PAY TO PLAY

Pay to Play- How Rod Blagojevich Turned Political Corruption into a National Sideshow” by Elizabeth Brackett

Pay to Play- How Rod Blagojevich Turned Political Corruption into a National Sideshow” by Elizabeth Brackett

Introduction

In her political biography Pay to Play: How Rod Blagojevich Turned Political Corruption into a National Sideshow, Brackett profiles former Illinois governor Blagojevich, whose political career collapsed when he was accused of trying to sell the Senate seat once occupied by Barack Obama. She carefully profiles Blagojevich and his career, charting the many slick political deals, overwhelming confidence, self-destructive arrogance and narcissism, and sometimes distinctly odd behavior that brought him to prominence and notoriety. Brackett "excels at explaining how the deal-making, mud-slinging game is played here .

Brackett, award-winning correspondent for "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer," uncovers new details in the Rod Blagojevich scandal as she goes behind the story of the first governor to be impeached by the Illinois legislature.

Weeks after President Barack Obama's remarkable victory, the nation was shocked to learn that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had been arrested at his home by the FBI. There are allegations that Blago had tried to sell Obama's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat for cash. This effort appeared to be only the latest in a cascade of corruption that prompted U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to charge the governor with actions that would make Lincoln roll over in his grave. In Pay to Play, Elizabeth Brackett, award-winning correspondent in the political realm for PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, uncovers new details as she goes behind the story of the first governor to be impeached by the Illinois legislature. All the time tracing the background of corruption in Illinois politics and its implications for state government executive branches across the country, she tells precisely how Blagojevich's personal biography and his political upbringing paved the way for his reckless fall; what the dilemma of selecting replacement senators means for other states, what secrets the federal trial of the governor is likely to produce; why Roland Burris was selected for the U.S. Senate seat for Illinois, and how a man named Obama could emerge with integrity from the swill of this same political environment.

Discussion

In addition to her detailed reportage on Blagojevich's political development and eventual misdeeds, Brackett also delves into the more human side of the embattled former governor, including his family history as the son of Serbian immigrants. It's a fairly charming story, one that Brackett limns well to inform the story of the Rod we know and impeached. She notes, for example, that as a teen, Blagojevich would intervene and take physical punishment from his father directed at his younger brother. She describes the hardships of his early years and how his early troubles helped him to reconstruct himself as something of a charming folk hero. With the backdrop of corruption seen throughout the history of Illinois politics, Brackett shows how Blagojevich's personality and political expertise could not save him from his own ambitions.

One of the greatest living historians reflects on our time ...