Jonah Goldberg provides this analysis of the Blagojevich affair on National Review Online’s The Corner.  

The Blithesome Banality of Blago’s Blunders

The
word “evil” has been used twice today in the Corner to describe Blago’s
crimes. I’m not really disputing the use of the word. But that’s not
really the word that comes to my mind. Evil is too dark, too serious,
too smart for what we’re talking about. I agree with Kathryn
that there’s something almost wholesome or nostalgic about Blogo’s
criminal misdeeds. He wasn’t found opening an umbrella in parts of his
anatomy for money on the internet, or giving cash to terrorists who
were going to have Santas wear suicide-padding at department stores
around the country. He didn’t check interns for a hernia without
permission or spy for the Norks. He’s just a crook. A good,
old-fashioned, crook. I know I’m supposed to be outraged, and in a
certain sense I am. If he’s guilty of all that’s alleged, I hope they
throw him in the stoney lonesome until the Chicago Cubs win the World
Series or 2025, whichever comes second. But in another sense, this is
just plain enjoyable. It’s like when you watch “Cops” and the idiot
burglar tries to hide beside a tree in the dark, even though he’s
wearing light-up sneakers. It’s like when Dan Rather dares the world to
prove he’s a clueless ass-clown. It’s just good stuff. There’s no
tragedy here. No wasted potential. No undeserving victims. No profound
and complicated symbolic issues (I somewhat doubt the Serbian-American
lobby is going to cry racism). This is the sort of criminality we want
the Feds to find, particularly in Chicago. Everyone gets what they
deserve ? at least so far ? and all of the guilty parties are all the
more deserving of punishment because they don’t quite understand what
the big deal is. I love it.

HT to Peter Schramm at the Ashbrook Center blog