If there's one thing clear by now, it's that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is a brash, unheeding, potentially off-his-rocker guy. One need only glance at the charges levied against his office for corruption and improper conduct and basically whatever else you can think of. They're all there. And they all make the governor look crazy.
So if you thought the Blago saga (the Blaga?) couldn't get any stranger, consider this latest bit of weirdness: According the Chicago Sun-Times, an "executive order from the governor's office" landed several "Honorary Jim Hendry Way" signs at the corner of Prospect and Touhy Avenues in Park Ridge. (Jim Hendry is the Cubs general manager.) The signs showed up just a day before the city council voted to prohibit honorary street designations. Like we said: weird.
''They just appeared out of nowhere,'' Zingsheim said of the signs. Mayor Howard Frimark said he was not told about the signs and was unaware of any ceremony to unveil them. Aldermen also seemed to be at a loss to explain the signs. At Monday night's City Council meeting, when resident Judy Barclay asked why they had been posted, 4th Ward Alderman Jim Allegretti replied, ''The answer is, we just don't know.''
The mysterious case of the appearing signs! If the Hardy Boys were real, they would totally tackle this thing.
Anyway, it should be noted that Hendry is a Park Ridge resident, and that Blagojevich is a die-hard Cubs fan. Which most likely means, if the rest of the alderman and council members can be taken at face value, that Blagojevich decided to sneak a couple of signs honoring his favorite team's GM, whether solicited or not, in that GM's home town, just before said town was ready to prohibit such distinctions for good. And it's not even, like, Ron Santo, or Ernie Banks, or Lou Piniella, or any modern player. It's just the GM. That, friends, is ballsy.
Of course, so is trying to shake down the Obama campaign for illegal money. Are we surprised? Not so much.
