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A true story about Rod Blagojevich

Robin Washington | Posted December 16, 2008 9:00 AM

It was spring 1972, and Rod Blagojevich and I were swimming naked in the Lane Tech High School pool when --

All right, a clarification: The Illinois governor accused of attempting to auction off President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat was in my Chicago high school class, though he transferred after two years. And he indeed would have been in the required boys nude swimming class (a practice since thankfully abandoned and the subject of a previous column).

I can't say, however, if we skinny dipped at the same time; avoiding eye-contact, let alone any other contact, was key in that class, and I know we didn't share any others. But other class of '75 members also drew a blank.

"Rod was in our class? You're kidding me!" Cheryl Mangano (nee Struwe) said Friday when I called her office in downtown Chicago, not far from where Blagojevich was running business as usual after having been released on bail.

If our memories are vague, it's not surprising. Lane had more than 5,000 students and 1,500 in our class alone. Still, Blagojevich was in her division (homeroom).

"They sat us alphabetically. I talked to the people I sat next to," Mangano said, noting B's didn't sit next to S's. Of the present-day Blagojevich, she asked: "Why is his hair still in the '70s?"

A lot of people are wondering that, though to be fair, as classmate Cheryl Kreiman -- who didn't remember him either -- wrote me: "Thankfully, indictments aren't handed out based on the nerdiness of our high school yearbook pictures."

As someone who embodied geek before it was chic, I can appreciate that. But it was more than the hair that set Mazurka Wojciechowska off. "I'm not just embarrassed for Illinois and Chicago, I'm embarrassed for the Serbians! I love Serbs and I hope folks won't hold his transgressions against them," she wrote on the Classmates.com site.

"As a Chicagoan, I have to say it's like seeing your mother drunk," she continued. "On the other hand, Chicago also has Obama ... Too bad HE didn't go to Lane!"

No, but one of his top campaign aides, Ertharin Cousin, did, and was also in our class. A true success story, she served in the Clinton administration and in various high-level private-sector jobs. Though we've spoken over the past few years, she didn't immediately return my e-mail asking what she recalled of Blagojevich; exhibiting, perhaps, the Obama camp's now-famous discipline when dealing with media.

And before anyone completely sells our big-haired classmate down the Chicago River, remember he's innocent until confirmation of the voices on the tape discussing $500,000 from (expletive) Senate Candidate 5 proves him guilty. After all, since when has it been un-American to deal for Senate seats? Didn't Alaska's Frank Murkowski do that when he left the Senate to become governor, then appointed his daughter (before he was ousted by Sarah Palin)? And how about Minnesota's own Wendell Anderson, who resigned his governor's job allowing Lt. Gov. Rudy Perpich to appoint Anderson to the Senate?

All of which brings us back to the Northland where, it turns out, another Lane '75 alum has settled. Janet Rowney of Stone Lake, Wis., said she actually did know Blago back when.

"I don't remember a specific class, but he was somebody I could identify," she said, adding identifying him was as far as it got.

"My basic memory of him was, like, he's not somebody I'm going to date."

And the present-day Blagojevich?

"His hair is sooo bad!"

Robin Washington is news director of the Duluth News Tribune and a commentator on public radio stations nationwide.

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Comments 4

WTF
2008-12-16 17:29:05

Excuse me?

Mary Kay
2008-12-16 18:28:51

Too funny, I guess you never know who in your high scholl will trun out to be an alleged crook!

DaisyDooks
2008-12-19 14:35:52

Ok, move on over Lane Tech. Whitney Young's in da house - for real doh, in the White House! Thanks to Michelle Obama (Class of '81 Dolphins). I'm class of '85. Whitney Young Magnet High School has got it goin' on! Yeah!! And..oh..jury's still out on Blago.

Cecil Jones
2008-12-20 19:30:29

The only truth about Gov. Blago is "Due Process." The Feds can't go on air and share heresay evidence to convict you. A wiretap for political purposes is Watergate. A wiretap without a crime is not a crime. This is a "Quid pro Quo" case. You found the "Quid" but you didn't show me the money...case dismissed. Don't hate the playa hate the game. Oprah gives away free cars and her favorite things in Chicago all the time. Should she be the Senator? Is this "Pay for Air Play?" The entire system is corrupt and Blago won't go down alone. Think about Eliot Spitzer the next time someone tries to bring personal shame on someone to undo the political process. Naming the next Senator is the Gov's job. Why should heresay take that away?

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