The most common response to the ongoing Blago media blitz – which is less a blitz, I guess, than a sustained war of attrition – is that he’d be well advised to shut up and let his lawyers speak for him. But this, from Phil Nugent, is kind of convincing:
“What did Blagojevich really hope to get out of it? Maybe he’d given up hopes of keeping his job but still hoped to stay out of jail and maintain his celebrity as a lovable doofus, because he’s studied the careers of George Wallace and Oliver North and knows that a man who maintains his celebrity has managed to hold onto his long-term political viability. The Feds turned Blagojevich into one kind of cartoon character, the foul-mouthed cynical pol who’s openly crooked as shit. Rather than waste his time trying to wipe away that image, Blagojevich countered by plastering the airwaves with images of himself as a different kind of cartoon: the endearingly shameless jackass, too amusing to be venal.”
Even more so if one of your big PR problems is that people think you’re a “psychopath.” Via Steve M., who mentions it with regard to Tom Delay’s Dancing With The Stars stunt.
It’s not unrelated to Tucker Max: proof that your personal dignity is one of the most valuable things you can possess, which means that you can get a lot for it in trade.