Thursday, July 8, 2010

Testimony: Rod Blagojevich only worked 2 ~6 hours a week and hid in bathroom to avoid bad news

No wonder Illinois is nearing bankruptcy.

The Chicago Tribune reported:
The jury this morning is hearing more testimony about how inattentive Gov. Rod Blagojevich could be on the job...

Greenlee said Blagojevich rarely came in to the office -- generally just two to eight hours a week.

Like other former top aides and advisers to Blagojevich, Greenlee said that he quickly found he had to tread lightly when telling the then-governor something he didn’t want to hear. Blagojevich froze out advisers who told him bad news, Greenlee said.

One example, Greenlee said, was John Filan, who had long been the architect of Blagojevich’s budgets...

Blagojevich would go out of his way to avoid Filan, hiding in the bathroom and holding up in his office until Filan left, Greenlee recalled.

Obama endorsed this loser for Governor of Illinois twice. Here is the 2002 endorsement.(00:45 mark)


In 2006, Obama endorsed Blagojevich again even though he was under the dark cloud of a hiring scandal at the time.
In an interview with the Chicago Daily Herald in July 2006, then-Sen. Obama said, "I have not followed closely enough what's been taking place in these investigations to comment on them. Obviously I'm concerned about reports that hiring practices at the state weren't, at times, following appropriate procedures. How high up that went, the degree at which the governor was involved, is not something I'm going to speculate on.

"If I received information that made me believe that any Democrat had not been acting in the public interest, I'd be concerned," Obama said....

"We've got a governor in Rod Blagojevich who has delivered consistently on behalf of the people of Illinois," Obama told the crowd.

1 comment:

DavidR said...

The rates of bankruptcy in Illinois are the highest they have been in five years - thanks Blago.