FINALLY, SOME RESPECT FOR THE group of newspaper scribes best known to date for their articulate defense of the existence of Santa Claus.
Rick Horowitz, a political satirist and columnist in Wisconsin, spoke on behalf of all the maligned editorial writers of this world with a column about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his alleged bribe to get rid of some local opinionators.
Among the "three buckets of alleged Blago slime recently set out in such odoriferous detail by federal prosecutors," wrote Horowitz, was a "back-of-the-hand endorsement" of the need for editorial writers.
Blogojevich allegedly offered the owners of the Chicago Tribune $100 million in assistance in the sale of the Chicago Cubs if the newspaper would fire some of the editorial writers who were particularly critical of him.
"God knows, Blagojevich made a far better case for editorial writers than those uncommonly modest folks have ever made for themselves," Horowitz wrote in his column. "After all, how many people are willing to come right out and suggest that getting on the good side of an editorial board could be worth $100 million, or even more?
Quoting the governor now: "Our recommendation is fire all those [expletive] people. Get 'em the [expletive] out of there and get us some editorial support."
"Blagojevich would have been rid of those meddlesome scribes - a politician's dream come true. A certain kind of politician, anyway,"
Horowitz concluded. "Instead, he offered the best possible demonstration of why it's so important to keep those folks at their posts, in Chicago and everywhere else that powerful people might go astray.
"Call it the Bad Housekeeping Seal of Approval." *