Icarus Blagojevich

If you watch the View as religiously as I do, then you know that Rod Blagojevich - disgraced former governor of Illinois and current media whore - made another appearance in his whirlwind, all-stops-accepted tour of all the major media outlets. He's doing this, he admits, in order to try and win public opinion and favor by what he called "the simple truth," before going to trial on 16 different felony charges next June.

I think in his 7 minutes with the ladies he mentioned the words "false allegations" at least 39 times, but feel free to do a recount. (A video of his interview can be found by clicking this sentence.)

During the former governor turned Senatorial bookie turned media whore's interview, he showed us another face: the Greek mythology scholar. Yes, Mr. Blagojevich made a strange comparison between President Obama and Zeus (I'm still not sure about that one), and between himself and Icarus. In case you're one of those strange people that didn't grow up obsessed by the tales of Greek myth - like...me - allow me to give you a quick run-down.

• Icarus was the only son of a man named Daedalus, who was the Benjamin Franklin of his time, a famous inventor. Icarus and his father wanted to escape from the rule of King Minos (think Minotaur) on the island of Crete, so his genius father built them both a pair of wings. Now, depending on your story, these wings were made out of all sorts of things, but the general consensus is that they were wood-framed with feathers and glued together with a honey/wax mixture. Before setting forth, Daedalus warned Icarus to not fly too close to the sun or too close to the sea or else the sun would melt the wax/honey and the sea would pull him under. Icarus, being a normal teenager, did exactly what his father told him not to do, and - long story short - died.

In a sense, I think that Mr. Blagojevich is being much more truthful than even he realizes. He says he relates to the story on some sort of fallen angel, blah blah I'm a victim blah, aspect, but I'm sure that's because he hasn't read any Greek lately. Herein, we see a man who was given all the tools and position he needed to succeed, as long as he followed the guidelines and expectations of the citizens of Illinois. Given a rare chance to replace an ascended Senator-turned-President, he merely had to choose, but he chose to gamble with fate. He got a little too greedy and stooped to pretty low depths, and, as a result, got pulled down into the sea. Who knows, maybe Rod has a copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology on his nightstand and, fully aware, just made an admission of guilt. On this I must applaud Mr. Blagojevich. Good job on the parallel/allusion. You most definitely have a lot in common with Icarus.

Though, to be fair, if artists' interpretations are correct, I'd rather see Icarus flying around naked than uncle Rod any day.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte