Editor’s Note
Back in the old days — that’s less than a decade and before there were such things as blogs and interactive conversations with readers — editors used to respond to their newspaper readers with an “editor’s note.” Sometimes it clarified a point made in a letter to the editor. Sometimes it offered a correction. Sometimes it was just a simple explanation. An editor’s note was a handful of sentences; maybe a four or five paragraphs. It was always a personal link between the editor and the reader. Only difference between it and today’s blog is the immediacy and the platform. Welcome to Editor’s Note.

Archive for December 9th, 2008

What about the families?

1 comment December 9th, 2008

On Jan. 13, 2003, Associated Press photographer Charles Rex Arbogast grabbed a shot of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich speaking from the podium at his inauguration. Seated behind him are former governors Jim Edgar and George Ryan and the wives of all three.

There are dozens of Blagojevich-and-family photos over the years. The two little girls with smiles across their faces and their hands tucked safely in daddy’s. Pictures of the governor and his wife, Patti, dancing at the inauguration and showing off their youngest daughter right after she was born. They are the photos of which scrapbooks are made, the photos that make these powerful men and their families look just like ours do.

Do you think Ryan and Blogojevich ever asked themselves what their wives and children would do when their political misdeeds were outed? Did they ever challenge themselves simply to do the right thing? 

Time for Blago to resign

1 comment December 9th, 2008

Yep, it’s time for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resign. Eight hours and change since the feds picked him up this morning shortly after 6 a.m., I’ll add my vote to the long “he’s gotta go” list. But, I’m not going to hold my breath. A reasonable man, one who sincerely has the best interests of the state at heart, one who knows when the time is right would already have stepped down. Blogo is not a reasonable man.

He’s more likely to go ahead appoint himself Illinois’ U.S. senator to replace President-elect Barack Obama. He could do that, you know. He could do a lot of things, from executive orders to Senate appointments. He’s still the governor, in jail or out.

Since the governor is both arrogant and smart, he’s not going to resign. And, since he shows all the symptoms of a megalomaniac-cum-bipolar, resigning isn’t going to be at the top of his to-do list.

Blago needs help getting to that resignation. Time for the state legislators to earn their keep. Off to Springpatch you must go. Get Blago the mental health assistance he needs (assuming he hasn’t cut those services so deeply that they can’t even help the gov), and get him the heck out of the office. Time’s awastin’.