Trading Places

Of the things I should have done tonight--work out, or edit, or, preferably, both--I have done none, opting instead for sitting on my butt and eating cookies. This is not a useful state of affairs, of course, but is the one with which I find myself faced. Because I am a slug.

I spent a fair amount of time today in meetings, or on phone conferences, all of which was tiring and some of which was tedious, and some time on the phone trying to figure out whether my dad should go into a clinical trial. I found the trial, and I think it might actually be a good fit for him, as his bladder cancer keeps recurring and there isn't anything else out there for him, except removing the bladder, which, really, isn't an option that I think he would enjoy. So I've talked my mother through the clinical trials process, and talked to a study coordinator (although not the one with whom they would deal), and I think they're going to go check it out. I emphasized that he doesn't have to agree to anything, that he doesn't have to sign anything, and that they can ask any questions they want, and I pointed out that the drug they've been waiting for (a) still hasn't cleared the FDA, even though their last info suggests the manufacturing difficulties should have been cleared up 9 months ago and (b) only works 20% of the time. Thus, this clinical trial may be the only other thing my dad can try. We'll see what happens.

It is definitely nice to have experience that's useful, not least because I've been feeling rather useless lately. Yes, I know I do Good Works and all, but when push comes to shove, I'm doing almost exactly the same work I was doing in 1986 when I quit my job to go to graduate school. I'm probably making a little more money, but not a lot, and I'm certainly not doing anything now that I couldn't have done then. Yes, the intervening years have provided enough other experience so I'm doing it better, but almost any experience will do that, if you're paying attention. Certainly cheers ME right up to think how I've spent my time and what I have to show for it.

On the other hand, at least I didn't try to sell a Senate seat for whatever I could get for it. I waded through some of the transcript from the press conference that Fitzgerald held this morning, and various other news bits, and it's truly amazing; the guy seems to be a seriously delusional psychopath. Now, it's true that the kind of money he wanted is peanuts compared to what the Wall Street guys take home, but, in my mind, that just shows even more how incompetent Blago really is. (That is, if he were smarter, he could BE one of the Wall Street crooks, but he's only a two-bit political hack.) The other thing, though, is that the Daley machine has learned not just how to keep its own hands clean but also how to pass the patronage around to racial and ethnic groups that once were excluded from city largesse, while Blago is in it for his own profit rather than for patronage or a machine, per se.

Is the Daley patronage machine the best way to run a government? Nope; not by a long shot. I work with city workers on some contracts, and some are competent and some not so much. I did a stop-smoking group with city workers a few weeks ago, and the tales they told in the 10 minutes before we started the group made me annoyed, because it's such a waste of money (and, ultimately, talent, if the cushy jobs are going to incompetent hacks).

But I don't see things changing in this city any time soon, so my desire is that the patronage be distributed reasonably fairly; that competence is a necessity in the places where that matters the most; and that the city provide the basic services (water; firefighting; policing; trash removal; school system; other public services) equitably and competently. If there's a layer of cost on top for patronage jobs, well, okay, just make sure they don't do too much damage or cost too much money, or get in the way of the people who are actually doing the work.

Anyway, the Governor does appear psychopathic: he knew there were wiretaps, fer chrissakes, and he continued to negotiate! He seemed to think he could get away with all of this, which, to my mind, is where the delusion comes in. The transcript of the press conference is interesting (and it makes me lurve Patrick Fitzgerald all the more): Fitzgerald seems truly taken aback by the whole thing, and appalled, not in that Inspector Renault "shocked, shocked" kind of way, but genuinely gaping in wonderment at the chutzpah of the guy.

I don't care how squeaky clean your political arrangements are, we all tend to look more favorably on people who come with a recommendation from someone we know, and on people who have something to offer (though I do mean that broadly, not just in the mutual backscratching kind of way). We do favors for people--hire their sons or daughters, perhaps, or spouses--and expect favors in return. I've never personally been in a position to be on either end of that, but I'm neither surprised nor appalled to know it exists; it's the way of the world, and, like anything else, it can be used for, and can work for, either good or evil. But this shit? This is a whole other level of WTF, so I do hope the guy goes to jail for a long fucking time. If he's guilty, of course.