Is it possible that Blagojevich is mentally ill?

[BurtWorm]

I heard someone in Illinois politics on Anderson Cooper 360 last night wonder that aloud, and that would make more sense to me than his just being the incredibly stupid greedhead the complaint makes him out to be. I don't know exactly how that would change the picture legally, but it would definitely change the big picture.


PS: Apparently I'm not the only person asking a question like this:


Blagojevich also allegedly spent significant time weighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat and expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, including: frustration at being “stuck” as governor; a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor; a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016; avoiding impeachment by the Illinois legislature; making corporate contacts that would be of value to him after leaving public office; facilitating his wife’s employment as a lobbyist; and generating speaking fees should he decide to leave public office.

[bbrooks904]

1. what

what channel is anderson cooper 360 on?
and no i think he is just an idiot.. aha

[BurtWorm]

11. CNN

[nemo137]

2. TPM suggested he try an insanity defense for even mentioning

running for the presidency after finishing Obama's term. I think, based on past performance, that he really is just the Platonic ideal of an asshole.

[dsomuah]

3. He's desperate. Desperation makes people do stupid things.

He's facing other corruption charges, there was talk of a possible impeachment, he was looking at a sitation where he was through in politics, and he grasped the senate appointment as a potential lifeline that could either ressurect his career, or guarantee him another job after this.

[zazen]

4. I think he's bipolar II and in a heavy manic phase, with possible drug addiction too

He may be a narcissist too, but "sociopaths," as people have described him, have a lot more self-control and are much better con artists. This guy seems like he's in a rage.

He could also have drug/alcohol addiction, which could be revving up the behavior, but a lot of it sounds like an unmedicated non-hallucinatory manic state to me. His wife screaming in the b/g was strange too, though.

[rvablue]

10. You wrote exactly what I was thinking of this morning

I mean this is the Governor and the First Lady with two small children!

I'm not purist/prude.....I have been known on more than one occassion to let some swear words fly.

But these folks were functioning in an official capacity and they also knew the FBI was listening to them and yet the crazed, F-bomb throwing and temper tantrums, and delusions of grandeur, I think certainly speak to the fact that both may have mental problems, but even more so, given their financial problems despite two well paying jobs, and a free residence for the past, what, 6 years, a SERIOUS DRUG PROBLEM.

The pics of wife that I have seen look like someone who just spent the night in the drunk tank at the county pokey....she looks pissed, disheveled and haggard.

[closeupready]

16. I seriously thought exactly the same thing.

n/t

[blondeatlast]

5. Monumentally arrogant and monumentally stupid sometimes is simply monumentally arrogant

and monumentally stupid.

It might RSEMBLE mental illness, but IMHO, it's just colossal dumb and egocentric.

[tuckessee]

6. Well, he is a politician......

.....which is a clear indication of meglomanical, narcissistic tendencies combined with a pathological lack of empathy for others.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. Sure.

He could easily have some form of personality disorder. Many people do. The thing is that getting a diagnosis of one would be tough for us. I don't think he would come and sit through an assessment, even if we said "please".

[Democrats_win]

8. I'm not wasting my beautiful mind on this scandal.

Ok, now I'll take my Barbara Bush pearls off. But seriously, I don't give a hoot about this scandal. Let the criminals pay and let's move on to the post-bush rebuilding of America. The real crime remains the bush presidency. Let all of them find karma coal in their stockings this holiday season.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Nope. Just a crook who should've stuck to shop lifiting and selliing hot watches.

People often attempt to exceed their capabilities.

[H2O Man]

12. The documents

made public yesterday indicate that at least one person very close to him admits to heavy substance abuse. I found myself thinking that some of those white powders are known to produce attitudes and behaviors similar to the governor's.

[BurtWorm]

13. This is clearly someone who has lost touch with reality.

If he seriously thought he had a path out of this hole he was digging himself that went through the Senate in DC.

[H2O Man]

17. I agree.

(Hence, nomination #1!)

The governor has some personality traits that seem to suggest an anti-social personality disorder. I suppose that is rather obvious. It is fairly common for people who are mentally ill (including personality disorders) to use/abuse substances. This has resulted in many treatment facilities taking a different approach than when I first started in human services. (The county I began in had a mental health clinic; an alcohol abuse service; and a drug abuse clinic; today, there is mental health and a combined ADAS, and they coordinate services closely.)

[monmouth]

14. I noticed also that he loved being in front of the camera. Didn't matter

what the reason was, he just loved looking into that camera...LOL.

[BurtWorm]

18. Maybe he thought it was his imaginary friend Smokey.

:shrug:

[Phred42]

15. It would be an interesting Defense

:nopity:

[H2O Man]

19. I don't think

there is any chance of that being attempted. There would have to be cause to believe that he didn't know the difference between right and wrong, and his behaviors document that he did. Perhaps in an attempt to strike a deal, or in the penalty phase of a trial, he would use it as a mitigating circumstance.

[Phred42]

28. worth a try - better than 20 years in jail

[BurtWorm]

37. And if he really is ill, he should get treatment.

No matter how much of an asshole he may be.

[Lex]

20. Maybe so arrogant that it appears to the rest of us like mental illness.

nt

[KamaAina]

21. Supposedly he wanted an appointment to HHS in return

only Obama could have given that to him, yet as we know (though the M$M isn't exactly trumpeting this), he blew Obama off: "They aren't gonna give us anything except appreciation". :eyes:

[Ian David]

22. No. His plan is working perfectly. We're all just too stupid to know it yet.

In fact, he has us all exactly where he wants us.

Muhahahahaha!

[QueenOfCalifornia]

23. He is drunk

with power.

I am waiting to see what the feds have on him... I think they should have done a sting operation just for the WTF factor.

[ItNerd4life]

24. No, he was practicing capitalism.

He was trying to sell the senate seat to the highest bidder, what could be more American? :sarcasm:

[jwirr]

25. He could have some type of disorder. The clue for me is that he knew

they were taping/investigating him and he kept right on with his plan. God complex.

[juno jones]

29. God Complex...

The swearing on tape is just so Nixonian.

[whippo]

26. Yes, it's possible. How does that change the big picture?

[BurtWorm]

30. It changes his legal defense.

It might make him marginally more sympathetic. I confess that I'm more sympathetic to him if he's a nut rather than just a greedy bastidge or a cokehead.

[whippo]

33. I see, he's qualified to be Governor but not to know the

difference between right and wrong.

[BurtWorm]

35. Exactly.

:toast:

[Raskolnik]

27. If being a sociopath is a mental illness, then yes. n/t

[Alexander]

31. He thought he could be president in 2016. That says it all.

[onenote]

32. yep. he has the same disease as ted stevens: megalomania

And I'm not forgiving either of them for their corrupt behavior just because they're both sick fucks.

[dysfunctional press]

34. fishing for a defense strategery for the hubby, eh patti....?

we're on to you.
and your husband is a raging moran. (but you already knew that, didn't you?)

[babylonsister]

36. "...Blagojevich was a "madman" and "insane.""

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4620138

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2...

`Staggering' allegations, even by Illinois standards
Eric Zorn


The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering .They allege that (Ill. Gov. Rod) Blagojevich put a "for sale" sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism...U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald in a news release this morning.

Fitzgerald has prosecuted a lot of political corruption in his years in Chicago, so you really have to go some to find acts that would stagger him. I find no record in the news archives of Fitzgerald ever before describing corruption charges as "staggering."

Yet the charges in the criminal complaint (text version) are, in fact, staggering. They are stunning. Eyepopping. Gobsmacking. Jaw-dropping. Appalling. Unprecedented in their alleged brazenness.

These charges say that even as his predecessor sat in prison after a corruption conviction, even as his associates and fundraisers were going down, even as it was widely reported that he was at the center of a federal corruption probe ... even then, Blagojevich was selling out his office and otherwise abusing his power.

In a profile of Blagojevich in last February's Chicago Magazine, writer David Bernstein reported:

Privately, a few people who know the governor describe him as a "sociopath," and they insist they're not using hyperbole. State representative Joe Lyons, a fellow Democrat from Chicago, told reporters that Blagojevich was a "madman" and "insane."

That struck me at the time, as over the top. Today it strikes me as brave and prescient.

If these allegations are true, Blagojevich is not just sleazy and venal, he's also recklessly compulsive. But an allegedly recklessly compulsive sociopath cannot and does not act alone -- his abetters and enablers included his major donors and his advisers. They, too, should be called to account.

[Odin2005]

38. Sociopathy and/or Narcissistic Personality Disorder I'll bet.