Where’s Blago? Harder to Find than Waldo

Add comment February 25th, 2008

The nation’s governors met today for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the group, they recreated a vintage photo in front of the White House.

From the National Governor’s Association:

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt hosted the first meeting of the nation’s governors at the White House to discuss conserving America’s natural resources. The meeting was attended by 39 governors and several cabinet secretaries and supreme court justices. This 1908 meeting marked the beginning of the National Governors Association (NGA).

As NGA kicks-off its centennial celebration, the nation’s current governors “recreated” the 1908 photo during the annual governors’ meeting with the president.

The 1908 photo is here and it’s a must see. A century later, the governors are here. Only, where is Gov. Rod Blagojevich?

He did not show up for the photo, an NGA spokeswoman said. Nor did he attend the winter meeting, his own spokeswoman said.

Certainly, there would have been plenty at the meeting of interest to our populist governor, no?

A friend of mine who is a reporter in Washington wrote by e-mail that discussion topics included:

“coal gasification and carbon sequestration (FutureGen!) and getting an even bigger economic stimulus package. Oh, and the likely prospect of losing millions of health care dollars.”

My friend added, tongue in cheek, “Good thing none of these topics have anything to do with Illinois!”

Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff responded by e-mail: “We had planned to be there, but schedule changed so he could attend the NIU memorial. We have some senior staff in attendance.”