There is some speculation that Governor Blagojevich must be crazy to have been so brazen in his telephone conversations when the possibility of wiretaps had to be considered. He even seemed to dare the authorities to wiretap his conversations.
Here is a good discussion of his mental state. I have had some experience with psychotic and sociopathic patients. A few years ago, one of my medical students was assigned to interview a patient in the County Hospital who was diagnosed with manic depressive psychosis. In the chart of this patient was a letter from his brother warning doctors that the patient was so convincing in his story, and so well organized in his psychotic delusion, that someone who did not know him could easily be deceived. The story he told was that he was a businessman who was on his way to Korea to close a ten million dollar deal. He had reservations on KAL for five days from now and was in the hospital because of a misunderstanding with his family. He was absolutely convincing. Fortunately, there was also confirmed evidence that he had attacked his mother and other relatives and was psychotic.
I don’t know if Blagojevich is a well organized manic psychotic but the arguments in that article I linked are also compelling. He comes from a culture where corruption is a way of life. Obama comes from the same culture and has had close associations with Blagojevich, an association which will now be denied.
I tend to the sane conclusion.
Former Assistant United States Attorney Bill Otis also invokes his professional experience to answer the question:
No, he’s not nuts. Having been an AUSA for a long time, one thing I noticed is that normal, honest people have difficulty understanding how criminals think. (This shows up, for example, in the death penalty debates I do, where abolitionists simply don’t grasp the heartlessness and cruelty that some killers display. It’s simply beyond their experience).
Blago’s world is merely corrupt; it’s not insane. To him, a Senate seat is not a public trust, it’s a commodity. It has a price, and the most efficient mechanism for determining that price is to put it on auction, which is what he did. Far from being insane, it’s perfectly clear-headed — just venal. Mortgage markets should operate as well.
I tend to agree. There will be lots of disinformation and he might even choose an insanity defense in an attempt to get off without jail. It will be interesting to see what happens. Here is another analysis by an informed observer.
Tags: Blagojevich, Obama
The secularists always have this problem with evil. Calling it “sick” doesn’t make it go away.
Notice that we never have this discussion about a rabid dog. We feel badly about the dog, but we recognize what needs to be done.
I’m not recommending we take the Governor out to quarantine and get the hypodermic needle ready. What I am saying is that “bad is bad.” Das ding an sich, to quote Kant.
We tend to think in terms of what we would be thinking, to do such things. Some folks, whether we like to believe it or not, are just plain evil.
Calling it “sick” though indicates its not a permanent state, and eliminates a moral judgement, which we know is strictly prohibited in our culture.
Insane? Perhaps. But could it be … SATAN?
See http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/blagojevich-legal-defense/
I’m not knowledgeable about mental illness from a medical perspective but I have had experience with insanity in a legal setting. My experience is that mentally ill people who are able to function in society appear fine — they reason, they make logical choices, and they sound and look normal. However, the difference between a criminal mind and a mentally ill mind is that the ill person starts with an illogical or unreasonable premise.
Some might argue Blagojevich had an illogical premise because he believed he was above the law and could do anything he wanted without getting caught. However, I don’t think that was an unreasonable assumption based on the way the Chicago political machine works. Extralegal conduct seems to be the rule rather than the exception. If Blagojevich has seen other Chicago politicians do this, it’s logical that he methodically went about the business of selling the government he was supposed to be in charge of.
Another reason I don’t think Blagojevich is crazy is that he took pains to hide the illegal things he was doing. The mentally ill people I’ve encountered were proud of their illogical premises and wanted to explain them at length to anyone who would listen. Blagojevich may have been open and obvious in his questionable dealings with other Chicago politicians, but it looks like he tried to hide his actions from the public at large.
I agree although his rather flagrant recent conduct is not a sign of good logical thinking. To invite the feds to wiretap me and then do the things he did on his personal telephone is pretty stupid, if not crazy. Michael Barone has concluded that he is just stupid.
The Chicago machine, as illustrated by Lisa Madigan’s brief to the Illinois Supreme Court, is not a meritocratic organization. Maybe loyalty trumps talent in that organization. If so, I think they may be about to get a lesson from Fitz. Lisa is pretty cute and a Demi Moore double but her legal talents are pretty weak for a state AG.