are so horribly over the top that even the real-life bad bosses will despise them. Can’t wait to review it…

The movie opens July 8th, but take a look at the official trailer now…