Since when did Maureen Dowd start ghostwriting for Salon?

the fact that it's Chicago just makes it so appropriate

Thanks. That was one smoking little scene.

The introduction states that some of the article is real and some is made up - I would love to know which is which, though I suspect the real part is just as unreal as the unreal part.

Imagining how one tiresome blowhard would describe another.

Blagojevich lives in Ravenswood Manor, not Ravenswood--an important distinction to a Chicagoan.

I love the addition of Mrs. Blago stroking a fur coat made of white kittens. I wish the article had more visual references like that. I had a little movie playing in my head while I was reading this. You cant make up a better story than this one and make it sound plausible.

All the author knows is that Mamet uses "fuck" a lot. The dialogue entirely misses the tone of his unique writing style. His characters are above all smart and crafty. They employ a certain downbeat patience rooted in hard reality. They use repetition as a musical device. They use jargon, often their own. They are always implying more than they seem, based on unstated mutual references. Their allusions coil back on one another. The way they speak creates a world as distinctive as any playwright's. They do not use "fuck" as an obscenity, but as a punctuation. They have a beautiful way of arriving at a logical conclusion seemingly based on what their language itself calls for. And they are very funny. These last two points are illustrated in one of the funniest single lines in the history of cinema, said by Danny DeVito in "Heist" (1991):

"Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money."

I think you can thank our TV writers & producers for the roles these politicians aspire to assume in their real life. This sounds like a track from the Sopranos, of which I have only watched three minutes of before someone got his arm broken over a street curb.

This portrayal of human slime and scumbaggery boils down to a very Seasonal concept: There are those who actively seek out Pottersville with its cruelty, selfishness, fighting and cheating; in short, seeking to devour and usually instead being devoured.

The rest of us spend our lives in Bedford Falls pursuing creative and (pro)creative activities, working to improve the World around us, raising our kids to be loving and responsible citizens, caring for others and seeking surroundings of peace and beauty; in short, seeking Grace.

How in the world can we be the same species? Maybe we're not.

You could never do this in countries where you really are innocent until proven guilty. In Australia once someone's been arrested you can't comment on the case in the media, except in a very limited way, because it could influence the jury or cause a mistrial. What makes the story so hilarious is that Blagojevich seems to have no grip on reality whatsoever. He's like a shark in a feeding frenzy. There'll be a movie for sure. Actors are probably growing their hair for the part right now.

They'll replace this crook with another crook until that crook is caught. We should just suspend the state government of Illinois and get the Federal government to run it for a few years like we did in some states after the Civil War.

After effin' his way out of the Gov's Office and into the slammer, our hapless protangonist Blago quickly discovers the inmates are only too eager to oblige...

Has anyone ever consider this was a stunt, since Blag knew he was being wire tapped? A stupid stunt, but a possilbity.

Look at that haircut! I didn't know the Chucky doll got elected to politics. Friends to the end -- hidey f-cking ho!

it's bad enough without all the additional drama! Obviously you guys are not old enough to have lived during the Nixon era. I guess that's why everyone is so blown away with the Tony Soprano-act-alike - and the rest of us see it as "business as usual."

And don't think for one minute Barack Obama is the squeeky clean guy he and others make him out to be. No one, absolutely no one, read my lips, no one, gets to the White House being squeeky clean! No one.