Another One Bites the Dust

As this issue heads to the printer in late December, the anti-gun Governor of the state of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich (D), was taken into custody on federal corruption charges. I anticipate that within a few days, the Illinois legislature will remove him from office, making Blagojevich the second anti-gun governor to go down in flames for "moral turpitude" this year.

Blagojevich, as you no doubt are aware, has been accused of conspiring to sell or trade President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant senate seat for personal financial gain. And earlier this year, anti-gun crusader Eliot Spitzer (D), then Governor of New York, was forced to resign over his involvement with a prostitution ring.

Oddly enough, both men were elected on promises to "clean up corruption." Why do we find that those who would take the guns away from law-abiding citizens so often turn out to be hypocrites, if not outright criminals? In the Blagojevich case, U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald released a 76-page FBI affidavit detailing an investigation that included courtauthorized wiretaps.

The affidavit contains transcripts of conversations where Blagojevich discussed exchanging the Senate appointment he controls for’among other monetary rewards’a salaried position with either a non-profit foundation or a labor organization or a cabinet post or ambassadorship in the Obama Administration. Obama’s home state of Illinois’one of the most anti-gun states in the country’has along history of political corruption.

In fact, the governor before Blagojevich, George Ryan, is currently serving time on federal corruption charges. What makes this particular arrest so outrageous is that Blagojevich knew he was already under federal investigation before he undertook to sell Obama’s vacant seat in the Senate. An Illinois businessman and political fundraiser with ties to both Blagojevich and Obama, Tony Rezko, was convicted earlier this year on numerous corruption, fraud, and extortion charges.

As part of the Rezko investigation, also headed by Fitzgerald, several others with ties to Blagojevich have faced charges. It was no secret that Fitzgerald’s continuing investigation of corruption in Illinois politics’an investigation that covers nearly six years’was focused on the Governor.

For Blagojevich to undertake such a blatant criminal enterprise while under investigation for other criminal acts begs the question: "What the hell was he thinking?" No one in the pro-gun community will be sad to see Spitzer and Blagojevich go, as both have pushed assaults on the Second Amendment rights of citizens during their time in office, and both have helped to promote an increasingly hostile atmosphere for gun owners in their respective states.

Ironically, as anti-gun as Blagojevich’s stance has been, he was in possession of a Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card, which he was ordered to surrender when he was released on bond. Like I said, the man’s an anti-gun hypocrite at best, if not yet a convicted criminal. Editor Keith Lawrence Technical