ROD BLAGOJEVICH, MEET RON MILOVANOVIC

4/20/11

Another issue in the ongoing saga of “Former Illinois Governor Meets the Feds” formally starts today with potential jurors’ filling out questionnaires as the first step in selecting the group of citizens who will determine the fate of Illinois’ most famous former governor. Last summer, I wrote extensively on the first trial of this copiously coiffed charlatan whose penchant for snazzy haberdashery and endless pursuit of new heights of self-aggrandizement caused him to, according to the federal government, step beyond the lines of legal propriety. Whether this second trial will prove as intriguing, and as reliable a source of material for the Pontificator, as did the first one, no one knows. However, to those of us who follow politics, and especially those who follow the politics of my hometown, this brand of shenanigans never gets old.

My readers would be well advised to read, in preparation for the meat of this trial, my second novel, The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics. Especially relevant are those portions, starting with chapter 12, that deal with young Governor Ron Milovanovic. Contrary to the suppositions of most, Governor Milovanovic is not a thinly veiled fictional version of Rod Blagojevich; like all characters in my novels, Governor Milovanovic is an amalgam of real life characters. While Governor Milovanovic displays many of the traits of Governor Blagojevich, he also embodies characteristics of many of the men who have held, or now hold, the office of governor of the state of Illinois: a nearly pathological messianic complex, a firm determination that, through sheer force of will and intellect, they can change things in this state (in varying directions, depending on the governor), the quality of being in over their heads and out of their league, an utter lack of a degree of aplomb and discretion in playing the game of this state’s peculiar politics, and the ultimate futility of their tenures in Springfield or, in the case of Mr. Blagojevich, in his home in Ravenswood.

Mr. Blagojevich, like Governor Milovanovic, didn’t engage in behavior that is uncharacteristic of the politicians in his home state. His sin, if you will, was not engaging in questionable and apparently corrupt practices; his sin was in not taking the time or having the ability to engage in such practices with a degree of skill and acumen that would allow one to escape the clutches of federal law enforcement. Mr. Blagojevich’s other sin, like that of Governor Milovanovic, may have been embarrassing and running afoul of those who are really in charge of this state, in not doing what he was told and in reneging on deals he made that enabled him to become governor. Mostly, though, most men suffered from the certainty of their own rectitude, even when the lack thereof was so readily apparent to just about everyone else.

The Chairman’s Challenge (Mark M. Quinn) is available at Anderson’s in Naperville, Bookie’s in West Beverly, and at virtually any online book vendor, most saliently Amazon.com and the Irish Book Club. It also can be ordered at any book store and is available in many libraries in the Chicagoland area, though, sadly, not at the Chicago Public Library. Maybe Governor Blagojevich could have done something about that omission…doubtless for a price.