MARK KIESLING: Blago's ignorance plea familiar, but hollow

Once upon a time, it used to be that the last refuge of a scoundrel was patriotism.

Now, it appears it is ignorance.

Instead of wrapping themselves in the flag and declaring they were model American citizens, now it's kind of like a "Huh? Run that one by me again."

We saw it once again Wednesday in former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's lengthy and impassioned plea to U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel.

Despite conspiring to sell the vacant seat of former junior U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, who went on to become president or something like that, Blago just doesn't get that he did anything wrong.

And you know what? He might be right.

That is, if by wrong one means that it is in accord with prior policy in place in the jurisdiction where one holds office.

From the legendary days of Chicago Aldermen Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna and "Bathhouse John" Coughlin, who oversaw the city's notorious 1st Ward at the turn of the last century to questionable dealings for wrought iron fences by the recently retired Mayor Richard M. Daley, corruption has been the grease that made the city's wheels keep turning.

Well, the 14 years Blago got nailed with might or might not discourage other crooked pols, but I've seen people who have killed get fewer.

Of course, you can also argue that with his corruption, Blagojevich killed the reputation of Illinois politics.

Not that it wasn't on life support anyway, but I digress.

Oh, and if you are naive enough to believe that Chicago is "Crook County" and that others around the nation are simon-pure, let's look at what I like to call "Chicago's 51st Ward" -- Lake County, Ind.

Let's look, for example, at former East Chicago Mayor George Pabey, who could not even complete one term in office without being convicted of public corruption.

When it was pointed out by federal prosecutors that Pabey had used city employees on city time and spent city funds on construction materials, Pabey said he didn't understand why there was anything wrong with doing this to fix up a house he and his daughter had bought in Gary's Miller Beach neighborhood.

Well, that didn't fly any more than Blago's argument to Zagel. Pabey, convicted of the public corruption charges, said he couldn't understand what the flap was about, what he had done wrong.

Of course neither Pabey nor Blagojevich get it: They were brought up from their daddy's knee to respect the power of the precinct organization, not of the electorate.

I'm still wondering, by the way, where former Schererville lawyer Milan Petrovic fits into all of this.

He was Blagojevich's chief fundraiser. He got the guv more than Tony Rezko or any of those Indian fellas Blago used to hang around with and who were subjects of federal scrutiny.

Yet Petrovic, who held lavish fundraisers for the Illinois candidate in his (Petrovic's that is) Munster home before moving to Burr Ridge, has never surfaced in any of this.

I talked briefly to his wife after the indictments were handed up against Blagojevich, and she assured me her husband had done nothing wrong.

One Lake County political wag said Petrovic is kind of like the "Where's Waldo" in all of this: You know he's in the picture, but you just have to find him.

Don't worry: I'm going to keep looking.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com or (219) 933-4170.