I have no idea what I'm doing...

After months of wasting a valuable seat on the senate floor, Roland Burris finally realized that when we said ”Don’t take it,” we meant it.  He’s useless as Illinois’ senator.  His hasty, shady appointment by Rod Blagojevich pretty much guaranteed that. 

Scraping together the little pride he has left, last week the 71 year old Burris announced he would not be campaigning to keep his senate seat.  Still displaying that cute little clueless thing he does so well, he proclaimed that he was not bowing out because of the controversy surrounding his appointment, but because he couldn’t afford to stay in the race.  We think he spent a couple of months in the senate and realized he didn’t know what the hell anyone was talking about.  He then decided that bowing out gracelesslyfully was better than being thrown out on his ass.   

 Burris’ bow-out comes on the heels of Blagojevich’s top aide making a deal with the feds that could reveal a lot more about the depth of Blagojevich’s corruption.  Is it possible Burris knows the scope of what’s about to be uncovered and wants out before it gets too deep? Probably. 

It’s a shame that Burris will go down in history as Illinois’ first African American senator.  At best his tenure will be laughable.  But his worst fear, that he won’t be remembered at all, is probably much more likely.

Thou shall not steele (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press)

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele threatens comeback – I figured RNC Chair Michael Steele would appreciate the reference to LL Cool J’s 1991 hip-hop hit “Mama Said Knock You Out.” 

Hip Hop rallies aside, Steele, before a crowd of supporters at the Republican National Committee’s 2009 State Chairman’s meeting, declared “The honeymoon is over…the era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over.”  The party reserved the right to apologize to Rush Limbaugh if ever they have an original thought.  Steele ended his speech with a five minute human beat box solo. No, not really, but I’m sure he was tempted.

Steele urged republicans to take the gloves off and start going directly after Obama and his “disastrous” policies.  Regardless of your political persuasion, it’s hard to take anything Steele says seriously. The first few months in his role as RNC chair he waffled back and forth so often, it was hard to determine which was his true voice and which was the voice of his puppeteer Rush Limbaugh.   There was a large asterisk hovering over Steele’s head as he delivered his speech.  A check of the fine print revealed the following: 

*All official statements made by Michael Steele must be approved by Rush Limbaugh before being official statements of the Republican National Party.  Even if you think you heard him say it, have it on tape and saw the interview on television, if Rush disagrees with it, then Steele didn’t really say it. 

Laughing all the way to the bank - REUTERS/Frank Polich

I think I’m going to have to name a blog category after Blagojevich.  In a prime example of what’s wrong with America today, our second favorite really bad boss in the political arena – Kwame Kilpatrick being our first – is at it again.  Just hours after pleading not guilty to the federal charges against him, I hear that he’s trying to get himself on a reality show called “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!” The show takes a group of D-list celebrities to a jungle and leaves them there.  Apparently mayhem ensues, and we are thereby entertained.  Is it wrong to hope they all get scabies?  Blagojevich is in line to make $80,000…an episode! That right there is a really bad boss gold mine and sets the stage for the really bad boss trifecta:

1.  Bad bosses making a killing off of their really bad behavior.  We already ♥ Blago because he gives us soooo much to work with. Now he’s poised to make $80k an episode – for being a liar, and a cheat.  Nice. Really nice. Read the rest of this entry »

Blago at court on Tuesday (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

From the Who didn’t see this one coming file - another really bad boss denying all wrongdoing

You know how much we love Blago right?  Well today we fell in love all over again as he pleaded not guilty to 16 federal criminal charges.  Blagojevich, hair perfectly in place, looked relaxed and confident as he entered his not guilty plea at the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago.  Blago said he was ”saddened and hurt…” by the indictment, and then told reporters to go f*** themselves.  No, he didn’t actually say the last part, or at least he wasn’t caught on camera saying it.  But  when all this drama began four months ago, he was heard on tape referring to now President Obama, as a “m***** f*****,” so cursing at reporters would certainly not be out of character for him.

As you know from our ongoing love affair with Kwame Kilpatrick, the only thing we love more than a really bad boss, is a really bad boss who, even when caught on tape, still denies any wrong doing.  It comes as absolutely no surprise to us that this pillar of the community continues to deny attempting to auction the, then vacant, Illinois senate seat to the highest bidder.  

When Blagojevich finally does admit to some wrong doing, we’ll be sure to cover it here, along with the breaking news of pigs flying and hell freezing over.

Former really bad boss Elliot Spitzer edging his way back into the public arena

Elliot Spitzer - a sigh of relief?

 This morning, New York’s former governor, Elliot Spitzer, did a segment on one of the morning shows.  He sounded quite remorseful, referring to the behavior that got him ousted from office as “egregious.”  We talked about Spitzer and other renowned really bad bosses in a previous post, The Really bad boss roundup.  At the time, we asked several pointed questions.  We wondered whether these individuals should ever again be trusted in positions of public leadership.  And we asked whether their actions should be seen as character flaws or mere indiscretions that would not necessarily impact their ability to do their jobs. 

Prior to becoming governor, Spitzer was New York’s attorney general.  He was nicknamed the “sheriff of wall street” for his no-nonsense investigations into some of the very banks we’re currently bailing out.  Now he has a lot to say about what should have been happening to properly regulate the banking industry, and some believe he has the skills and know how to help remedy the current situation.  All of this reinforces the fact that when individuals in public positions of power commit these types of glaring infractions – both the immoral and illegal ones – their actions have long term consequences that go well beyond the immediate impact on their families.

In many cases, you’ve got talented individuals who are in positions of power that allow them to shape the future of the towns, cities and communities they govern.  Shortsightedly, by choosing to involve themselves in questionable behavior, they rob their constituencies and society at large of the very talents and skills that got them to positions of leadership in the first place.  It’s hard to say if anything would have been different had Spitzer remained New York’s governor over the past year, but we’ll never know.  As long as people in positions of public leadership continue to choose self, over family and community, we’ll always wonder what could have been.

What do you get when you mix two prostitutes and a former Republican party chair?

 A beat-down. A politician can usually talk himself out of anything…except that is, a beat-down from his wife who’s  just caught him with two prostitutes.  Former Cook county Republican Party chair Gary Skoien denies he was with two prostitutes at around 1:00am last Sunday.  His wife begs to differ and police reports state she allegedly beat him (embellishment mine) after finding him at home in their children’s playroom with two women.  Skoien claims the police report is wrong and that he’s working on correcting it.  By correcting it he means denying it ever happened.

We can still see you Kwame

Embarrassing text  messages between Kwame Kilpatric and former mayoral chief of staff  Christine Beatty (not his wife) were made public yesterday.  We are really big fans of Kwame Kilpatric.  Why?  Besides the fact that he gives us so much to work with,  the only thing worse than a really bad boss is a really bad boss who doesn’t know when to sit down and shut up.  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.  Now that the messages have been made public, they reveal quite a few salty exchanges between the two. Nice mayoral conduct Kwame and yet another example of bosses behaving badly.  To read the nastiness in detail, click here.