Nuts
“What are you, nuts?”
I have been asked that question on more than one occasion. My usual answer is that I have papers from board certified professionals unequivocally stating that I am not. But the reality is that I probably am to some degree and that’s OK because it allows me to live in a pretty nutty world.
The question regarding mental stability, or actually the lack thereof, is currently on the lips and minds of almost every pundit in the Midwest and nationally regarding Illinois Governor Throbbing Rod Blagojevich. Poor Rod has followed in the footsteps of four of the last eight Illinois Governors as he will soon become an alumnus of a federal gray bar hotel.
He was caught by the Feds on audio tape trying to swing a sweet deal for himself and his wife in the auctioning off of the Illinois U.S. Senate seat vacated by He Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken. According to the transcripts he had five or six potential candidates vying for his appointment. At least some of them must have been less appalled than others when considering the possibility of donating large sums of untraceable cash to the Governor and his wife or there would have been no need for the investigation. It was a pretty stupid thing to do but I don’t see any way that this greedy self-centered desire makes him completely crazy or even a little unbalanced.
The Chicago and national news media are bursting at the seams with mental health professionals that are all too willing to make a snap diagnosis of some psychological or emotional disorder from which the Governor is most assuredly suffering. The only problem with these drive thru docs is that any professional willing to make a diagnosis without ever actually speaking to the patient is, well, nuts.
I recall a couple of decades ago I had an encounter with a psychiatrist regarding some depression issues I was dealing with. After spending about an hour together in discussion this doctor told me that I was indeed depressed, but that it could be explained as I had a number of very depressing things going in my life. He said that it would be something to worry about if I hadn’t been depressed. Questions answered, quandary solved. I was acting depressed because I was depressed and I was depressed because I had depressing things happening.
While the mental stability of the discredited Governor may come into play in the future court proceedings he is in fact no more psychologically unsound than the rest of the world. He was acting exactly as his personal nature dictated he should act. If you elect a greedy ego maniac you can’t be surprised when he is caught acting avaricious and self-centered.
Big Rod was merely acting like a crook would act. He knew what he had was valuable and he tried to find the one person who would give him the most money for it. What he did was illegal not crazy. The reason he did it was not due to some delusional fit of grandeur but rather a remarkable display of just how stupid he thinks the rest of us are. His stated intent was to set himself and his wife up with a package that would pay the bills for the next few years while he reinvented himself. He honestly thought that with the right PR he could put himself into a position to run for president.
He was elected as the CEO of Illinois having run his campaign on a mantra of change. He was going to create jobs, build infrastructure, increase services and balance the budget. He said he could pay for it all by cutting out the government waste. He claimed the Republicans led by the now convicted George Ryan were corrupt and he would bring the necessary change and high moral standards needed to Springfield. People in Illinois are questioning his mental state in thinking he could actually become a serious candidate for president of the United States. I say all he had to do was use his old speeches and just change Springfield to Washington and Illinois to the United States.
It looks like the Feds have a pretty big case file assembled with which they plan to go to court. This could get the Gov a fairly lengthy prison term. Perhaps he could use that time to write a few autobiographies. Then he might actually be ready for higher office. It seems to be all it takes anymore.
Now that’s nuts!
