Mr. Patrick Quinn, the Illinois lieutenant governor, was sworn in as interim Illinois governor this week. For those who have been living under rocks, Mr. Quinn replaced Rod Blagojevich, whose impeachment trial ended with his removal from office by unanimous vote of the Illinois Senate.
Pat Quinn, by all accounts, is a rarity in politics. Quinn stays in Super 8 motels (he can show you his Super 8 Discount card) and eats at no-frills restaurants when he travels. He first achieved political notice as what one commentator called "a champion of the little guy," leading a successful petition drive to amend Illinois law by expanding the people's right to referendum and recall of Illinois officeholders (only to see it disallowed in court). He once walked 150 miles through Illinois to promote a health care initiative, and he has fought successfully to fund greater benefits for veterans of the armed forces and current military families. Definitely Main Street. He also has headed for years a group called the "Coalition for Political Honesty" (!) It should come as no surprise, then, that the Illinois political establishment, embarrassed by the arrest of Mr. Blagojevich and subsequent revelations of his expletive-peppered pay-to-play scheming and bizarre talk-show swan song, has seized with relief on the respectable Mr. Quinn. His quiet, humble resemblance to Gerald Ford (Quinn's own comparison), who stepped in to replace Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal, is playing well in Springfield. Quinn declared, after reciting the oath of office, that he would set himself to the task of "fumigating" public life, to rid his state of corruption.
In the respectability sweepstakes, even the Republicans tried to get into the act this week, electing, after six ballots, Michael Steele, an African-American, to head the Republican National Committee. The field of contenders had narrowed, in the final ballot, to a race between Steele and a gentlemen who had recently resigned his "whites-only" club membership. Steele was one of two black men in the filed of five male candidates for the job. The man who had led the party during the Bush years dropped out after the third ballot.
Although Republicans are noisily proclaiming a "new day" for their party, one has to wonder if the election of Mr. Steele has a bit more in common with Mr. McCain's impulsive selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. But it's also possible that younger Republicans are as dismayed with the direction their party has gone in the last decade as young Democrats were with theirs. Just as Mr. Obama was not the first choice of the Democratic Old Guard, Mr. McCain was not the Grand Old Party's favorite son, either. The electorate sent both parties a message this time around. While the message may not be clear, but in fact is clearly mixed, the Old Guard — that group in each party that sees racism, misogyny, sexual exploitation and/or pay-to-play deals as forgivable sins in those who meet their political ends — has been given a vote of no confidence.
I'm all for an attempt at respectability. I'm frankly thrilled that Mr. Obama appears to be married not only in name, but in fact, and appears to be genuinely interested in maintaining a real rather than a sham family life. I applaud his call for the same kind of responsible behavior in others. I'm hopeful that the Obama presidency, on this subject at least, will stand in stark contrast to previous and (among Democrats, anyway) still-revered Democratic presidents (Jimmy Carter aside). I'd like to think we won't be treated to the spectacle of Mr. Obama lying under oath to the Senate and the nation about a sexual tryst after the example of Mr. Clinton or find that the press turned a blind eye to dalliance with the current "Marilyn Monroe" in Hollywood or a mobster's moll, as they did with the compulsive womanizer, John Kennedy.
As encouraging as these developments have been, I must admit to deep, deep skepticism about what goes on when the cameras aren't rolling. After all, for sake of its public respectability, the Roman Catholic church covered up priestly pedophilia for decades. Prominent evangelical pastors resign in disgrace after engaging in the very behavior against which they preach. Even those people who actively identify with movements devoted to right thinking and right living tend, it seems, to want respect without actually having to be respectable.
Certainly, the day when Americans willingly turn a blind eye to the character flaws of its cultural icons is far from over. On NPR, the day of the Blagojevich removal, callers to a talk show repeatedly defended Blagojevich, excusing his crimes because he had given them something they wanted.
Americans are quite hypocritical on the subject. We heard a lot, this week, about how Wall Street brokers shouldn't be taking those big bonuses when all around are losing their shirts. Mr. Obama, who staked himself out in opposition to rampant greed in his Inaugural Address, pointedly condemned the reported $18 million bonus Wall Street rewarded itself during the market's recent freefall. (When was the last time you heard an American president call anything a fellow American had done shameful?) Predictably, the NY Times reported that Obama's stock on Wall Street went way down, as irate stockbroker's attempted to justify the bonuses that they had "worked hard for." But few Americans would refuse that bonus if it came their way and they were pretty sure some talking head wouldn't announce it on the 5:00 o'clock news.
Americans — in Washington, on Wall Street and on Main Street — are obsessed with money, power, fame and sex. When being respectable means having to give up unrestricted access to any of those things, too many of us, from Bernard Madoff to Joe the Plumber, will gladly accept the appearance of respectability in place of the genuine article.
Unlike Mr. Quinn, Mr. Blagojevich is not a rarity. The latter said as much in his impassioned plea, delivered as his trial drew to a close. In a parting shot, he predicted that if most politicians lives were examined under the same microscope used on his, impeachment might be a commonplace.
Indeed.
Until we citizens are willing to frequent life's Super 8 motels, unaccompanied by people not our spouse, eschewing our entitlements to 15 minutes of fame and a winning lottery ticket, the Quinn's of the world will remain as rare in the electorate as they are among the elected, and the Blagojevich's of this world will continue to rule.
As they say: People get the leaders they deserve.
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