Gov. Rod Admits He's a Tool

By Matt Wood in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 24, 2006 5:04PM

Rarely do we get the chance, or feel the need, to redeem ourselves around here. Most of the time our readers point out our mistakes, second guess us, and basically call us idiots and we have to take it because, well, most of the time we are. But Chicagoist will indulge ourselves this one time. Ha! We were right: Gov. Blagojevich admits he had no clue what he was getting into on the Daily Show two weeks ago.

"Is Jon Stewart Martha's husband?"

G-Rod told the AP he didn't realize the Daily Show was a spoof of the real news when he sat down for an interview with Jason Jones about his executive order requiring pharmacists to fill prescriptions for emergency birth control. In case you missed it (click on 'Pill of Rights'), Jones pretended to stumble over Blagojevich's name before calling him "Governor Smith," then asked if he was "the gay governor." At one point Blago looked off camera and asked someone, "Is he teasing me, or is that legit?"

For not knowing what he was getting into, we admit, he handled that well. We can think of many politicians who would have walked off the set after being asked if they were gay. But how could he not know about the Daily Show? Perhaps more incredibly, how could one of his staffers not have briefed him before the interview? We always suspected that the Daily Show's correspondents didn't tip their hand to interview subjects so they can run with it if they're clueless, but now we know for sure.

Maybe we should cut Blago some slack. As one of his campaign commercials reminds us, he has been busy this year as he "ruffled some feathers, got things done, had some rocky moments, and added a second child." Added a second child? That makes it sound like going to Circuit City and picking up a spare flat screen TV for the bedroom. Sorry Rod, but you didn't exactly do the heavy lifting on that one.