Sticky & Stickier Fools

As the author of Bad Behavior, People Problems & Sticky Situations, I’ve been watching the whole mess around Governor Blagojevich knowing that sooner or later I’d feel compelled to weigh in.  It’s later.

First off, the Governor should resign, not necessarily because his behavior teeters on the edge of blatant corruption, but more because he’s been and continues to be a fool.

Everyone – yes everyone! - knows that “pay to play” is extraordinarily common in politics (hell, in Washington DC it’s a parlor game as old as gin rummy).  But almost everyone, excluding perhaps the Governor and his wife, is aware that it’s simply bad form to openly discuss the practice with casual acquaintances and other “emissaries” who are desperate to curry favor.

Our great nation has a documented history of high figures stooping very low for personal financial gain.  But lately it seems that everyone is getting into the act by hitting new nadirs in the most egregious manner: executives at AIG, politicians, even Presidents of prestigious universities.

Since it’s entirely possible that every candidate I ever supported engaged in some kind of pay-to-play practice, there’s no point in me condemning it.  It is what it is.  But I do condemn people for being total fools about it.

Blagojevich was foolish when he blatantly tried to auction off Obama’s vacant Senate seat, and he continues to be a fool by not apologizing and stepping out of the way of the political and legal juggernaut thundering down on him. Former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer – caught with his hand in the prostitution cookie jar - was being foolish too. But he wasn’t brought down so much by pay-to-play but by what I’ll call pay-and-play (and pretend that he’s a moral leader above reproach). And in another variation of the game, it’s pretty clear that Governor Palin was involved in a kind of ideological play-or-pay scheme, in which those who didn’t play nice with the Governor (and her husband) paid the price with their jobs.

So when it comes to playing around… birds do it, bees do it, even educated sleazebags do it.  Let’s admit it, manage it, and even try to tamp down on it.  But for everyone’s sake, let’s at least try not to be fools about it.