the kicker

From House Gym to Big House?

December 10, 2008

Well, there was nothing about Blagojevich’s behavior on the Congressional Stairmaster way back when that foreshadowed all this, according to some of the regulars (and ex-Congressmen) on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning. Ditto Duke Cunningham. (Also, no, Joe Scarborough didn’t see Blagojevich’s hair as some sort of a red flag):

HAROLD FORD (MSNBC analyst and former Democratic Congressman from Tennessee): If these [allegations] turn out to be true, I never saw this dimension to his personality at all.

MIKE BARNICLE: Both of you served with him. Did either one of you ever walk up to the guy in the House gym and say, what’s the deal on the hair, Rod?

JOE SCARBOROUGH: No, I went to University of Alabama. That’s standard in Alabama and Ole Miss. Seemed pretty normal to me. We talked about the Cubs. He seemed like a hard working guy. It is all shocking, guys like this and [Duke] Cunningham…

FORD: Duke I spent more time with. In the gym every day. I never knew, when all of this happened…

Another highlight from today’s Blagojevich reporting, courtesy of the AP:

Sign up for CJR's daily email

llinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich could still appoint someone to fill Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat despite charges that he tried to barter it away for cash or a plum job in what prosecutors call “a political corruption crime spree.”

But it would take a lot of nerve…

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.