The Governor » (Bargain)

Democrat Rod Blagojevich served as the 40th Governor of Illinois. Son of a Serbian immigrant, he attended Northwestern and earned a law degree from Pepperdine University. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois' 5th District in 1996, he was elected governor in 2002, re-elected in 2006, and forced from office in 2009.

THE GOVERNOR provides the most comprehensive look to date at the life of a twice-elected public official in the notoriously complicated world of Illinois politics. We take a tour through the segregated neighborhoods of Chicago, made up largely of immigrants, and see firsthand how those ethnic divides can evolve into cabals that rival anything found on the national political scene.

We follow the governor as he is awakened early one morning—his young daughter sleeping peacefully beside him—and unceremoniously arrested by FBI agents without knowing the charges being brought against him. We see the harsh glare of the spotlight, the media whirlwind already staking out his home and family, rushing to judgment before even the governor himself knew what crimes he’d been accused of committing. We follow him through the maze of political conspiracies that threaten to unseat and impeach the governor of the fifth largest state in the U.S.—forces brought to light by the ambition of an attorney general and the greed of her Democratic State Party Chairman father—as well as the zeal of a federal prosecutor and the manipulations of a disloyal deputy governor.

The behind-the-scenes workings to fill the Senate seat vacated by the most popular President-elect in decades becomes something much more incendiary when wiretapped conversations are used by authorities to commit the arrest. But, as the governor soon learns, those tapes are not allowed to be played at his impeachment hearings in the House or Senate. What is on those tapes? And why will the prosecution not let them be heard if they were the primary factor in initiating the arrest that started this political scandal in the first place?

Quoting from sources as diverse as Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics to Aeschylus , Shakespeare to The Purpose Driven Life, THE GOVERNOR provides not just an inside look at politics on a state and national level but a treatise on the proper place of government in the everyday lives of its people.

It is a mandate for healthcare reform, which the governor feels is the civil rights issue of our lifetime. It is a clarion cry, remarkably, against cynicism in modern governing and a return to a more thoughtful and informed sense of government that views its state budgets as "moral documents." It is a lament against the current state of the political landscape, one that too often is wracked by scandal and interwoven with a media-driven culture obsessed with scandal and snap judgments.

And it is a proclamation that one man will not be silenced, that his side of the story must be heard and that the fight for American liberties and freedom must sometimes occur within its own borders.

Publishers Weekly

Accused of trying to sell Barack Obama's vacated senate seat, impeached as governor of Illinois, and abused as a national joke, Blagojevich recounts his political life in this desperate, unsuccessful bid for redemption. While steadfastly maintaining his belief that he's the victim of a vicious conspiracy (headed by members of his own Democratic party), Blagojevich focuses on his humble roots and the good works he has done for the citizens of Illinois. Surprisingly candid about the shady inner workings of local Chicago politics, Blagojevich holds himself aloof from the fray of corruption and glad-handing, faking an almost willful naivety; his absolute refusal to admit wrongdoing rings particularly hollow in combination with his canny insider observations. Blagojevich tries to paper over his disingenuity with incessant repetition and grandiose comparisons to figures like Roosevelt and Shakespeare (a memorable leftover from his earlier cable-news charm offense). Rather than provide any answers, Blogojevich stokes the fires of suspicion, inspiring another, more specific round of questions.
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